With a metallised sapphire crystal case combined with a skeletonised movement, the new Laureato Absolute Light & Shade is ready to bare all once more. In partnership with The Hour Glass.
Now that the watchmaking world has gotten used to playing with sapphire crystal, cases made of this hard – and hard to machine – material have gotten very, very bright of late.
Like its predecessors the Laureato Absolute Light and Laureato Absolute Light Bucherer Blue, this case was made using the “Kyropoulos growth method”, a process that involves transforming alumina powder into a solid block of sapphire crystal. We’re grateful for the effort, because it complements the skeletonised movement beautifully. The similarly open-worked hour and minute hands are mounted centrally, while the running seconds gets its own subdial at 10 o’clock, and all three are filled with luminescent material. The inner flange uses a scalloped, 12-sided design that plays off its octagonal bezel with polished triangles serving as hour markers.
Unlike the original Laureato watches from the 1970s that were powered by quartz calibres, the Light & Shade is driven by the automatic calibres of this generation, which is the GP01800-1143.