Girard-Perregaux Laureato Absolute 8Tech

Girard-Perregaux has always been one of those brands that I have loved for most of my twenty-five years of watch collecting. Models like the Sea Hawk and WW.TC were really the watches I spent the most time and were most familiar with, since they were the most popular watches when I started in the watch industry. Really unknown to me at the time was the Laureato, I guess during the early and mid 2000s Girard-Perregaux really didn't put much weight behind that collection.

Today it's really hard to think of Girard-Perregaux and not think about the Laureato first. Girard-Perregaux has put a lot of effort behind re-launching the series and during the integrated sports watch boom of Covid the Laureato really took off. We've had one modern Laureato in for review in the full ceramic skeleton piece, and were really blown away by the build quality and finishing of that watch. Today we're going to be looking at a piece from the Absolute collection of the Laureato series. The Absolute are the larger and more advanced watches inside of the Laureato series, similar to a Royal Oak Offshore to a more civilized Royal Oak.



Before we get into the Laureato Absolute that Girard-Perregaux sent us to review, first let's go over a brief history of the brand. We've gone over the history of Girard-Perregaux a few times before, but in case you missed those reviews, let's go over it again before talking about the watch in question today.

Girard-Perregaux is amongst the oldest and most respected of all the traditional names in Swiss watchmaking. The founding of Girard-Perregaux can be traced all the way back to 1791, when Jean-Francois Bautte established his watchmaking manufacture in Geneva. This will come back into play decades later.

In 1852, watchmaker Constant Girard founded his watchmaking company Girard & Cie in the center of the Swiss watchmaking world in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Four years later he married the daughter of a well known watch merchant, Marie Perregaux. The new couple went on to merge their last names into what we know today as Girard-Perregaux. In 1906, Girard-Perregaux acquired the Buatte manufacture and combined the legacies of both companies, officially now setting its founding year as 1791.



Constant Girard was not just a watchmaker, he also was an artist and engineer. Constant was obsessed with improving chronometric precision and focused his time on perfecting the tourbillon. Most tourbillons at the time were hidden in the movement, Constant made the revolutionary step to bring the tourbillon to the forefront. The tourbillon was showcased on three gold arrow-shaped bridges that weren't just there for aesthetics, but were actually part of the movement. In 1889, Girard-Perregaux's Tourbillon with Three Gold Bridges won gold at the Paris Universal Exposition. The design was so iconic that it would serve as a calling card for the brand up until today.

Girard-Perregaux would go on to be one of the earliest pioneers of wristwatches as well. The manufacture fulfilled an order for 2,000 "wristlet" watches for the German Imperial Navy in the 1880s. This was one of the first large scale productions of wristwatches ever recorded. Prior to this, wristwatches were incredibly uncommon for men as pocket watches were dominant. Military applications pushed forward the development of wristwatches since soldiers needed to be able to tell the time hands free.



Girard-Perregaux was also at the forefront of perfecting automatic movements. In 1966, the brand launched the Gyromatic which featured a high-frequency, 36,000 vph, automatic movement that was much more accurate than its peers. In 1967, 70% of all chronometer certificates issued by the Neuchatel Observatory were for Girard-Perregaux high-frequency movements.

For the bulk of the Swiss watchmaking industry, the 1970s was extremely tough when cheap and superior quartz movements took over the world. Instead of fighting the quartz invasion, Girard-Perregaux embraced it. In 1971, Girard-Perregaux introduced the first production ready Swiss made quartz movement which had a frequency of 32,768 Hz. This frequency ended up being the standard for the industry and remains so today.



The 1970s also saw the introduction of the integrated stainless steel sports watch to the market. Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe released the Royal Oak and Nautilus respectively. Those two watches were designed by Gerald Genta and used automatic movements inside of in-expensive stainless steel cases, which was a new way of thinking for the time. Girard-Perregaux released their integrated stainless steel watch named after the film the Graduate's Italian title, "Il Laureato". Unlike the Royal Oak and the Nautilus, the Laureato used a quartz movement.

