Girard-Perregaux Laureato Chronograph 42 mm Two-Tone Chocolate — A 50-Piece Steel-and-Rose-Gold Limited Edition With an 8-Finish In-House Calibre

Girard-Perregaux Laureato Chronograph 42 mm Two-Tone Chocolate cover

Description

The Laureato has been the modern cornerstone of the Girard-Perregaux catalogue for almost a decade now, but it has rarely been the brand's loudest watch. The 2026 two-tone chronograph in steel-and-rose-gold with a chocolate-brown dial changes that — not by being loud exactly, but by being unexpected. Steel-plus-rose-gold is the dominant story in luxury sports watches right now (Royal Oak, Cubitus, Yacht-Master), and GP joining the conversation with a dressier, browner, distinctly Laureato take on the formula is one of the more interesting positioning moves of the post-Watches and Wonders 2026 cycle.

This is a 42 mm chronograph in 904L stainless steel with an 18-karat rose-gold bezel, crown, and pushers, paired with a chocolate-brown Clou de Paris dial and — unusually — a Clou de Paris-stamped rubber strap rather than the integrated steel bracelet you would normally expect on a Laureato. The result is a watch that wears slimmer and sportier than its complications profile suggests, while still announcing itself with a clear two-tone signal at any distance.

Limited to 50 pieces, priced at EUR 26,500, and announced on 7 May 2026, the Two-Tone Chocolate Laureato Chronograph is positioned firmly in the collector tier — a step above the standard Laureato chronographs but well short of the brand's high-complication output.

Girard-Perregaux Laureato Chronograph 42 mm dial detail

Design

The case measures 42 mm in diameter and 12.16 mm in thickness — a slim profile that wears closer to a dress chronograph than a sports piece. The tonneau-and-octagon Laureato signature remains: octagonal bezel sitting on a circular gasket, integrated lugs flowing into the strap. Steel makes up the case middle, caseback, and integrated lug structure, finished in alternating brushed and polished surfaces. Rose gold is applied where it shows: the bezel, the crown, and the chronograph pushers at 2 and 4 o'clock.

The dial is the conversation piece. Chocolate brown is a colour that watch brands attempt regularly and rarely get right — too red and it reads as wine, too yellow and it reads as caramel. GP has dialled in a true cocoa-brown shade with the Laureato's iconic Clou de Paris hobnail guilloché stamped into the surface, giving the dial both warmth and texture. Two sub-counters anchor the layout: a 30-minute counter at 3 o'clock and a small seconds at 9 o'clock. A date aperture sits at 6 o'clock. The applied baton indices and the dauphine hands are in rose gold to match the bezel.

Most surprising is the strap. Rather than the steel bracelet that defined the Laureato from 1975 onward, the Two-Tone Chocolate is delivered on a black rubber strap with the same Clou de Paris hobnail pattern stamped into the rubber — a deliberate consistency move that swaps the integrated bracelet for a sportier, lighter wear profile while keeping the design vocabulary intact.

Girard-Perregaux Laureato Chronograph caseback movement

Specifications

Reference: 81020-11-131-11A (signature collection)
Case material: 904L stainless steel with 18-karat rose-gold bezel, crown, and pushers
Case dimensions: 42 mm diameter, 12.16 mm thickness
Bezel: Octagonal 18-karat rose gold, polished
Crystal: Sapphire (front and exhibition caseback)
Dial: Chocolate brown with Clou de Paris hobnail guilloché; applied rose-gold baton indices; two sub-counters; date at 6 o'clock
Hands: Rose-gold dauphine hands, central chronograph seconds
Movement: In-house Girard-Perregaux Calibre GP03300-1052 — automatic chronograph with column wheel
Finishing: Eight distinct surface treatments — circular graining, Côtes de Genève on the bridges, hand bevelling, mirror polishing, satin brushing, sunburst, snailing, and engraving
Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds (9 o'clock), central chronograph seconds, 30-minute counter (3 o'clock), date (6 o'clock)
Strap: Black rubber stamped with Clou de Paris pattern; steel folding clasp with rose-gold-finished cover
Limited edition: 50 pieces
Price: EUR 26,500
Announced: 7 May 2026

Girard-Perregaux Laureato Chronograph wristshot

What's Exciting

Two things make this Laureato Chronograph stand out beyond the obvious "another two-tone luxury sports watch" line.

The first is colour discipline. Chocolate brown is hard to do well on a sports-luxury chronograph. Most attempts read as too vintage (full-on tropical patina) or too seasonal (autumnal). GP has chosen a true cocoa shade and given it a stamped Clou de Paris texture so that the brown does not visually flatten under any lighting condition. Pairing it with rose gold rather than the more obvious yellow gold keeps the watch contemporary; pairing it with steel rather than full rose gold keeps it accessible and younger-feeling on the wrist.

The second is the calibre presentation. The GP03300-1052 is GP's in-house automatic chronograph with a column wheel, and the brand has put eight distinct finishing techniques on a single calibre — circular graining, Côtes de Genève, hand bevelling, mirror polishing, satin brushing, engraving, sunburst, and snailing — all visible through the sapphire caseback. That kind of multi-technique movement finishing is the differentiator that haute-horlogerie buyers actually pay for, and GP is not shy about putting it on full display. At a 50-piece run and EUR 26,500, the watch is firmly priced as a collector tier piece, but the engineering and finishing case for the price tag is more substantial than the headline two-tone aesthetic might suggest.

History

The Laureato debuted in 1975 as a quartz-chronometer integrated-bracelet sports watch, designed by Adolfo Natalini and the architects of Florence's Studio Magagnoli. It pre-dated the Royal Oak Offshore by decades and is contemporary to the original Royal Oak (1972) and the Patek Nautilus (1976) — making it one of the founding references of the integrated-bracelet sports-luxury idiom that has dominated luxury watchmaking ever since.

The model went through several iterations across the late 20th century before being revived in 2016 as a limited edition for Girard-Perregaux's 225th anniversary. The brand expanded the Laureato into a full collection in 2017, with size variants (38, 42), case-material variants (steel, gold, two-tone, ceramic), and complications (chronograph, perpetual calendar, tourbillon). Since then, the Laureato has functioned as the catalogue's anchor — the watch the brand uses to land on collectors' wrists at multiple price points.

The 2026 two-tone chocolate sits within GP's Signature Collection — limited two-tone Laureato Chronographs that drop in small batches with distinctive dial executions. Earlier pieces in the line included a steel/yellow-gold champagne reference; the chocolate-and-rose-gold version is the most visually distinctive of them to date.