Seminal watch designer Gérald Genta’s Royal Oak and Nautilus designs tend to hog most of the “luxury sports watch” limelight, and with good reason — two of the most important timepieces of the 20th century, they continue to take up significant real estate within Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe’s catalogs, respectively, and to drive enormous revenues. However, there are other models of similar design, dating back to the same era, that boast uninterrupted production, significant technical developments and important horological milestones. The Girard-Perregaux Laureato is one of them.
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From an affordable new moonphase model to a complete calendar with gorgeous midcentury vibesLaunched 50 years ago in 1975, the Laureato — like Genta’s designs — boasts an octagonal bezel set with a round housing paired to an integrated bracelet. However, what was inside that watch was very different from that which powered the Royal Oak or Nautilus: Back in 1966, ahead of the onset of the Quartz Crisis, Girard-Perregaux set up an R&D arm within its manufacture in La Chaux de Fonds to look into the potential benefits of quartz technology. Five years later in 1971, it unveiled the calibre GP350 — beating at 32,768 Hz, it established a standard that other Swiss firms could rally to. Fitting this movement’s COSC-certified successor within the Laureato, this movement helped launch a luxury sports watch based not upon legacy technology, but upon the latest and most accurate equipment then available. By 1977, some 83% of quartz-related patents carrying COSC certification emanated from GP, allowing the firm to deftly sidestep a revolution that swallowed myriad competitors whole — or at least severely impacted their businesses.
Now, a half-century later, Girard-Perregaux is celebrating with the release of a fresh reference that’s sure to delight fans of the original Laureato: The aptly named new Girard-Perregaux Laureato FIFTY, limited to 200 pieces, boasts a case measuring 39mm wide and just 9.8mm thick despite 150m of water resistance — perfect proportions for the modern wearer who wants a versatile piece that can slip under a cuff and yet doesn’t require any sort of precious treatment. Executed in two-tone steel and 3N yellow gold in a nod to an original bi-color Laureato from 1975, it features tweaked architecture — pronounced bevels, slightly sharper angles, multiple finishes — that lend it a sophisticated aesthetic and feel.
Set within the model’s gold bezel is a beautiful Cloud de Paris-pattern, sunray grey dial with applied 3N gold indices and hands filled with luminous material. A date window at 3 o’clock with a color-matched date wheel, a rehaut printed with a gold-toned minute track and the Girard-Perregaux wordmark logo are the only details that interrupt the dynamic feel of the textured dial background, lending the watch a sense of depth often lacking in typical sports watch dials. When considered within the greater context of the watch’s multiple features — horizontal satin polishing on the bracelet offset with polished bevels, for example — the net result is one of relaxed sophistication.
One of the most important aspects of a classic luxury sports watch is, of course, the integrated bracelet — and here, GP cuts zero corners: The two-tone design features the aforementioned brushed steel outer “H” links with polished, slightly domed gold inner links connecting one to the next. Half-link adjustment and a shortened length allows for better fit and customization to each wearer’s wrist, while a triple-folding clasp features octagonal push-pieces that echo the bezel’s shape. Finally, a fine-adjustment system allows the bracelet to be shortened or lengthened by 4mm, adding more comfort in hotter or colder weather, which causes the wrist to swell or shrink.
Tiny tweaks to proportions and aesthetics aren’t the only things that characterize this fresh new Laureato, however: Within the watch beats the brand-new Calibre GP4800, a thin automatic movement equipped with a silicon escapement and a variable-inertia balance. Boasting 10 different finishes, 163 components, 19 jewels and a minimum 55-hour power reserve, it’s the first time-and-date wristwatch movement whose architecture is based upon Girard-Perregaux’s signature Three Bridges design, a feature of 200 years of GP movements. Its unique bridge structure and 3N yellow gold oscillating mass can be seen via a sapphire crystal caseback.
Limited to 200 pieces at a price of $28,320, the new Laureato FIFTY is a fitting end to a celebratory year and an important milestone in the history of both the Laureato and Girard-Perregaux more broadly. While many collectors focus their attention and desire upon the Royal Oak and Nautilus, the Laureato hides in plain sight, offering classic luxury sports watch aesthetics, in-house construction and all manner of different configurations, colors and sizes for the watch lover. Handsome, well-sized and packing an impressive new movement, the FIFTY is merely the latest in an unbroken string of groundbreaking references from the past half-century of watchmaking.
Girard-Perregaux Laureato Fifty
Diameter: 39mm
Movement: Girard-Perregaux Calibre GP4800 automatic
Water Resistance: 150m
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