Roger Dubuis and Lamborghini, Hublot and Ferrari, Breitling and Bentley, IWC and AMG – something akin to alchemy seems to take place when the world’s top watch brands join creative forces with the world’s top car marques. This new collaboration between Girard-Perregaux and Aston Martin – the Laureato Chronograph Aston Martin Edition – is surely one of the most impressive horological-automotive dichotomies to date.
The first remark serious horolophiles may make, beholding the Laureato Chronograph Aston Martin Edition for the first time, concerns the mischievous interplay between octagonal and circular geometry, and how it smacks of the work of legendary watch designer Gerald Genta with the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and the Patek Philippe Nautilus sports watches back in the ‘70s; autophiles are more likely to take immediate note of the rich iridescent green of the dial, reminiscent of British racing heritage, along with sub-dials which remind the beholder of dashboard instruments.
Girard-Perregaux has reimagined an iridescent shade from Aston Martin’s palette. The dial is coloured during an intricate process that involves 14 stages.
The dial subtly changes to orange when held at a certain angle under light, an effect which required a process not unlike the painstaking effort the top car makers go into with their paintwork: “The eye-catching hue is achieved by applying 15 ultrathin layers of paint to the dial surface and subjecting it to two cooking cycles to achieve the desired look,” as one Girard-Perregaux insider puts it. “The tolerances involved in creating the paint for a watch are much smaller than those employed in the automotive sector and involve a protracted filtration method to eradicate any residual grains that could potentially mar the overall aesthetic.”
The resulting effect has prompted some observers of the Laureato Chronograph Aston Martin Edition to draw similarities with the effect of sunlight caressing the bodywork on an Aston’s seductively curvaceous bodywork.
Front and back new Girard-Perregaux Laureato Aston Martin Edition, showing the various references to the luxury marque, including its winged logo on the caseback.
The nods to Aston Martin’s game-changing aesthetics don’t end there: the various surfaces of the case and metal parts of the dial – made from Grade 5 titanium, ensuring strength, lightness and resistance to corrosion – are brushed in places but polished elsewhere, reflecting the detailing found in a modern Aston cockpit.
The piece’s beating heart is the GP03300-2451 automatic chronograph movement, which has a 46-hour power reserve. But it’s the incredible aesthetics, and how they mirror those of arguably the most iconic automotive brand in the world, that will have tongues wagging. “The new Laureato Chronograph Aston Martin Edition is optimally designed to thrill onlookers,” as an Aston Martin spokesperson puts it. “Each facet of the vibrantly hued dial and lightweight multifaceted titanium bodywork engages with light, evincing a variety of shades.”
The new Girard-Perregaux Laureato Aston Martin Edition retails at £19,300.
Author: Nick Scott
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