Greubel Forsey and Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce and Greubel Forsey?

Partnerships between watch brands and high-end car makers are par for the course these days - Aston Martin with Jaeger-LeCoultre; Breitling with Bentley; Bulgari with Maserati; Hublot with Ferrari; McLaren with TAG Heuer, Chopard with Porsche. The list goes on.

By Simon de Burton
Contributor

But what about Rolls-Royce, the maker of the ' best cars in the world' ? Is it simply too superior to join forces with a watch maker? Until now, that's certainly the way it has seemed - but, according to information recently leaked to Watchonista, the legendary marque has now joined forces with a firm that could fairly be termed the 'Rolls-Royce of watch makers.'

And there are no prizes for guessing that it's Greubel Forsey, the high-end, low volume producer of what many people believe to be the most beautifully engineered and innovative wrist watches on the market.

Greubel Forsey GMT Tourbillon Greubel Forsey GMT Tourbillon

Visitors to this year's Geneva Salon car show might have noticed the subtle Greubel Forsey presence on the Rolls-Royce stand, which reinforces our information that the two firms are currently working on a project to create three limited edition versions of the Phantom model, each of which will be supplied with a GF tourbillon as part of the purchase price.

The cars are likely to have several unique features to mark them out as Greubel Forsey 'specials,' one of which is believed to be a fitted safe designed specifically to hold the watch.

Greubel Forsey Tourbillon 24 secondes Greubel Forsey Tourbillon 24 secondes

According to our Rolls-Royce insider (who did not deny the existence of the project) the special edition cars will not be completed, or officially announced 'for several months'.

Our question to him, however, concerned the price of the car -  because, as most Watchonista readers will know, the least expensive Greubel Forsey watch is the Tourbillon 24 Secondes Assymetrique in rose gold at around Euros 345,000, while the entry-level Rolls-Royce Ghost costs Euros 222,000.

Even the most expensive 'off the shelf' model - the Phantom extended Wheelbase - retails at 'just' Euros 407,550, compared with around Euros 790,000 for the GF QP Equation of Time and Euros 1.8 million for the Art Piece 1.

Rolls Royce Hyperion Rolls Royce Hyperion

Which means that the watch could, feasibly, be worth more than the car.

The answer is that those Rolls-Royce prices pertain only to basic models, before the addition of extras. And special editions such as the anticipated Greubel Forsey series invariably push seven figures, an example being the one-off, Euros 1.3 million, Celestial Phantom produced last year to mark the first decade of Rolls-Royce production at Goodwood.

Whatever the price, it will certainly be intriguing to see what two of the most exacting and uncompromising engineering firms on the planet come up with in terms of what promises to be the ultimate in car-watch collaborations.

Rolls Royce Celestial Phantom Rolls Royce Celestial Phantom

But, while the special edition cars will represent the first official, modern-era partnership between Rolls-Royce and a watch brand, they will not be the first modern-day Rolls-Royces for which a tourbillon has been specifically made.

Back in 2008, American horophile and car collector Roland Hall commissioned a bespoke Rolls-Royce Phantom drophead which was extensively re-worked by the Italian design house Pininfarina to feature a body made primarily of carbon fibre with wooden doors, no rear seats , a more steeply-raked windscreen and a canted radiator grille.

Greubel Forsey QP Equation of Time Greubel Forsey QP Equation of Time

Titan, it featured an electrically-operated roof that folded away to be neatly concealed by a wooden panel emulating the type of flawless, high-gloss teak planking more normally seen on Riva speedboats. A similar panel in front of the windscreen hinged open to reveal a storage area for the owner's hunting rifles.

But perhaps the most interesting accessory could be found between the car's dashboard-mounted fresh-air vents, where the usual quartz clock was substituted for a specially adapted Girard-Perregaux Vintage 1945 Tourbillon wristwatch secured in a special housing by a custom-made fastening system based on a series of sprung balls, which enabled the watch to extracted from the dashboard and quickly clipped to an alligator strap. And, to make it even more exclusive, the dial was finished in exactly the same colour as the Hyperion's paintwork.

Girard Perregaux Vintage 1945 Tourbillon on the Rolly Royce Hyperion dashboard The Girard Perregaux Vintage 1945 Tourbillon on the Rolls Royce Hyperion dashboard

And receive each week a custom selection of articles.

Greubel Forsey and Philippe Dufour join forces to perpetuate know-how

By René Giroud
With the project «Le Garde Temps, Naissance d’une montre», Greubel Forsey and Philippe Dufour preserve ancestral watchmaking techniques.