Girard-Perregaux

The company traces its origins to 1791 when watchmaker and goldsmith Jean-François Bautte signed his first watches in Geneva, establishing a manufacturing company that unified all watchmaking facets of that era. In 1852, watchmaker Constant Girard founded Girard & Cie in La Chaux-de-Fonds. After marrying Marie Perregaux in 1854, the Girard-Perregaux Manufacture was officially founded in 1856. In 1906, Constant Girard-Gallet acquired the Bautte House and merged it with Girard-Perregaux. The brand pioneered the first high-frequency mechanical movement in 1965 (Gyromatic HF at 36,000 vph) and established the universal quartz frequency standard of 32,768 Hz in 1970-71. In 1991, to celebrate its bicentenary, the company created a miniaturized wristwatch version of the Tourbillon with Three Gold Bridges. Since the late 1980s, Girard-Perregaux has been part of the Sowind Group. Kering acquired a majority stake in 2011, but the brand returned to independent ownership through a management buyout in 2022.