Girard-Perregaux has been on a tear. Four new calibers in twelve months is a serious workload for any manufacture, and now the La Chaux-de-Fonds brand has added another one to the pile. Meet the Laureato Fifty Tourbillon Micro-Rotor 39, the watch that puts a flying tourbillon and a micro-rotor movement inside the octagonal integrated bracelet case that started life back in 1975.
A bit of context: GP celebrated the Laureato's 50th anniversary last year with the Laureato Fifty collection, which included two-tone versions and a Three Gold Bridges Tourbillon. This new piece follows in 2026, and it takes a different technical direction. Instead of the open-worked bridges, you get a more conventional but still very refined dial layout, with the tourbillon visible and the micro-rotor doing its job quietly at the back.
The 39mm case size is a deliberate choice. It's the sweet spot for a complicated sports watch, small enough to sit properly on a range of wrists but large enough to show off the movement details without crowding them.
What's Actually New Here
The combination of a flying tourbillon and a micro-rotor in one movement is not trivial. A micro-rotor sits within the movement's footprint rather than sitting on top of it, which keeps the overall thickness down. Pair that with a flying tourbillon, which lacks the top bridge that usually frames the cage, and you're looking at a movement engineered specifically for visual openness and slim proportions.
This isn't GP repurposing an existing caliber. The Laureato Fifty Tourbillon Micro-Rotor represents one of those four new calibers the brand has been working through. That's worth noting because it means the movement was designed around this watch, not adapted for it.
The Laureato has always had to fight for its place in the integrated sports watch conversation alongside the Royal Oak and the Nautilus. A tourbillon micro-rotor at 39mm is a strong argument. It's technically ambitious in a way that feels genuinely proportionate to the case, rather than mechanically stuffed.
The Laureato's Place in the Sports Watch Story
The Laureato debuted in 1975, three years after the Royal Oak and one year before the Nautilus. It's often the third name mentioned in that sentence, but that undersells it. The octagonal bezel, the integrated bracelet, the brushed and polished finishing: the DNA was there from the start. The 2016 redesign brought it fully into the modern era, and the Fifty series is clearly where GP intends to push the technical ceiling.
The 39mm sizing also connects this watch to a broader shift in the market. Oversized sports watches dominated for years, but 39mm is increasingly where serious collectors are looking. GP seems to know that.
Who This Watch Is For
You want a sports watch. You also want a tourbillon. You've probably already looked at what Audemars Piguet and Patek offer at this complication level and found the price tags appropriately alarming. This GP sits in that same conversation, and the 39mm case makes it genuinely versatile, not just a show piece that stays in the safe.
- Collectors who want horological depth inside an integrated bracelet sports watch
- Wrists that find 40mm-plus cases too dominant under a shirt cuff
- Anyone who's followed the Laureato Fifty series and wants the most technically serious version
- GP loyalists tracking the brand's current caliber development run
How It Compares
The Laureato Fifty Three Gold Bridges Tourbillon, introduced last year, is the showier piece. The open-worked movement and three rectilinear gold bridges are pure theatre, referencing GP's 19th-century heritage. This new Micro-Rotor version is less theatrical but arguably more coherent as a daily wear proposition. The tourbillon is visible, the dial has a cleaner read, and the micro-rotor keeps things slim.
Against the broader field, a 39mm flying tourbillon with a micro-rotor in an integrated sports case is a specific niche. Jaeger-LeCoultre's Master Ultra Thin Tourbillon is thinner and dressier. The AP Royal Oak Tourbillon is larger and pricier. GP is carving out its own lane here, which is exactly what it should be doing with a model that's been around for fifty years and still has something to prove.
Hands-on impressions from Geneva Watch Days confirm the watch wears well. The finishing on the octagonal bezel and the bracelet links holds up in person, which matters at this price level. Pricing hasn't been officially confirmed for all markets at the time of writing, so check with your local GP boutique for availability and figures.
If you've been watching GP's caliber pace over the past year, this is the payoff. A tourbillon micro-rotor in the Laureato is the kind of move that makes the Fifty series feel like a genuine statement rather than an anniversary formality.
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