GIRARD-PERREGAUX BRINGS FIVE SIGNATURES TOGETHER IN THE LAUREATO FIFTY TOURBILLON MICRO-ROTOR

Girard-Perregaux marked the Laureato’s 50th anniversary in 2025 with the introduction of the Laureato Fifty, beginning with the Laureato Fifty Bicolour and Laureato Fifty Three Gold Bridges Tourbillon. For 2026, the collection becomes a permanent pillar of the Laureato family, expanding across new references while introducing another mechanically ambitious expression in the Laureato Fifty Tourbillon Micro-Rotor 39 mm.

The new watch brings together five signatures that Girard-Perregaux identifies as central to its watchmaking: its arrow-shaped Bridges, the lyre-shaped tourbillon cage, Grand Feu enamel, the Laureato’s architecture, and the Clous de Paris motif. Each comes from a different period in the Manufacture’s history, yet all are brought within the proportions of a steel Laureato measuring 39 mm in diameter. At its centre is the newly developed Manufacture calibre GP8410, combining an automatic tourbillon with a platinum and pink gold micro-rotor.

There are two interpretations of the watch. One uses translucent blue Grand Feu enamel over a white gold dial, while the other adopts an 18K solid gold dial with a rose-toned finish. Their colours and materials give each a distinct character, but the construction beneath them remains the same, with the tourbillon occupying the lower portion of the dial and the Clous de Paris motif continuing through to the movement visible from the back.

The Laureato first appeared in 1975 at an important point in Girard-Perregaux’s development. Four years earlier, the Manufacture had created the high-frequency quartz movement that established 32,768 Hz as the frequency standard, which remains widely used across the industry. That technology found its way into the first Laureato, housed within an entirely in-house design defined by an octagonal bezel set upon a circular plinth, a tonneau-shaped case, and an integrated bracelet.

That original architecture has provided a framework for subsequent generations rather than a design to be repeatedly replaced. Girard-Perregaux describes the collection as having evolved approximately once every decade, adding movements, materials, dimensions, and complications while preserving the underlying geometry of the original.

The third generation arrived in 1995 with the automatic Manufacture calibre GP3100, bringing a new mechanical foundation to the collection. A fourth generation followed in 2003 with more pronounced proportions and a stronger sporting character. In 2016, Girard-Perregaux introduced the fifth generation as a contemporary interpretation of the Laureato’s original geometry, returning the model to the centre of the manufacture’s collection.

The Laureato Fifty Tourbillon Micro-Rotor continues that process through a more concentrated mechanical proposition. The octagonal bezel, circular base, tonneau-shaped middle case, and integrated steel bracelet remain clearly identifiable, while the tourbillon, micro-rotor, and extensively decorated movement introduce another level of construction within those familiar proportions.

The dimensions are particularly notable within the context supplied by Girard-Perregaux. The steel case measures 39 mm across and 10 mm in height, despite containing an automatic tourbillon movement. An anti-reflective sapphire crystal is fitted to both the front and back, while the integrated steel bracelet terminates in a triple-folding clasp offering up to 4 mm of fine adjustment.

Reference 99116-11-3528-1CM places particular emphasis on one of Girard-Perregaux’s oldest decorative practices. Its dial is fashioned from white gold before receiving translucent blue Grand Feu enamel over the Clous de Paris surface. According to the Manufacture, its practice of enamelling reaches back to the period of Jean-François Bautte in the early 1790s and remains an in-house discipline today.

The combination of translucent enamel and Clous de Paris is important to the construction of this version. Rather than treating the geometric pattern as a separate decorative layer, the enamel allows the underlying relief to remain visible, preserving the repeating texture across the dial while introducing colour above it.

White gold indexes sit around the dial, accompanied by baton-shaped 18K solid gold hour and minute hands. Both the indexes and hands contain luminescent material with blue emission. The tourbillon opens the lower section of the dial at 6 o’clock, its bridge and lyre-shaped cage interrupting the regularity of the Clous de Paris pattern and exposing the regulating mechanism beneath.

That lyre-shaped cage is itself one of the five signatures highlighted by Girard-Perregaux. First introduced during the nineteenth century, it became a recurring visual feature of the Manufacture’s tourbillons. In the Laureato Fifty Tourbillon Micro-Rotor, its function remains mechanical, but its shape makes the tourbillon immediately identifiable within the dial architecture.

