ACCORDING TO LEGEND, the Girard-Perregaux Laureato is the only watch named after a movie. The story went that its creators were so influenced by 1967’s The Graduate, starring a 29-year-old Dustin Hoffman in his first major role, that when the time came – a full eight years later – for the brand to introduce a new model, it was the obvious reference point.  

Supposedly, the suggestion for the name came from Girard-Perregaux’s Italian distributor – laureato being Italian for ‘graduate’ – and the watch had been designed by Milanese architect Adolfo Natalini. Alas, Girard-Perregaux now brushes aside these romantic theories.  

The name, it says, is more likely to have emanated from connotations of success and achievement evoked by the notion of completing a degree – laureato shares an etymology with ‘laurel’, thanks to the ancient tradition of crowning rulers, winners and, later, graduates, with a laurel wreath. The watchmaker also now rejects the claim that Natalini designed the watch, while not disputing the importance of Italian style and taste in guiding its fortunes in the turbulent mid-’70s. 

On its release in 1972, Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak had taken the watch world by storm, its radical angular shape and transgressive (for a top-tier luxury brand) use of stainless steel changing the horological landscape forever. It, too, had been heavily influenced by Italian tastes – indeed, rumour has it that Audemars Piguet’s Italian contacts were the ones demanding something different, and when the Royal Oak appeared on the wrist of Gianni Agnelli in 1974, its success was assured. 

Designed by the prolific Gérald Genta, the Royal Oak gave rise to a new genre of watch design, something retrospectively referred to as the paradoxical ‘luxury sports watch’ – or ‘sports-luxe’ for short. Emerging three short years later, from a similarly prestigious watchmaker, it would be easy to view the Laureato as having followed in Genta’s footsteps. But while it might be fair to assume that had the Royal Oak never appeared, neither would anything else that shared its basic characteristics (a vaguely barrel-shaped case that flowed, without lugs, into a faceted bracelet, with a round, textured dial and polygonal bezel), to call it a copycat would be an oversimplification. The modern-day Laureato is closer to the norm than its predecessor was, but in each case, there remains some key differences. 

As Girard-Perregaux celebrates the Laureato’s 50th anniversary with a 200-piece limited edition that outwardly resembles the very first of its kind, it is worth reflecting on the details that give the model its own personality. I say ‘outwardly’ because the most fundamental distinction is technological: the original Laureato was a quartz watch, and would remain so for 20 years. The ’70s were a period of reckoning for mechanical watchmakers, and while the contest between old and new is not the only reason the Swiss watch industry ended up in crisis, the era will be permanently associated with the emergence of quartz watches. The assumption, therefore, is that cheap, quartz-powered rivals undercut traditional watchmakers, but Swiss brands had been developing their own quartz movements for years, and few were as committed to the technology as Girard-Perregaux, whose high-frequency quartz was eventually adopted as the industry standard. The Laureato was a pedigree quartz watch, as evidenced by its chronometer certificate for accuracy. 

The original Laureato was, counterintuitively, a more traditionally luxurious design than the Royal Oak or another Genta creation of the mid-’70s, the Patek Philippe Nautilus. It debuted with a polished gold bezel and a sort of ‘racing stripe’ of yellow gold down the centre of its monobloc links. The latter is echoed on the anniversary limited edition, which – rather than being a facsimile reissue like Vacheron Constantin’s recent 222 releases – exists in the same mould as the modern-day Laureatos, importing the two-tone colour scheme while retaining contemporary touches like thicker luminous markers and a more overtly contrasted finish to the case and bezel. 

In 1995, Girard-Perregaux rebooted the Laureato and equipped it with a mechanical movement for the first time. For the next decade and a half, the Laureato would embark on a journey that mirrored the tastes of the time, becoming larger and more mechanically ambitious. The 44mm Evo3 chronograph, launched in 2003, was the Laureato at its most substantial, a watch to match the oversized offerings from Breitling, Panerai and Audemars Piguet; in the 2010s, Girard-Perregaux released several tourbillon versions with solid sapphire bridges across the dial, exposing the movement beneath. 

To modern eyes, the idea of merging the Laureato with haute horlogerie concepts like the three bridges layout is starting to look appealing once more, but at the time the design was by no means central to the brand’s health. In an interview from 2010, Stefano Macaluso, whose father Luigi ‘Gino’ Macaluso ran the brand from 1992 until his death in 2010, said that the Laureato was likely to see only one new design a year. 

It wasn’t until 2016 – when, coincidentally, Patek Philippe marked 40 years of the Nautilus and the whole watch world went crazy for ‘sports-luxe’ designs once more – that the Laureato made a proper return to the front line, and it has accounted for most releases in the last decade. We have seen skeletonised versions, carbon-fibre versions, full ceramic versions – including one in the racing green of Aston Martin – and the Laureato Absolute, a sportier sub-range that even includes a translucent sapphire case. With sizes ranging from 34mm to 43mm, there is a Laureato for everyone; in fact, the only thing that was missing was a direct link to its origins – a gap now filled with the 50th anniversary limited edition. 

In addition to marking the half-century, the new watch also ushers in a new in-house movement, replacing the respected Calibre 3300 (which, over the last 30 years, has been used by many rival brands, including Vacheron Constantin and MB&F). The new movement, Calibre 4800, has a silicon escapement – handy for preventing magnetic damage – and a 55-hour power reserve. Anyone hoping to see a return to high-end quartz watchmaking – which is not as unlikely as it sounds (in 2010, the brand did create a commemorative quartz Laureato for the 40th anniversary of its first-ever quartz movement) – will be waiting in vain. The Laureato may pay tribute to that era of change, but it has a new role to play: as a champion of traditional watchmaking. Maybe in another 50 years’ time.

Related:

Absolutely everything you need to know about Tudor watches

Does LeBron James or Michael Jordan have the better watch collection?