At this year’s Baselworld, Girard-Perregaux unveiled a new collection titled The Chamber of Wonders, a series of timepieces featuring exquisite miniature paintings. Drawing inspiration from some of the world’s earliest maps, the collection celebrates humanity’s first attempts to explore and understand the world.The theme of this Terrestrial Map model is based on The Great Universal Geographic Map of Mountains and Seas, created by the Italian Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci during the Ming dynasty under Emperor Wanli.
This map, produced around the year 1600, together with Ricci’s other masterpiece Kunyu Wanguo Quantu (“A Complete Map of the Myriad Countries of the World”), is considered one of the earliest world maps ever rendered in the Chinese language.For the Chinese literati of the Ming dynasty, Ricci’s map challenged the traditional worldviews of Huaxia centralism and the belief in a flat, square earth. It was through this work that scholars first learned the earth was round, that many other nations and civilizations existed beyond China — and that China was, in fact, not the center of the world.
The dial is made of jade, only 0.70 mm thick, upon which the map motif is meticulously hand-painted using Indian ink. Each dial requires more than 17 hours of painstaking work to complete.
The 40 mm case, crafted in 18 K rose gold, houses the ultra-thin self-winding Caliber 3300 — one of Girard-Perregaux’s most reliable movements, also supplied to independent watchmakers such as MB&F.
This model is limited to 18 pieces, with an official retail price of 47,300€
Girard-Perregaux “The Chamber of Wonders” — Terrestrial Map
18 K rose gold case, 40 mm diameter, sapphire crystal front and back, white jade dial, automatic Caliber GP03300-0060, 26 jewels, 28,800 vph, 46-hour power reserve, alligator leather strap with 18 K rose gold pin buckle, water-resistant to 30 meters.
