Elite Traveler Fall 2023

INFLUENCE BEHIND THE SCENES

Behind the scenes with Girard-Perregaux Girard-Perregaux and Aston Martin both have histories that date to the dawn of their respective industries. Now in partnership, the two have discovered just how similar haute horlogerie and supercar production can be. Alex Martin takes a closer look

Brand collaborations between watches and cars are nothing new, but this one is proving particularly synergistic

True luxury is not about practicality or convenience. On the contrary, the harder the road taken, the more it seems to inspire.

Watches and cars have always enjoyed a close association, despite the obvious di ff erences inscale. Both require precision, passion and mechanical innovation to be at their very best. They also speak to our innate calling to keep pushing, if only to see how far we can go. There is no real reason for an SUV to drive at 193 mph, like the Aston Martin DBX707, but we want it to. Similarly, a $20 watch can be just as accurate and far easier to maintain than one costing $20,000, but we pine for the latter. True luxury is not about practicality or convenience. On the contrary, the harder the road taken, the more it seems to inspire.

Since 2021, Aston Martin and Girard-Perregaux have been traveling down that road together. Brand collaborations between watches and cars are nothing new, but this one is proving particularly synergistic. Four watches have been released already. The latest, the Laureato Green Ceramic Aston Martin Edition, was released this summer and, like the previous three, sold out instantly. Marek Reichman, chief creative o ffi cer at Aston Martin, tells Elite Traveler : “If you look at the history of Girard-Perregaux, it makes us look like we’re infants. We’re 110 years old and they eclipse that by some margin [232 years old]. They were the perfect partner because of their history, their attention to detail, their precision and their unique way of looking at things. “Then you have to understand where each brand canbene fi t from the other and be willing to understand each other’s ethos. We had a great conversation about how fast and how quickly we can do things: It takes about four years to create a car from a ground-up sketch. And a watch is not too far away from that… around two-and-a-half years. We had to think of the short-, medium- and long-term.” So far, we have only seen the fruit of the fi rst, short-term stage. All four of the watches have taken existing platforms with slight design or material tweaks. The partnership debuted with the Tourbillon with Three Flying Bridges Aston Martin Edition, limited to just 18 pieces and priced at $146,000. The three subsequent releases have been versions of the Laureato. The watch was fi rst released in 1975 and is one of the iconic steel sport watches, up there with the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and the Patek Philippe Nautilus. “I talk so much in my world about perfection in proportion and the golden ratio,” says Reichman. “The Laureato follows exactly that in terms of the number of sides, its proportion and its thickness to its width. It’s part of that golden ratio. That’s why it is a classic. The golden ratio will always make something beautiful to the consumer irrespective of

Aston Martin DBX707