Greubel Forsey Balancier Convexe S2

The more one studies watchmaking, the more they come to respect Greubel Forsey. Now, I’m choosing my words carefully there, because respect is a very different thing to lust. Many of Greubel’s cases are imposing, not elegant. Their finishing is celebrated at full scale, never hidden. It’s a bit like the feeling you’d get as a Rolls Royce drives past. You wouldn’t think, ‘God, that’s beautiful.’ You’d think, ‘Something with the mass, size, significance, and craft of Buckingham Palance has just driven by.’ The Balancier Convexe is that sort of watch, it only becomes more impressive the closer you look. Which becomes immediately apparent when you see that the case and calibre are curved, like a Cintrée on steroids.

This S2 is a smaller version than the prior Convexe, but still 42.5mm in titanium. However, without lugs, that’s not a super representative figure. It’s not small, but it doesn’t wear like 42.5. And when I say all in titanium, the calibre is too (a bit like DB). The curvature across the crystal and case accentuate an inclined balance, which is a Greubel tradition stemming from true chronometry. The hands are also curved to track with the crystal curvature but also not touch the apex of the balance. The keyless works gear train is arranged to run dramatically up the dial to the handstack from the crown. Plus, you can see the escapement feeding the petite seconds. All the titanium bridges are hand-frosted and black polished. Every jewel has a chaton. Even the exposed gears are bevelled internally. I also love that the S2 removed some of the red on the dial, which always felt a bit playful for such a serious watch.

Greubel make roughly 150 watches per year, that’s the maximum they can do with this much handcraft. The S2 is limited to 66 examples, with production broken up over about four years. The whole brand’s production feels like a Skunkworks of Renaud & Papi, which in some ways it is. The thing is, they’ve always been more like conceptual art works bred for competition. It’s only in the last few years that they’ve blended some wearability into the recipe with watches like this and the Contemporain; that really adds quite a bit. The brand has a new CEO and we look forward to what’s to come, based on these. I see the sphere of those who love Greubel growing at an alarming rate, for just the few flirtations with wearability that we’ve seen. Certainly, everyone who holds one in the metal instantly becomes a fan. It’s like those Tiktoks you see of colorblind people getting glasses that help see color. The finishing truly is almost alien. I’m still not actually convinced Greubel Forsey is made up of humans.

This example appears to be lightly worn and that’s about it. It’s two years old and comes with its full set from Perpetual in London.