Greubel Forsey repackages its cutting edge perpetual calendar in a sleeker, more accessible format as the QP Balancier. It’s still a highly legible calendar that adjusts forward and back via the crown without need of tools or fear of damage. Despite the simpler styling, the QP Balancier retains the high-end movement decoration the brand is known for.

Initial Thoughts

Greubel Forsey was arguably a latecomer to the world of complications, spending its first decade on chronometry, refining the tourbillon. The brand’s first complication, the GMT presented in 2011, applied an unfamiliar approach to a familiar complication.

That set the tone for the brand’s first perpetual calendar four years later – the Quantième Perpétuel à Équation. At its heart was a “mechanical computer” programmed with 48-month leap year cycle that allowed the calendar to be adjusted forward and back without issue, all from the crown.

The Quantième Perpétuel à Équation of 2015

While the result is not novel, – Ulysse Nardin and H. Moser & Cie. have bi-directional perpetual calendar as well – the method certainly is. Greubel Forsey paired the mechanical computer with a similarly sophisticated in-line display – using four layers of stacked disks – making its perpetual as easy to read as it is to use.

The new QP Balancier is a more focused watch than its predecessor, as it does away with the 24-second inclined tourbillon and equation of time.

While wider, the case is also slimmer and sleeker – and arguably less characterful without the tourbillon bulges that distinguished its earlier cases. While I’m not entirely convinced by the brand’s new (and somewhat bland) case styling, I suspect it has broader appeal.

As a whole the QP Balancier more accessible than its predecessor, both in cost and styling, while retaining its core competencies, including artisanal finissage.

New Case

While Greubel Forsey has drifted towards smaller case sizes over the last few years – recently releasing its smallest watch yet and downsizing existing models – at 45.1 mm the QP Balancier is a bit larger than its 43.5 mm predecessor.

The case is also in the brand’s new design language, much simpler and free of protrusions.

A Movement

Typically, it’s relatively easy to transpose perpetual calendars from one movement to another, as the calendar works perch on top of the base calibre.

However, Greubel Forsey’s QP mechanism sits on the same plane as the rest of the movement and integrates with the keyless works, which means the movement must be designed around the calendar.

This new calibre uses the same massive 12.6 mm diameter free-sprung balance found in the Balancier Contemporain and Tourbillon Cardan, inclined by 30°. An inclined balance exploits traditional methods used to  measure performance by obfuscating differences between horizontal and vertical positions.

In practical terms this reduces the difference between leaving the watch on its side and on its back, and reduces the lateral space the balance occupies by increasing the vertical space.

A pair of stacked fast-rotating barrels power the movement, yielding three days of chronometric timekeeping, tracked by an up/down hand on the dial.

Mechanical Computation

To set the calendar, press the button in the crown to switch from time setting mode to calendar setting; the display at 2 0’clock will change from “HM” (hours and minutes) to “QP”.

Then turn the crown counterclockwise to advance all of the displays at once, and clockwise retrace your steps. The calendar also reverses when moving the hands backward across midnight; most perpetual calendars do not.

The watch uses a total of nine disks to display its information, two of which are positioned in overlapping displays north of the hand stack for running seconds and  a 24-hour display. The latter uses a red segment to mark a dead zone where calendar-setting is automatically disabled.

On the back, two more disks count the year’s last two digits. The calendar isn’t fully autonomous, as the day will desync from the rest of the calendar on first of March, 2100, requiring watchmaker intervention to fix, and those first two digits of the year display must be replaced. Fortunately, that’s a problem for the next generation.

A sapphire bridge opposite the year display allows a glimpse of the 25-part mechanical “computer” that observes the 48-month leap year cycle. The entire assembly moves a little bit each day.

The QP en Equation used the process itself to indicate the solstices, equinoxes, and equation of time, which is missing on the QP Balancier.

World class movement decoration

While movement decoration isn’t the focus here, it’s still done to the highest possible standards. The escapement platform and rounded dual anchored balance bridge are specular polished. The new style escape wheel we spotted on the new GMT Convex also returns.

As are the many white gold rings on the dial. From the back, the plates are skeletonised to reveal the mechanical “computer”, year display and going train. The train wheels are chamfered on their spokes, the “computer” cage is black polished, and all jewels sit inside gold chatons.

While artisanal hand decoration is increasingly common in independent watchmaking, not every watch has the technical substance to back up its style. That certainly isn’t an issue here.

Key facts and price 

Greubel Forsey QP Balancier

Diameter: 45.1 mm
Height: 14.75 mm
Material: White gold
Crystal: Sapphire
Water resistance: 30 m

Movement: QP Balancier
Functions: Hour, minutes, 24-hours, running seconds, up/down, perpetual calendar.
Winding: Manual winding
Frequency: 21,600 beats per hour (3 Hz)
Power reserve: 72 hours

Strap: Textured rubber strap with white gold folding clasp

Limited edition: 22 pieces
Availability: From the Greubel Forsey and retailers
Price: On request

For more information, visit greubelforsey.com.