The Laureato turned fifty last year, and Girard-Perregaux marked it the way brands usually do, with a limited edition. The more consequential move came on June 4 this year, when the brand added the Laureato Fifty to the permanent collection: four steel references, two sizes, and the in-house calibre GP4800 that debuted in the anniversary piece. For a model introduced in 1975, at the bottom of the quartz crisis, surviving to a fifth decade as a current-production line is the less glamorous but more meaningful milestone.
Two sizes, one set of proportions
All four watches share the same architecture: octagonal bezel on a circular plinth, tonneau-shaped middle case, integrated bracelet, the geometry the Laureato has carried through five generations. The cases come in 39mm and, for the first time in this sub-collection, 36mm. Both sizes measure 9.8mm thick and carry 150 metres of water resistance, which puts them at the practical end of the integrated-bracelet category.
The bracelet gets the one functional upgrade: a micro-adjustment system built into the triple-folding clasp, good for 4mm of on-the-fly extension. Girard-Perregaux lists the 36mm references as 81006-11-3626-1CM with the rose-gold-toned dial and 81006-11S3597-1CM with the diamond-set bezel, whose 64 brilliant-cut stones total approximately 0.55 carats.
The enamel dial is the reason to look twice
The headline reference is the 39mm with a blue enamel dial. Enamel work usually lives on dress watches; here the translucent layer is fired over the Laureato's hobnail Clous de Paris guilloché, so the texture reads through the glaze and the blue shifts with the light. Monochrome Watches calls it one of the most artisanal dial executions the collection has seen, and it is also the only model of the four without a date window, which will not hurt its case with purists.
The other dials take the same Clous de Paris base in different finishes: a warm rose-gold-toned execution in both 39mm and 36mm, and a silver-toned version under the diamond bezel in 36mm. All carry applied luminous indices and baton hands, with a double index at 12 o'clock in place of the usual applied logo, a detail carried over from last year's limited edition.
The GP4800, now doing volume work
Every reference runs the calibre GP4800, the manufacture's latest-generation automatic. The specification is current-decade: silicon escapement, variable-inertia balance, ceramic ball bearings in the winding system, 28,800 vibrations per hour and roughly 60 hours of reserve. Through the sapphire caseback the finishing is dense for this price bracket, Geneva stripes, anglage and circular graining, and the Laureato Fifty models carry a rose gold balance bridge as their visual signature.
A year ago the GP4800 existed in a 200-piece anniversary edition. Putting it in four permanent steel references is the statement that matters: the movement is now the working engine of the brand's core sports line, not a celebration piece.
Prices, and where this lands
The 39mm rose-gold-toned dial and the 36mm models are CHF 20,500, the 36mm with diamonds is CHF 21,500, and the blue enamel 39mm tops the range at CHF 21,800. That positions the Laureato Fifty directly against the steel Royal Oak 'Jumbo' and the Patek Philippe Cubitus on price, with availability those two cannot offer. The Laureato has spent fifty years being the integrated-bracelet watch you could actually buy. On the evidence of these four, Girard-Perregaux has decided to stop treating that as a weakness.
