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Movement holder

Hand-finished bridges and tourbillon cages

Probable

Movement components finished by hand to a standard generally regarded as the most extreme in series watchmaking: hand-bevelled internal angles, black-polished steel, frosted and grained surfaces applied to components that will never be seen in normal use.

Part reference

Brand
Greubel Forsey
Material
Steel, German silver and gold components

Documented variations

Classification

FactoryDocumented as shipped from the factory for this reference and period.PeriodNot original to this watch, but correct for its production period.ServiceFitted by the manufacturer's own service network. Not a defect.AftermarketThird-party part. Affects originality, not authenticity.ModifiedGenuine parts in a configuration the factory did not sell. Affects originality and value, not authenticity.CounterfeitDeceptive reproduction intended to pass as genuine.UnknownEvidence on file does not settle the question.

  • Hand-bevelled internal angles and black polish

    FactoryProbable

    Whole production

    Bevels that reach a crisp point at internal corners and vary slightly in width along their length; flat black-polished surfaces reflecting either pure black or pure white depending on the viewing angle. Both are hand processes with no machine equivalent.

  • Machine-finished components

    CounterfeitProbable

    Whole production

    Bevels of uniform width that round off at internal corners, because a rotating tool cannot reach into a sharp angle. On a caliber where hand finishing is the specification rather than a bonus, this is a finding — and it is geometric rather than aesthetic, so it does not require the examiner to have an opinion about beauty.

Open questions

OpenMissing imagesHigh

Photographic reference for hand versus machine finishing at magnification

At magnification, what do hand-bevelled internal angles and black-polished surfaces look like beside their machine-finished equivalents?

Scope Valuable well beyond this brand. The catalog uses the internal-angle and black-polish tests for Montblanc's Villeret calibers, Laurent Ferrier, De Bethune and here, and describes them in prose throughout. A single comparative photographic reference would serve all of them — and finishing is precisely the kind of judgement that words convey poorly and a side-by-side image conveys instantly.

Documented on these references

Provenance of this record

Sources & Evidence

Secondary sourceSpecialist publication

Specialist examination of Greubel Forsey finishing and multi-axis tourbillon construction

Established horological publications

Accessed
2026-08-19

Cited for

This referenceProbable

Last verified: Not yet reviewed