Introducing The Girard Perregaux Laureato 38mm Copper

Girard Perregaux has been making luxury timepieces since 1791. In 1975, they launched their Laureato line of watches. Since then, the line has become one of their most popular, with its octagonal bezel and chunky-looking design. This December, they’ll be debuting another Laureato watch: the 38mm Copper. The 38mm Copper will use the same in-house GP03300 movement as the original. But it will be the only 38mm watch in the current Laureato collection – most have a diameter of 42mm.

The 38mm Copper’s case is surprisingly slim, at only 10mm thick. It’s crafted from stainless steel, with a lightly-brushed finish that creates a soft appearance under light. The watch ships with a matching steel tri-link bracelet, which secures easily and does not easily pop open by mistake. It’s also water-resistant to 100 meters, so you can take it swimming without running into any issues.

The sapphire crystal is round, and sits neatly inside the fat octagonal bezel. It’s ever so slightly curved at the edges, which only distorts the dial on the far edge from the viewer. You can still read the time just fine, but you’ll see a reflection of the outer index in the glass. On the back, you can see the GP03300 movement through the display glass. It has a beautiful pink gold oscillating weight and beats 28,800 times per hour. It also boasts a 46-hour power reserve – slightly better than the current average.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But in this case, a picture doesn’t do the 38mm Copper much justice. The copper dial is textured in a series of tiny square pyramids – that much you can see for yourself. But what you can’t see is the effect this has on the light. Because of all the tiny angled surfaces, the dial will catch the light when viewed from any direction. However, it will have a shimmering effect when you move it around. The pattern never looks exactly the same, because the light is catching it in different ways. This creates a brilliant, lively appearance that you can’t get from a flat dial.

Silver applied indices have lume striping for easy visibility. The matching hour and minute hands have similar stripes, while the slender second hand is a burnished copper to match the dial. The only real complication is a small date window, which is located at the 3 o’clock position.