Switzerland’s venerable Girard-Perregaux – arguably the coolest of its ‘big five’ manufactures – has added another iteration to its rakish Seventies-redux Laureato line, the ‘Infinite Grey’. This time, however, it has given its angular silhouette an artisanal switch up courtesy of a beautiful sunray (in spite of the watch’s name) dial in ‘flinqué’ enamel, painstakingly crafted at Girard-Perregaux and Ulysse Nardin’s shared Donzé Cadrans SA facility in Le Locle, down the valley from the two brands’ combined Sowind HQ in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
This particular type of dial features a combination of enamel and engraving and an extra level of skill is required to ensure that those five to ten layers of lacquer don’t obscure the pattern. For its enamel, Girard-Perregaux uses a proprietary blend of silica, potash, soda and minium, which is also known as red lead or red oxide and is a bright orange-red pigment that was popular in the Middle Ages for manuscript illumination. A selection of other metal oxides combine to give this dial its nuanced hue.
This is then layered, fired at around 800º and the process repeated. Any imperfections and the dial is rejected, making this a high-stakes process. Elsewhere it is business as usual. The slim 42mm case, integrated bracelet and octagonal bezel remain and it is powered by Girard-Perregaux’s in-house GP01800 in-house calibre, which is just 3.97mm thick and delivers 54 hours of power.
The contrast between the almost Brutalist design of the watch and the delicate beauty of the dial brings out a different personality in the Laureato. One that still has that pared-back reserve but now with a little additional sprezzatura on the side as well.
£15,200, girard-perregaux.com