Girard-Perregaux 9925 Tourbillon with Three Gold Bridges Review

The history of Girard-Perregaux’s Tourbillon with Three Gold Bridges starts with a pocket watch created in 1867. It was designed by Constant Girard himself, a tourbillon chronometer with a detent escapement and three nickel-silver bridges. The La Esmeralda pocket watch was so lauded that it netted Girard first prize in a competition from the Neuchâtel Observatory and a medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris that same year.

Since then, it’s become a recurring motif in the history of Girard-Perregaux, a uniquely beautiful signature often reserved for its rarest watches. Over nearly 160 years, these three bridges have evolved from being hidden behind pocket watch cases to the forefront of the dial, accompanying exotic metals, colorful avant-garde skeleton dials, and hand-finished details, always featuring a tourbillon, front and center. 

The Reference 9925 Three Bridges Tourbillon debuted in the early 1990s, not terribly long after Girard-Perregaux brought back the Three Bridges in wristwatch form in 1982 as a permanent flagship in its lineup. This series was rendered in 18-karat rose gold and platinum versions. On the platinum variant, the rose gold bridges sit atop a skeletonized dial, their broad-arrow ends contrasting dramatically. The brushed case and lugs are wide, hefty, and seemingly no-nonsense in design, matching the deliberate chunkiness of the bridges (whose origin, after all, is a balance of form and function in the first place). 

Powering the 9925 Tourbillon is an automatic Caliber 9600, split up into its individual components from the bottom up. Three bridges anchor its mainspring barrel, the center wheel with the hour and minute hands are positioned above it, and the tourbillon is at the six o’clock position. Constant Girard’s enduring design, in both pocket watch and wristwatch form, left generous room for detail work on the backplate. 

Girard’s La Esmerelda dazzled the judges of the 1889 Paris Exposition, enough to award it a gold medal, and that history continues to shine today in the 9925. The contrast of intricate engraving, emerging from behind the unyielding symmetry of those three golden bridges, creates a feast for the eyes, a glorious demonstration of Girard-Perregaux’s signature architecture right there on the dial.