Perrelet has released a trio of coloured Turbines, adding to their various assortment of colourways, and to cap it off, a new limited “Sunset” edition piece.
If there’s one thing that Perrelet is known for, it’s their Turbine collection. The unmistakable watch with 12 spinning blades activated by the wrist’s movement gives the wearer a fun piece to play with. And they are fun, take it from me. What seems as a non-serious watch, has in fact got serious engineering behind it, both on the dial side and in the back, and for those who aren’t aware of the brand’s story and history, Perrelet also has this to rival some of the industry’s biggest names.
RELATED READING: IN PERSON – With Hugo Lesizza, Brand Director For Perrelet
If you’ve been following us for a while, you will have seen some of our coverage of Perrelet’s releases at Geneva Watch Days 2024, and also our interview with Hugo Lesizza, Brand Director for Perrelet. In all honesty, the brand doesn’t get as much attention as they maybe deserve, at least out here in Australia. Perhaps it is because of the Turbine and its whimsical nature, perhaps like a lot of brands, they’re not marketing themselves as much as the big brands. Either way, all of us have Perrelet, or rather, Abraham-Louis Perrelet, to thank for the automatic winding mechanism most of the industry’s automatic movements are based on today, which he came up with when the brand was founded in 1777. This makes Perrelet one of the oldest watch brands in the world, up there with the likes of Vacheron Constantin, Brequet, and Blancpain etc.
And speaking of Geneva Watch Days, we had the privilege of shooting some of Perrelet’s unreleased pieces whilst there talking to Hugo, and we can finally showcase these in the metal today – the new Red, Yellow and Khaki turbines. Perrelet has also released a limited edition rainbow Turbine to coincide with the trio of colours, limited to 99 pieces. Whilst we would have loved to have shot this as well, it wasn’t yet ready. Nonetheless, we have the press shots regardless, but in our eyes, the other colours look just as good!
RELATED READING: Perrelet Unveils Two New Turbine Ice Blue Timepieces At Geneva Watch Days
The three new colourways are done in the 44mm polycarbonate and carbon fibre case, the same as the Ice Blue released at Geneva Watch Days. While this sounds a little daunting size-wise, the black slims the case down, and even as I was writing this, I did a double take on the case sizing as these definitely don’t wear like a 44mm case at almost 14mm thick. In fact I did go back to double check this was indeed the case!
The case itself is made in polycarbonate and carbon fibre, which gives the watches a lightness to them and the bezel is steel, but with a matte black PVD coating. The main star of the show is the dial, with the 12 lightweight aluminium blades that spin on a ball bearing and rotor system, which took Perrelet quite some time to perfect and get that perfect silky smooth spinning effect.
“Basically, the product team in charge took the inspiration for the turbine from the turbines on the jet engine, which was the initial inspiration for the development of the turbine. It took time to develop it because as you know in the watch-making industry you have constraints, which is not easy to handle, and with the turbine, we had to get the balance and spinning just right, even down to developing the ball bearings it spins on!”
Hugo Lesizza, Brand Director for Perrelet
Each watch comes with a colour-matching alligator leather strap, which has a great feel on the wrist and a sheen to it that really enhances the colour of each watch, not to mention the wrist presence. The strap drops away well thanks to the highly angled lugs, so the 44mm case dimensions are not in person what they are on paper. As you can see from the image below, this is 44mm on my 17.5cm wrist, but in my opinion, wears a couple of millimeters smaller at least.
In addition to the new trio, Perrelet has introduced a special limited edition Sunset piece, with 99 units available. This piece takes the best of their colours, and blends them all into one unique dial variant which is designed to mimic the colours at sunset – from the darker hues in the sky above, to the lighter oranges and reds towards the horizon where the setting sun fades. And looking at the dial, you can certainly see where they’ve got their inspiration from.
The Sunset edition keeps the same size and specs as the red, yellow and khaki versions, with the major exception of the strap. Rather than colour-matching the dial, which, lets face it, would have been a stretch (although other brands have done this to an extent) Perrelet have opted to keep the alligator strap black, for a more subtle look. This makes the dial stand out just that little more with a shroud of black for the gradient sunset colour to pop out of.
Inside all these watches is the in-house manufactured self-winding calibre P-331-MH. This is a full in-house movement via Perrelet’s movement manufacture, Soprod. Beating at 4Hz, 28,800 VpH and pivoting on 25 jewels, it is COSC certified and has a 42-hour power reserve. This is probably on the lower side of the power reserved spectrum, but, at this price point, I don’t think you can complain all that much.
Initial Thoughts
Perrelet is one brand that doesn’t come to mind all that much, and that is a shame as there are some real watch-making credentials within the brand, and while there is a rich history there, the brand has taken a more fun approach to watches with the introduction of the turbine on the dial. This has probably put off more serious watch enthusiast if I’m honest, and is a party trick that may not be for everyone. But that is ok, as Perrelet only make about 2,500 watches a year, then not everyone will be able to buy them, even if they wanted to. And that makes them unique in the watch world, which is something I like.
Sameera covered the Ice Blue releases at Geneva Watch Days, and he personally felt the smaller 41mm Titanium model was better, with less colour on the dial, whereas the 44mm Carbon has the Ice Blue outer track below the rehaut as well. With this release, Perrelet has taken the best of both worlds here and made the numeral track in the black, with just the small rehaut in the red, yellow and khaki, and Sunset. It is less overwhelming, but without taking away from the colour of the dial. All in all, these are fun pieces to add to a collection, and for those that want to walk on the not too serious side of watch collecting!
References:
- Turbine Carbon Red –Ref. A4065/6
- Turbine Carbon Yellow –Ref. A4065/7
- Turbine Carbon Khaki – Ref. A4065/8
- Turbine Sunset (99-piece limited edition) – Ref. A4065/S7
Specifications:
- Case Size: 44mm
- Case Thickness: 13.82mm
- Case Material: Case body in polycarbonate and carbon fibre, flat steel bezel in stainless steel with black matt PVD coating.
- Dial: Yellow, Red, Khaki or Sunset with the depiction of the turbine achieved through the polished/satin finish. 12 black anodised aluminium turbine blades with five tungsten counterweights. Colour matching minute flange with black hour track with a mix of luminescent white Arabic, Roman numerals and indices.
- Movement: In-house manufacture self-winding calibre P-331-MH beating at 28,800 VpH (4hZ)
- Power reserve: 42hrs
- Water resistance: 10 bar (100 meters)
- Crystal: Sapphire glass with double anti-reflective treatment on the dial
- Case back: Case back in stainless steel with black PVD coating and sapphire glass porthole
- Strap: Colour-matched calf leather strap with an alligator pattern and rubber lining. Folding clasp in black PVD stainless steel embellished with the Perrelet logo