When the industry started to shift back to producing mechanical watches again, Girard-Perregaux found itself perfectly positioned. Under the leadership of Luigi "Gino" Macaluso, the brand refocused on its haute horology roots. In 1991, for the brand's 200th year anniversary, Girard-Perregaux finally adapted the tourbillon with three gold bridges to fit inside of a wristwatch for the first time.

Today Girard-Perregaux focuses equally on high horology pieces as well as sports models. The brand has released just insanely complex pieces and also heritage inspired models. The Laureato collection has evolved nicely and contains simple three hand steel models to those using cutting edge materials, like the Laureato Absolute we'll be looking at today.



Initial Thoughts

It had been a while since the last Girard-Perregaux we had in for review, so I took a good amount of time looking through the brand's catalog to find a watch that really excited me to review. I've always been a sucker for advanced materials and larger size watches. I also still love the time period when the Hublot Big Bang launched and the limited edition Royal Oak Offshores were pushing the boundaries of case materials. As soon as I saw the Laureato Absolute 8Tech on Girard-Perregaux's site, I knew that was the watch we needed to review next from the brand.

When the Absolute 8Tech arrived, the first thing I noticed about the watch was naturally its purely insane case. Being a fan of both carbon and titanium cased watches, the 8Tech is just my dream case material. Girard-Perregaux creates the case of the 8Tech by using unidirectional carbon fibers that are combined with titanium powder to from very thin layers. These layers are stacked on top of each other in different orientations. This process creates a very unique forged carbon look, looking most closely to Damascus steel. One big difference between forged carbon and the carbon found in the 8Tech, is that the 8Tech's carbon has a somewhat metallic sheen to it. Like carbon, the case of the 8Tech is also extremely lightweight.



Then next thing I noticed about the Absolute 8Tech during my initial time with the watch was the caseback. Girard-Perregaux uses a smoked sapphire crystal on the display back of the 8Tech. This choice keeps the blacked out look of the watch in check, but still lets you admire the stunning in-house movement underneath. Through the smoked sapphire you can see the Girard-Perregaux branded winding rotor finished with Cotes de Geneve. The bridges are finished similarly and there is liberal usage of perlage on the mainplate. You can still tell this movement is a serious piece of high watchmaking, but the smoked sapphire makes it a bit more subtle.

The final thing I took note of during my first time with the Laureato Absolute 8Tech was the excellent strap and deployant clasp. The black rubber strap integrates perfectly into the 8Tech case and has a fabric pattern on the top side. Girard-Perregaux also added silver stitching into the strap to mimic the look of the metallic sheen of the 8Tech material. Finally the black PVD treated titanium deployant clasp closes with a secure click and is very comfortable. The rubber strap as well required no break in period to be a pleasure on wrist.



Technical Specifications

As mentioned previously, the Laureato Absolute 8Tech has a case crafted out of the 8Tech process using carbon fiber and titanium powder, giving it a truly unique look. It has a case diameter of 44 mm and a lug to lug length of 55.4 mm. The watch weighs in at 106 grams on the rubber strap and titanium deployant clasp. At its thickest point, the Absolute 8Tech is 15.4 mm tall.

The Absolute 8Tech has a flush slightly domed sapphire crystal with an anti-reflective coating. Underneath the super clear sapphire is the grey to black gradient dial. The dial starts out as a dark grey at its center and gets darker as it approaches the edge of the dial. Girard-Perregaux uses a sandwich style construction on the dial of the 8Tech. The bottom part of the dial is made out of titanium which can be seen through bullet shaped cut-outs for the hour markers. Above each hour marker is also a small bar of Super-Luminova which looks white in normal lighting and glows blue in low light.



Around the outside of the dial is a white printed minute track with each ten minute interval represented by a larger hash mark. At 12 o'clock there is an applied Girard-Perregaux logo and underneath is white printed branding complete with a white bridge. At 6 o'clock you can find the "Swiss Made" text just above the minute track.

