GP Cat's Eye - A Creative Way of Expressing the Annual Calendar

Girard-Perregaux’s Three Bridges Tourbillon is perhaps their signature timepiece but the Cat’s Eye range is their quintessential ladies range. From simple time only to complications to high jewellery, the Cat’s Eye is the epitome of feminine timepiece.

The range has further expanded but what I managed to get my hands on for my wife was an earlier year Cat’s Eye Zodiac with the unmistakable ellipse case. A very novel and creative way of time telling.

Aptly named the Cat's Eye Annual and Zodiac Calendar, this white gold example comes with a white dial. The layout of the timepiece makes it easy to read and very intuitive.

The Zodiac calendar is displayed on the bottom half of the dial with the window stretching from the 8 o’clock to 4 o’clock position. The diamond marker points to the day within the zodiac sign (Pisces below) corresponding to the actual date and you can see the zodiac signs on the rotating disc.

The calendar display found at the 2 o’clock position and shaped like a shell is an Annual Calendar complication which means one needs to only adjust the date when it comes to the month of February. Unlike the perpetual calendar which takes into consideration the leap year, annual calendar timepieces don’t.

Another complication is the moon phase indication found at the 6 o’clock position.

Not only do you find the diamonds on the case, two diamonds are found on the dial as indicators. One is the Zodiac indicator and the other representing the stars in the celestial sky.

Finishing on the dial side is nothing short of phenomenal as can be seen here.

On the backside, the open case back gives you the full view of the automatic movement - base calibre being the GP3300 workhorse with an annual calendar and moon phase module.

A nicely engraved gold GP rotor.

Women's timepieces don't get enough coverage. Many mechanical marvels are made for women timepieces as they are more intricate and being smaller in size, requires a lot more skills and craftsmanship to make them elegant yet functional. The world's smallest mechanical movement (JLC Calibre 101) was made for women's timepiece. And at at time when pocket watches were the norm, that was surely a marvel!