The second execution, reference 99116-11-3615-1CM, exchanges translucent enamel for an 18K solid gold dial with a rose-toned finish. It uses the same Clous de Paris pattern, but the absence of enamel changes the way the motif is presented, allowing the material and surface geometry of the dial itself to take greater visual prominence.

The rose-toned dial is paired with the same 18K solid gold indexes and baton-shaped hands, again carrying blue-emission luminescent material. The steel case and bracelet remain unchanged, creating a contrast between the warmer colour of the dial and the surrounding steel construction.

Both versions therefore approach the same architecture through different decorative techniques. The blue model draws upon Girard-Perregaux’s history of Grand Feu enamelling, while the rose-toned version places the emphasis directly on solid gold and the Clous de Paris surface. The tourbillon, case proportions, bracelet, movement, and broader arrangement remain consistent between them.

Importantly, the Clous de Paris pattern does not end at the dial. Girard-Perregaux carries the motif through to the movement, where two large white gold decorative bridges are covered with the same pattern. The visual connection between front and back gives the watch a single decorative vocabulary rather than treating the movement as an unrelated composition.

The Bridges have occupied a central place in Girard-Perregaux’s watchmaking since 1867, when Constant Girard introduced three arrow-shaped Bridges and turned structural movement components into part of the visual identity of the watch. Nearly 160 years later, that principle remains visible in the Laureato Fifty Tourbillon Micro-Rotor. A white gold Girard-Perregaux Bridge spans the tourbillon, recalling an architectural element that originated as a functional component of the movement rather than applied decoration.

The same arrow form appears elsewhere within calibre GP8410. Its micro-rotor is made from platinum and pink gold and shaped according to the Girard-Perregaux arrow, extending one of the manufacture’s oldest motifs into the automatic winding system. Seen through the sapphire caseback, the movement presents the micro-rotor alongside the two Clous de Paris-decorated white gold bridges. The arrangement gives the rear of the watch its own architectural composition while continuing details already established on the dial.

The Laureato Fifty Tourbillon Micro-Rotor also introduces an entirely new movement. Manufacture calibre GP8410 is a self-winding mechanical calibre measuring 30.40 mm in diameter and 6.10 mm thick. It contains 207 components and 31 jewels, operates at a frequency of 21,600 vibrations per hour, or 3 Hz, and delivers a power reserve of 72 hours. The calibre combines two principal elements: a tourbillon and a micro-rotor. The latter is fashioned from platinum and pink gold and incorporated directly into the movement architecture. From the front, the tourbillon becomes the dominant mechanical element; from the back, the micro-rotor and decorated bridges define the view through the sapphire crystal.

GP8410 also arrives during a concentrated period of movement development at Girard-Perregaux. Beginning with the GP4800 in September 2025, the Manufacture has introduced four entirely new calibres within 12 months. Girard-Perregaux describes the development of a new calibre as a process involving years of conception, engineering, prototyping, testing, and refinement. In that context, GP8410 sits within a broader programme of movement development rather than existing solely for the Laureato Fifty Tourbillon Micro-Rotor.

The significance of the Laureato Fifty Tourbillon Micro-Rotor lies in the concentration of ideas Girard-Perregaux has accumulated over different periods of its history. The Bridges date to Constant Girard’s work in 1867, when the lyre-shaped tourbillon cage emerged during the 19th century. The Manufacture traces its Grand Feu enamel practice to Jean-François Bautte in the early 1790s, while the Laureato architecture arrived in 1975. Clous de Paris now provides a visual thread connecting the dial and movement.

The two dial versions make that idea visible in different ways. The translucent blue Grand Feu enamel execution concentrates on a decorative craft maintained within the Manufacture, while the rose-toned 18K solid gold dial allows the material and Clous de Paris geometry to stand on their own. Beneath either is the same GP8410 calibre, with its tourbillon, arrow-shaped platinum and pink gold micro-rotor, 72-hour power reserve, and movement architecture visible through the sapphire caseback.

50 years after the Laureato first appeared, Girard-Perregaux has therefore chosen to develop the collection by working further into its existing vocabulary. The Laureato Fifty Tourbillon Micro-Rotor gathers those elements into one 39 mm construction, while its two dial executions show how markedly the same architecture can change through material and technique alone.