Cosmos

COSMOS

This is the Haute Horlogerie masterpiece presented by Girard-Perregaux in 2019. Stemming from the Bridges collection, Cosmos offers a double viewpoint: that of the sky visible from the surface of the globe and that of the globe visible from the surface of its atmosphere. A new dialogue between earth and sky, between matter and space, between the visible and the invisible.

Two complete globes – celestial and terrestrial – serve to mirror a fusional moment that we experience the Cosmos. This duality is reflected in the luminous personality of Cosmos. Its nocturnal face differs from its diurnal appearance. This night-time view shines in the dark, making it hard to imagine the cosmic mechanics underlying this nocturnal scene.

Order and beauty

The ancient Greeks believed that aesthetic rules governed the universe which they avidly observed. The symmetrical arrangement of the Cosmos double globe is an emanation of this quest for order and beauty.

Along its horizontal and vertical axes, its complications are reflected in an arrangement set at all four cardinal points.

Offset hours and minutes appear at 12 o’clock, while a tourbillon spins beneath a large black titanium bridge at 6 o’clock. At 3 o’clock, a terrestrial globe serves as a day/night indicator, while a sky chart takes its place at 9 o’clock. The entire scene is staged against a tinted sapphire crystal glass. Invisible in broad daylight, and dotted with luminescent hydroceramic particles, it offers a time-lapse view of the sky by night.

A celestial map customizable according to the owner's wishes

At 9 o’clock, a sky chart - laser-engraved on a blue-tinted titanium globe - rotates every 23 hours, 58 minutes and 4 seconds, the exact duration of a sidereal day.

Dozens of stars are connected to it, thus tracing the twelve constellations known for more than 2,500 years, those of the zodiac. They are enhanced with luminescent hydroceramic, thus enabling the Cosmos to fulfil its astronomical vocation even on the darkest nights. Their depiction is one of the paradoxes of astronomy, and of the Cosmos watch, since the constellation to which the Earth belongs is the only one that is not visible, because it is hidden by the blinding sun. Finally, the celestial globe displays the constellation of the zodiac that is invisible at noon on the dial side and the one that is visible at midnight on the caseback side.

A scale model of the Earth

At 3 o'clock, a complete globe gives two indications. It allows you to know if the local time zone is in daylight or plunged in darkness. And a 24-hour scale near its equator provides a GMT reading.

This second time-zone reading time zone is done via the most sophisticated hand imaginable: a scale model of the earth. Also made of titanium and laser-engraved, this world map features hollow oceans and raised continents. Although it is a viewed from the sky, they represent the earthly dimension of Cosmos.

Telluric physics

The Cosmos case with its 47 mm diameter is a world in itself. Carved from polished and satin-finished titanium, it delimits its universe. Its sapphire crystal is a glassbox, a curved chimney-type glass acting like an astronomical telescope. Beneath this non-deforming lens beats a brand-new movement: manual-winding Calibre GP09320.

Its rate is regulated by a tourbillon similar to that of the Néo family. The tourbillon bridge is made of black PVD-treated titanium, arched over the void. Its sandblasted surface highlights the aesthetic work done on the carriage, a true revelation of unknown beauties that accentuate the Maison’s tradition of refinement

The Cosmos case-middle is smooth and crown-free. In its place are four tiny adjustment keys, all located on the back of the case, and which sit flat on the wrist without any unpleasant protuberance. The sapphire crystal and titanium caseback is pierced with four rods respectively dedicated to winding, time-setting, adjustment of the heavenly globe and that of the terrestrial globe.