I’m a true admirer of the Olimpico line from Girard-Perregaux. Most will only know the very last iteration from 1996, the Laureato Olimpico, but the real Olimpico’s in my view are from the 1960s and 1970s with manual wind chronographs without date. The Olimpico 9245 links to the 1976 Montreal Olympics and has a bit of a special place in the collection.
First of all, until and including 1972, the GP Olimpico’s were based on an Excelsior Park manual wind movement. In 1976, GP then changed this to Valjoux. As far as I know, there were 2 different references linked to 1976, the 9245 which we have here and the 9238. Ref. 9238 is a lot more looking like its earlier predecessors with a minute track on the bezel and 3 register chronograph design.
That’s were the second difference comes with the 9245. We have a simpler 2 subdial chronograph design with only a 45min counter at 3 o’clock. But the 9245 goes further off track. No distinct bezel anymore, instead we find a funky tonneau-shaped case which is very typical of the 70s. The dial has a small tachy scale on its outer ring, else a very clean dial design.
I’m aware of 2 dial versions, a light blue/grey with white subdials and a off-white dial with very dark blue, almost black subdials. The latter being the classic Panda look. Both my 9245s have been kept very well over time while the Panda is actually New-Old-Stock with even the sticker on the back.