SPORTS FAN

After the brilliant return of the Girard-Perregaux Laureato in 2016, chronographs have been added to this line. The latest addition is the Absolute Rock chronograph with a carbon glass case, which is manufactured using a patented injection molding process. We test a classic version with a 42-mm stainless-steel case and a high-contrast dial.

- Martina Richter

— The Girard-Perregaux Laureato Chronograph in stainless steel comes in three dial variations: very sporty in black with blue counters; quite elegant in all blue; or, like our test watch, rather classically silver-colored with black counters. On the one hand, this third variation follows the current trend toward luxury steel sports watches that are appropriate for everyday office life as well as for the theater in the evening. On the other hand, this version is not at all boring thanks to plenty of surface finishing and diverse details.

The dial’s silvery background immediately catches the eye with its waffle-like clous de Paris pattern. This pyramid-shaped relief creates special lighting effects. Three subdials stand out in black: the small seconds at 3; the chronograph’s counter for 30 elapsed minutes at 9; and the counter for 12 elapsed hours at the 6 o’clock position. Arranged in the V-shaped tricompax formation, the subdials have a striking grooved look and are equipped with slim, easy-to-read scales. The dial’s contrasting black periphery is marked with the minutes scale, along which the tip of the long baton hand sweeps from the center. This scale can also be used to read the elapsed seconds: simply focus on the blued elapsed-seconds hand, which sweeps along this scale and is slightly longer than the minutes hand.

Like the applied hour indexes, the blued baton-shaped hands for the main time are coated with luminous paint to show the time in the dark. In daylight, however, the numerous refined details and the strong black-and-white contrasts occasionally compete with each other. For example, the elapsed-seconds hand is sometimes hard to distinguish above the subdials, but the continually running seconds at the 3 are always clearly visible.