There are three centrally mounted hands on the Absolute 8Tech being the hour, minute and chronograph seconds hands. The polished baton hour and minute hands are coated with Super-LumiNova which glows blue in low light. The chronograph seconds hand is done completely in white. At 4:30 there is a black backed date window as well.

There are three sub-dials on the Laureato Absolute 8Tech. At 3 o'clock is the running seconds sub-dial with white printed hash marks, with each second between 0 and 10 has their own hash marks. The Arabic numerals for 20, 40 and 60 are done in black. At 6 o'clock there is the chronograph 12 hour totalizer. Each hour has a white printed hash mark and 12 and 6 are printed black Arabic numerals with 3 and 9 done in hash marks. Finally at 9 o'clock is the chronograph minute totalizer with minutes printed in white hash marks. 10, 20 and 30 are printed black Arabic numerals. All three sub-dials have white hands with no lume.



The case of the 8Tech is completely matte in finish, with the only polished areas being on the crown, pushers and clasp. The upper part of the bezel is octagonal in shape that sits atop a round lower bezel. This bezel design is very original and really sets the Laureato apart from other integrated sports models like the Royal Oak and Nautilus. The case and bezel also have facets that add a bit of visual interest to some of the flatter areas of the watch.

Looking at the profile of the case, you can see the watch is pretty much flat and the short lugs point sharply down to follow the curve of your wrist. The right hand side of the case features the two chronograph pushers as well as the screw down crown. On each side of the crown are crown protectors that go up about half of the crown. With the screw down crown you get 100 meters of water resistance. The black crown is polished and topped with a GP logo. Un-screwing the crown allows to you wind the movement in the resting position. Pulling the crown out to position one allows you to change the date. The final crown position stops the seconds hand and lets you set the time. Pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the seconds hand either. The crown has a decent amount of grip and is also easy to get to catch to screw the crown back in.

The 8Tech uses flat polished bar chronograph pushers. The pusher at 1:30 starts and stops the chronograph, while the pusher at 4:30 resets the chronograph. The pushers operate with a nice firm click and there is no play detected in the pushers. The 8Tech is not a flyback chronograph, so the chronograph needs to be stopped to be reset.

Flipping the watch over shows off the case back that is set in place with 6 screws. Important information about the watch, including the limited number out of 75 is engraved around the bezel of the case back. Girard-Perregaux uses a smoked sapphire crystal on the case back to give you a look at the in-house Calibre GP03300 automatic movement. The GP03300 is a good looking movement that is topped with a Girard-Perregaux branded winding rotor. The rotor and bridges are finished with Cotes de Geneve, while the mainplate has nice usage of perlage. The decision to put the movement behind a smoked sapphire display back keeps the black design aesthetic of the watch intact.



The GP03300 beats away at 28,800 vph (4Hz) and has a power reserve of 46 hours. On our timegrapher the watch showed an accuracy of +1 second per day when averaged out over several positions. That is extremely accurate and well within chronometer standards. The 8Tech is definitely amongst the most accurate watches we have ever tested.

The Absolute 8Tech has an integrated design, meaning the case flows seamlessly into the strap. That also means that only straps made for the watch will work with it. The lug width of the 8Tech is 27.5 mm and the watch comes with a black rubber strap that has a fabric texture on its top side. There is also grayish-silver stitching that matches the metallic sheen of the case. The underside of the strap is ribbed to help keep the strap in place on your wrist. The strap is very supple and wore comfortably with no break in needed. There is a decent taper to the strap starting at 27.5 mm at the lugs and ending up at 19 mm at the DLC treated titanium deployant clasp. The clasp is brushed and polished and features the GP logo. Two pushers are required to be pushed to release the strap and the clasp closes with a re-assuring click. Two pins are used to hold the strap to the clasp when sizing for your wrist size as well.

