The horse has always haunted La Esmeralda. Three galloping horses adorn the dust cover of Constant Girard’s celebrated 1889 pocket watch, yet their symbolic meaning remains undocumented in the Manufacture’s own archives, what the La Chaux-de-Fonds atelier calls the mystère équin. For the 2026 Chinese New Year of the Horse, Girard-Perregaux seizes the occasion to address that enigma head-on, releasing the La Esmeralda Tourbillon “A Secret” Eternity Edition in a vivid red grand feu enamel. It is a colour that, in Chinese tradition, carries fortune, vitality and untamed power. This is not a new reference; it is a new expression of an existing architecture, and the red variant ranks among the boldest the Manufacture has ever produced.
Girard-Perregaux: traditions on display
The dial of the red edition delivers an immediate chromatic punch, and the craft behind it is serious. Grand feu enamel requires between five and ten successive firings at approximately 800 °C, each pass risking cracks, air bubbles or colour distortion, meaning a significant number of dials never reach finishing.
The surface combines two guilloché patterns executed by hand on a traditional rose-engine lathe: a sunray motif and a circular design that interact with the red enamel to produce a depth and luminosity no printed or lacquered dial can replicate. Three arrow-shaped gold bridges cross the dial horizontally in the signature three-bridge architecture that Constant Girard patented in 1884.
Each bridge demands approximately 40 hours of hand-finishing: concave anglage, mirror-polished flanks, traits tirés and cradle-shaped arms. The barrel and tourbillon bridges carry the hand-engraved horses at their extremities, requiring a further 50 hours of engraving. Pink gold dauphine hands complete the display, their warm tone harmonising with the Three Gold Bridges against the red field.
Craftsmanship on the highest level
The calibre GP09600 sits at the core of the watch as a full manufacture automatic movement measuring 32 mm in diameter and 7.68 mm in height. It beats at 21,600 vph (3 Hz) and delivers a minimum 50-hour power reserve, a figure directly linked to the tourbillon cage’s remarkably low mass. That lyre-shaped cage contains 78 components and weighs just 0.3 g; the lower inertia reduces energy consumption and extends autonomy without requiring a larger mainspring. Automatic winding arrives via a white gold micro-rotor positioned beneath the rhodium-plated barrel, keeping the movement compact and maintaining the visual hierarchy of the bridges on the dial side. The barrel itself carries golden engravings that reference the 1884 Tourbillon with Three Bridges patent, connecting the current calibre to its historical lineage. With 323 components and 31 jewels, the GP09600 is a complete, in-house manufacture construction: no ébauche sourcing, no compromises.
Superlative in pretios metal
The 18k pink gold case measures 43 mm in diameter and 15.1 mm in thickness. These dimensions reflect the movement’s architectural requirements rather than any concession to current thin-watch trends. Every exterior surface receives hand-engraving: the lugs, the bezel, the case middle and even the triple-blade deployant buckle all carry a fine leaf motif drawn from the original 1889 pocket watch’s engraved decoration. The case band and lugs extend the red grand feu enamel beyond the dial, treating the entire watch as a unified sculptural object. The defining feature is the secret cover: pressing the crown pusher releases a hinged cover, its exterior engraved and enamelled in red with three horses on a sunray guilloché ground. Open the cover, and a sapphire crystal reveals the GP09600 through a plate decorated with the Manufacture‘s exclusive concave anglage finish: a curved recess between surface and side that catches light in a way a conventional 45-degree bevel cannot. The watch pairs with a red hand-stitched alligator strap and the same engraved pink gold deployant buckle.
Happy Chinese New Year from GP
The Year of the Horse edition does exactly what the La Esmeralda Tourbillon “A Secret” platform demands: it commits fully to its colour choice, extends that commitment across every surface of the watch, and backs it with genuine haute horlogerie substance. The grand feu enamel is not decoration applied to a standard dial, it is integral to the object, fired repeatedly until the Manufacture’s artisans judge it worthy. The equine mystery that started on Constant Girard’s pocket watch in 1889 now lives on inside a modern wristwatch that honours every dimension of that legacy. Limited to 18 pieces, with a price of EUR 479,000 (recommended price in Germany, including VAT), the La Esmeralda Tourbillon “A Secret” Eternity Edition Year of the Horse is among the most complete integrations of enamel craft and tourbillon horology available today.
