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Some watches are all about breaking the rules. One excellent example of this sort of rebellious timepiece is the Girard-Perregaux Sea Hawk Pro 1000M “Challenger of Record” Tourbillon.
Records aren’t the only thing this Girard-Perregaux watch challenges; it also challenges ones ability to place it in almost any category. With its superb flying tourbillon, this timepiece has one of the most prestigious and difficult complications in all of watchmaking, and is thus in that rarefied realm of timepieces known as “haute horlogerie”. Yet, it is also an extremely over-qualified divers watch, complete with water resistance to a colossal 1000 meters. That is, until you consider the fact that the luxurious crocodile strap sort of militates against using it for that purpose. At the same time, it’s really too chunky to be a dress watch on any but the largest individuals, who better be wearing the most loose fitting cuffs, I might add. How about general sports? That sexy carbon fiber dial all but screams that word, but who wants to subject an extremely fine 100K-plus 18K gold tourbillon watch to shocks, knocks, and abuse? Not I, dear readers.
Ah, well. You see what I’m getting it. However, all of these contradictions somehow only make this extremely cool watch that much more tantalizing. What is the Girard-Perregaux Sea Hawk Pro 1000M “Challenger of Record” Tourbillon’s reason for being? Pretty much this: to be an edgy, beautifully crafted watch that just says “because I can”. Which is really what the enjoyment of finer watches in general is about. Practical folks will efficiently get the time from cell phones and PDAs, and there’s nothing wrong with that – but those of us who are afflicted with the incurable malady of “watch sickness” will go about getting this simple procedure accomplished in the most impractical (and ruinously expensive) ways. And, naturally, loving every minute of it!