On The Wrist

The Girard-Perregaux Laureato Absolute 8Tech wears very similar to a modern Hublot Big Bang UNICO 44 or an older Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore, both watches that I'm very used to. This meant that right off the bat the 8Tech felt right at home on my wrist. Similar to those watches, the integrated strap design does cause the strap to flare out a bit. This means that the strap really can't be pulled down to fit smaller wrists. On my 7.25 inch wrist with a 55 mm flat area, the 8Tech wore very well. There was no overhang to the case, but there was a bit of a gap on the strap, which I'm used to and don't mind at all.

For its size, the 8Tech weighs just over 100 grams on the rubber strap and deployant clasp. The watch feels very balanced on the wrist and never favored one side of my wrist over the other. The 8Tech for the most part disappeared on the wrist as well. This meant the watch was a perfect companion for boring everyday errands and was only there when it needed to be. The mostly black aesthetic of the 8Tech also went perfectly with my dress of a black t-shirt, shorts and sneakers. The look of the watch is rather casual and might not lend itself to formal occasions, but honestly it is very unlikely the 8Tech would be somebody's only watch.



To test the legibility of a watch, I use a simple test where I try to see how easy it is to tell the time at just a glance. In this test, dive watches with their high contrast dials and large markers do the best. On the other hand, complicated watches and skeletons do the worst since they focus more on design than legibility. Then 8Tech did OK in this test, but I wouldn't say it aced it or failed either. The white hands do contrast nicely with the dark grey to black dial, but the dial markers are rather small, so it does take a moment to catch your bearings while glancing at the watch. There is decent usage of lume on the dial, so low light time telling is rather easy.

Wearing the Absolute 8Tech out and about does attract a decent amount of looks. Even though the watch is mostly black, the 8Tech is not subtle. The general population has now been educated about watches like the Royal Oak and Nautilus, so the look of the Laureato will instantly catch peoples' attention. Also Richard Mille and their use of alternative case materials means a lot of people are aware that a watch doesn't have to be steel or gold to be something special. When you combine the familiar case shape of an integrated sports watch with a high tech material, the watch will naturally get noticed. Also the added patterns created by the 8Tech construction really makes it stand out.



While wearing the 8Tech out to dinner and drinks I actually had a few people ask me about the watch. I'd say half of the people who commented on the watch were aware of Girard-Perregaux as well. Everyone was just amazed by the carbon and titanium 8Tech case like I was when the watch first arrived. The Absolute 8Tech is not a cheap watch, so people were rather divided on the price of the watch.

Value and Position in the Market

Speaking of price, the Girard-Perregaux Laureato Absolute 8Tech retails for $28,000. For that price you're getting a watch from one of the most respected and oldest names in watchmaking. The watch also comes with a groundbreaking 8Tech case comprised of carbon and titanium. Finally there is the deadly accurate in-house automatic chronograph movement. Now is the time in the review were we look at other watches with similar features and specs to see how good of a value the 8Tech is.

Up first we have the Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph from Audemars Piguet which has a 43 mm case crafted out of ceramic. The watch is powered by an in-house flyback chronograph movement with 70 hours of power reserve and it has 100 meters of water resistance. The Royal Oak Offshore is much more expensive than the Laureato at $61,300.

Next up is the Big Bang UNICO Black Magic from Hublot which has a 44 mm case made out of black ceramic. The Big Bang runs on an in-house flyback chronograph movement with 72 hours of power reserve. The Big Bang like the Offshore and Laureato also has 100 meters of water resistance. The Hublot is a bit less expensive than the Girard-Perregaux at $24,000.



Moving on is the Nautilus 5990/1A-011 from Patek Philippe which has a 40.5 mm case made out of stainless steel. The Nautilus has an in-house movement with around 50 hours of power reserve featuring flyback chronograph and dual time complications. The Nautilus has much less water resistance than the Laureato at 30 meters. The Nautilus is much more expensive than the Laureato at $84,076.

