Greubel Forsey builds fewer watches in a year than most manufactures build in a week, and the Tourbillon 24 Secondes Édition Historique is among the purest expressions of the house's work. The 44mm case is 5N red gold, hand-finished with straight graining along its flanks, and its gently asymmetric form is opened by a sapphire window at eight o'clock that lets light fall directly onto the tourbillon. The solid gold dial plate is silvered and partly overlaid with an engraved sapphire disc, a construction that gives the face real depth and lets the movement show through without ever becoming cluttered.

At the heart of the watch is the first of Greubel Forsey's inventions, the 24 Secondes tourbillon: a cage inclined at 25 degrees that completes a full rotation every 24 seconds, far faster than a conventional one-minute tourbillon, to counter the effects of gravity in the stable positions a wristwatch spends most of its life in. The titanium cage is built from 88 components and weighs just 0.39 grams. A steel bridge with a barrel-polished finish arcs over it, set against a black PVD-treated titanium platform. The power reserve at two o'clock and the small seconds between five and six are shown with fixed pointers over rotating discs, a display created for this model alone. Finishing throughout is done entirely by hand, to the standard for which Greubel Forsey is known.

Only 11 pieces were made in red gold, and the Édition Historique rarely appears on the open market. For the collector seeking a benchmark of contemporary haute horlogerie, invention, rarity, and hand craft at the highest level, this is a watch of real significance.