Introduced only a few years ago, Girard Perregaux’s Laureato watch has come a long way since its launch and has reignited the interest in the brand. The Laureato looks excellent, combining some significant details we have seen on similar watches with its own charm and a cracking movement inside, and then sold for a great price. Of course, this success relies on continuing work, you can’t merely make a favourite line of products and then forget about it. This year, Girard Perregaux ups the ante with their new Laureato Perpetual Calendar watch which aims straight at the Holy Trinity.
The ornate Clous-de-Paris dial is smart and restrained at the same time, and the layout of the indications makes it look like a (slightly wonky) smiley face, which is nice. The largest subdial is the rotary date indicator at half past one, it instantly jumps to the correct date thanks to that perpetual calendar complication inside. At nine O’clock there’s a day of the week indicator, and at six O’clock there’s both a leap years indicator and a month display, which has been cut out to show three months at a time with a red arrow replacing five O’clock, so you know where to look. All of this is adjusted by the crown, except for the day display which is advanced by a single pusher on the case. Although the watch is 42mm in diameter, I expect it will wear that size well and perhaps look even larger on the wrist thanks to the gap between the edge of the Clous-de-Paris part of the dial and the actual side, this trick is used on other watches such as Omega’s Seamaster Aqua Terra to significant effect.
The dial is surrounded by a stainless steel case which is both round and octagonal, making it look both functional and dressy. Around the back of that case is a sapphire display showing the GP01800-0033 movement, an in-house made number that runs at 4Hz for 54 hours, it also has 46 jewels. Don’t let the simple appearance with attractive polishing fool you, though, this is one seriously smart movement that gets extra credit for doing away with the silly little pushers you need a cocktail stick for, like traditional calendars.
The price of this steel sporty perpetual calendar with an integrated bracelet and dashing good looks? 34,500 Swiss Francs, undercutting the Holy Trinity by a long way, you want a Patek perpetual calendar with its 18K white gold case? That’ll set you back 105,000 CHF. Visit Girard-Perregaux here.