Finally we have the Alpine Eagle XL Chrono from Chopard which has a 44 mm case crafted out of titanium. The watch is powered by an in-house chronograph movement with 60 hours of power reserve. Like all the other watches besides the Nautilus, the Alpine Eagle has 100 meters of water resistance. The Chopard is a tiny bit more expensive than the Girard-Perregaux at $28,700.

Looking at the above four watches, you can see that the Laureato is priced excellently for what you're getting. For the most part the 8Tech has similar if not better specifications than the other four compared watches and offers by far the most interesting case material. A few of the other watches did have longer power reserves and some were also flyback chronographs. For the most part though, the 8Tech feels like a good value when compared to its peers.



Closing Thoughts

So in the end, is the Girard-Perregaux Laureato Absolute 8Tech for me? After having the watch for a few weeks, I can honestly say that the watch is definitely for me. The combination of the exotic case material, size and heritage of the brand really appeal to me. My personal collection is predominantly made up of watches crafted out of titanium, ceramic and carbon, so the 8Tech and its carbon and titanium dust case fits in perfectly. The most telling aspect of if a watch is for me, is if while wearing it I forget that it is a press sample on loan and feel that the watch is one of my personal pieces. This tended to happen often while wearing the 8Tech.

Going into this review, I had a really strong feeling that the Absolute 8Tech would end up being a watch I really liked. Over the past 25 years of being a watch collector, the limited edition Royal Oak Offshores from the mid 2000s are still my favorite watches. Those watches pushed the envelope in terms of design and case materials. In the decades since, Audemars Piguet has moved away from producing Offshores like that and now focuses more on refining their designs. It's very refreshing to see that Girard-Perregaux is making watches like those old Offshores from years ago with the 8Tech. The case of the 8Tech is just so unique and I have never seen anything like it before. The fact that it combines two of my favorite watch case materials, in carbon and titanium, in one stunning material really seals the deal for me.



So would I then recommend the Laureato Absolute 8Tech to somebody looking for a high tech integrated sports watch? I really would without hesitation. As stated earlier, my one real reservation would be that person would need to realize the 8Tech wouldn't make a great one watch collection and they would need other watches for more formal situations. Also, to someone not having a flyback chronograph might be looked at as a negative. While I do like flyback chronographs, for the most part I never use the chronograph complication, so it's a non-issue for me.

Otherwise the 8Tech offers a ton for its asking price. Not only is the case something out of this world, but the watch also comes from one of the oldest and most respected watch manufactures and contains a very accurate in-house movement. There also aren't too many chronographs from top manufactures housed in carbon cases. For the most part the higher end chronographs all tend to be in either ceramic or titanium cases, when looking for something not in the traditional gold or steel. Carbon offers an extremely strong case that has a very unique look and weighs virtually nothing. With the Absolute 8Tech being limited to just 75 pieces, if the watch interests you, I'd really recommend checking one out in person sooner than later and experience the watch in hand before they're all gone.



I'd really like to thank Girard-Perregaux for sending us the Laureato Absolute 8Tech to review. The 8Tech is yet again another watch from the brand that re-enforces while they are such a respected name in horology. I'd also wager that the 8Tech is probably the closest watch in Girard-Perregaux's catalog that most aligns with my personal collecting preferences. I'm also excited to see where the brand takes the Absolute collection in the near future. Hopefully in the next few months we can get other pieces in from Girard-Perregaux to review.

For more information about the Laureato Absolute 8Tech please visit : Girard-Perregaux

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: 81060-41-3222-1CX

Retail Price: $28,000

Case Size: 44 mm

Lug to Lug: 55.4 mm

Thickness: 15.4 mm

Weight: 106 grams

Case Material: 8Tech Carbon and Titanium Dust

Bezel: 8Tech Carbon and Titanium Dust

Strap: Black Rubber Strap with PVD Titanium Deployant Clasp

Movement: Swiss Made In-House GP03300 Automatic Movement

Functions: Chronograph, Hours, Minutes, Seconds and Date

Power Reserve: 46 Hours

Water Resistance: 100 Meters