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We covered the introduction of Gagà Laboratorio back in August of last year, and have remained curious about how this new independent brand with Italian roots would evolve. Their first models, the Labormatic Bauhaus and Labormatic Cinquanta, paired a highly considered case design defined by dramatically flared lugs with a creative timetelling format that riffs heavily on the classic jump hour. Each watch represented the flipside of the same coin: the Bauhaus subtle and minimal, the Cinquanta more light and colorful. The brand’s latest releases are a new pair of Labormatics that follow a similar theme.
First up, the Labormatic Champagne. This watch was conceived as something of a counterpoint to the minimalist design ethos of the Bauhaus model. The Champagne, as the name of the watch implies, is celebratory where the Bauhaus is subdued, trading clean and cold grays for vibrant gold tones, including deeply textured dial base. On this reference, as with the Bauhaus, time is told via a digital hours window at the 12:00 position and an analog minute display.
Gagà Laboratorio has also introduced the Labormatic Azzuro, which can be understood as a complement to last year’s Cinquanta. Both watches are inspired by Italian design from the 1950s, which was a notably colorful period following the tumult of World War II. The pastel blue tones seen here look great with the rich, wine red chosen for the stylized Arabic numerals in the hour and minute tracks. Once again, the hours on the Azzurro are read digitally via an aperture at 12:00, but here, as with the Cinquanta, minutes are seen through a rotating aperture which effectively serves as a hand mounted from the dial’s center. In practice, this is a small adjustment, but it makes the whole dial and experience of telling time quite a bit more contemporary than the Bauhaus/Champagne dials.
The dials have multiple layers and each uses a total of 8 components to create a sense of depth and a variance of textures throughout. The real standout with these watches, though, is the seven part case. It’s quite a bit more complex structurally than just about anything you’re likely to find at this price point (these watches retail for $4,700). It measures 42mm in diameter and is 13.3mm thick, with a crown positioned at 12:00 and a double domed sapphire crystal. Both of these Labormatics run on the same La Joux-Perret LJP-G100 caliber used on last year’s variants, and have been fitted with custom rotors.
A design like this is, obviously, not going to appeal to broad swaths of the watch collecting community, but for me it represents the real strength of the watch independent watch world at this particular moment. Gaga Laboratorio is just one example of a design focused brand that is not afraid to take a risk or two, and, more than that, not take shortcuts in getting the result they’re after. There’s genuine complexity and real watchmaking at work in both the case and dial of these watches, not to mention a unique aesthetic that you won’t find at every watch meetup you attend.
The new Labormatic Azzurro and Champagne will be available later this summer. Gagà Laboratorio
