Perrelet

Following the success met by its Split-Seconds Chronograph, in a limited edition in honour of its inventor Louis-Frédéric Perrelet, Perrelet is today enhancing its collection with three new variations of this complication, which is exclusive to the Brand.

Novices, amateurs, or connoisseurs in search of a modern, mysterious and elegant model, will be impressed by these new arrivals, whose originality lies mostly in the arrangement of the counters on glass discs.

The various dial combinations with painted Arabic numerals, luminescent indexes and a special openwork feature, allow the semi-skeletonised mechanical movement to be admired.

Calibre P-241 with its fly-back hand, enables intermediate times to be read off and offers the functions of central hours and minutes, seconds and date on discs, and sweep seconds with hours and minutes display on discs. The execution of the four printed mineral glass discs achieves the marriage of complication and aestheticism.

The transparency of this complication, armed with a sapphire crystal both on the dial side and the case back, draws attention to the magic of a complex mechanism, revealing the intricate interaction between the rhodium-plated wheels with their blued screws, going barrel and finely angled and decorated bridges in all their finest detail.

A natural black rubber bracelet, embossed with the “Perrelet” logo and embellished with a deployment buckle completes the model’s accessories.

HISTORICALLY
The split-seconds chronograph mechanism belongs to Perrelet’s heritage. It was the grandson of Abraham-Louis Perrelet, Louis-Frédéric, who conceived it and brought it to live.

Grandson of the eminent Abraham-Louis Perrelet, Louis-Frédéric (1781–1854) underwent his first years of formation under the watchful, yet benevolent eyes of his grand-father in Le Locle.

After reaching adulthood, he chose to quit the harsh mountain climate for the excitement that Paris had to offer. There, he is known to have worked for the famous Abraham-Louis Breguet, most probably by a contact established by his grandfather.

This stage evidently helped to sharpen Louis-Frédéric’s skills to the extent that he soon was granted access to the royal court. On his merits he served no fewer than three French kings as official Royal watchmaker.

He equally gained fame by many an exhibition culminating in winning 4 gold medals for outstanding horological work. In 1827, he deposited a patent application for a new invention, the chronograph split-second mechanism. His patent was officially registered in his name on March 11, 1828. This invention led the “Academie de Sciences” in Paris to award him with another gold medal a few years later. The transcripts at the Academy were recorded as follows:

“Monsieur Perrelet is now accepted among the distinguished ranks of watchmakers of the highest order by virtue of his craftsmanship and experience… in all his works, you will find a good disposition and perfect execution illustrating the able artist’s hands to which we owe the invention of the counter with double stop.”