I think the figures for GP are not that much of a state secret:
GP did about 18.000 watches annually in recent years, of which are about 100 tourbillons they do themselves (drastically depending on which models are made) and about 300 Haute Horlogerie pieces (tourbillons, repeaters, perpetuals, sceletons, Foudroyantes).
The total number of employees is about 200 in La Chaux-De-Fonds, of which 27 are working in the Haute Horlogerie department. The by far largest departments are the production departments (case/movement/parts production, watch assembly and quality control).
To put it in a context:
Patek Philippe is (reportedly) said to do about 30.000 pieces per year, Rolex submits +600.000 pieces to chronometer certifications (which give an estimate of more than 1.000.000 pieces made) with reportedly about 10.000 employees in multiple places.
That said, GP is a very small brand with a likewise limited production, given the tremendous variety of pieces in production.
Thatīs almost the same for JeanRichard (which is actually a little smaller, in terms of production numbers).
This will not change; the maximum production for GP will not be more than 20.000 watches per year.
I had no idea GP are as low in annual production numbers as AP !!! ... seems like IWC is the " mass producer " in my collection .... Thanks again for the info !!
... GP never made more than 100.000 pieces annually.
The highest production totals have been achieved in the 1960īs, when they had hundreds of quite affordable watches and did run a production facility in the US. Personally, i think there are some nice and unusual pieces among these (and some collectible ones), but itīs been very different from what they do today and how they do it.
Even in their highest production times, they only made less than 10 percent of what Omega was put out then.
Then there was a deep down of the production totals; the quartz crisis had quite some impact on GP and in very early 1980īs, they did not do more than 3.000-3.500 pieces per year of which most have been jewellery watches or quartz pieces (ok, the GP quartz movements still to be among the nicest around).
I think until early 1990īs, there have been some quite interesting pieces like the first and second generation of the Laureato and the "Techniques" line with the Equation and the Perpetual Calendar watches. They are quite rare birds, but maybe due to the fact they had came with a design that was en vogue then and several had quartz movements, they are completely out of focus.
But one thing hardly changed as of late 1960īs:
GP never made large production runs.
A successfull GP piece is a watch that is done in a few thousand examples over a couple of years, not more. I donīt recall any GP model they made as many pieces of as for example IWCīs Yacht Club (make no mistake, i really like it as the YC is a very classic and classy piece).
Among the most, if not the most successfull GP watch is the chronograph of the 7000 line, which started itīs life in mid 1980īs and was discontinued as of 2000. So it did have a long life as a model, but the total count including all variations this watch underwent still does not exceed 10.000 pieces.
As a side note, i may add a comment when i asked about a specific model they made in late 1960īs: "Oh, that reference 8445 was a success. We made 9.760 of it!". But to put this into a sort of context: This particular model did have one of the longest production times and was made between 1965 and 1976; breaking the number down by 11 years of production, there are meager 900 pieces per year of that model (while keeping in mind, itīs not as elaborate as any current GP piece).
So for the recent and particularly the current production, i think itīs quite safe to say a GP watch is always quite a rare watch. Given the many variations they do, each individual model and variant is produced in limited quantities. Often they do not more than a few dozen to low hundreds of a given model, so there are quite some really rare birds out there.
Thatīs actually part of the GP philosophy and one of the reasons there are no plans to extend the production totals of GP.
And iīm pressing thumbs for the world championship of Ferrari and Michael Schumacher!
The "advanced technology" pieces are for sure nice ones. And in terms of sportive looks and new materials, donīt forget to check the R&D chronograph and the new carbon dial pieces as presented in Geneva April 19th! Thereīs some coverage on recent pages, with quite some pieces i imagine you will love to see...
.... anyone ?!
Thanks again for the info !!