The Girard-Perregaux Vintage 1945 | family history
The Vintage 1945 is GP's tonneau and cushion-case family, rooted in the rectangular-case archive references that GP produced in the mid-1940s. In the current watch market, cushion-case and tonneau dress watches occupy a small but distinct niche: they are not round, not square, and they carry a pre-war aesthetic that connects to a specific era of watchmaking. The Vintage 1945 Large Date is the primary modern reference: GP caliber 3000, large-date display, a case geometry that stands apart from the round-dress-watch default.
Girard-Perregaux's cushion-case dress line evoking the rectangular pocket-watch aesthetics of the 1940s. The tonneau-adjacent case shape (flat, rectangular with rounded corners) is rare in the modern market; the Vintage 1945 XXL is one of the few examples at this price tier from an independent Swiss brand with an in-house movement. Arabics, clean dials, and no date keep the aesthetic honest.
1945 · The wartime rectangular-case archive
GP produced cushion-case and rectangular dress watches through the 1940s in the design vocabulary of the period. These references were not given distinctive family names at the time; they were part of the standard case inventory. The Vintage 1945 family is a retronym applied by the modern brand to root the current cushion-case line in an authentic archive point. The 1945 references are collected by buyers interested in pre-war and wartime dress watch design.
No references from this era in the catalog yet.
1995–present · The modern Vintage 1945 revival
GP relaunched the Vintage 1945 as a named family in 1995. The modern references use the GP caliber 3000 manufacture movement, a well-finished automatic with the large-date mechanism that is the family's distinctive complication. The cushion case in the Large Date reference is 36mm in width, with the proportion-appropriate shorter lug-to-lug that cushion cases provide. The Vintage 1945 exists in a small market of cushion-case collectors; it is not a mainstream reference but it is a genuine one.
How to read this family
Two honest questions for any Vintage 1945 buyer:
- Who is the Vintage 1945 for? Buyers who specifically want a non-round dress watch case with genuine manufacture credibility and a large-date display. The cushion case is a less common silhouette in the current market; if you want something that reads differently on the wrist from the standard round Calatrava or tank, this is the logical direction from GP.
- Is the large date display a practical complication? A large date uses two discs in a jumping display that makes the date significantly more legible than a standard date window. It requires attention at end-of-month corrections on months shorter than 31 days, the same as any standard calendar watch. The visual payoff is worth the twice-yearly correction ritual for buyers who use the date function regularly.
Related families: GP 1966 · GP Laureato
References in this family
Which ref to buy
The Vintage 1945 is GP's tonneau-case dress watch, referencing the brand's square-case watches of the 1940s. The three golden bridges movement is visible through the dial -- those three gold plates spanning the movement are GP's signature and have been in continuous production since 1867.
- 1Openr-gp-vintage-1945-25910Consider
Vintage 1945 -- tonneau case, three golden bridges movement visible, 150 years of continuous production on the same architecture.
- The case for it:
- The three golden bridges are not decoration -- they are the movement's structural architecture, in use since 1867. No other watchmaker has maintained a single movement architecture in continuous production this long. The Vintage 1945 puts that history on display in a wearable tonneau case. Genuinely underrated relative to AP and Patek.
- Consider instead if:
- GP secondary market is significantly weaker than AP or Patek. Buyers who want the three-bridges aesthetic can find older references at lower prices than new production. The brand's commercial fortunes have been inconsistent.
Rankings last reviewed 2026-06-07. Editorial perspective only. Not financial advice.