Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. The New Laurent Ferrier Classic Auto Sandstone
This unprecedented date version of the Galet is the sixth opus in the Serie Atelier.
Founded in 2010 by Mister Ferrier, a veteran from the watch industry and an experienced racing driver, Laurent Ferrier has forged a reputation of creating from of the most elegant watches around, as well as mechanical marvels such as the natural escapement. Mechanically impressive, his watches were, design-wise, subdued and refined, the smooth and soft Galet case being the foundation of all collections. Now Laurent Ferrier merges the timeless refinement of the Classic (a.k.a Galet) collection with the robustness of its sports watches, by creating this brand new Classic Auto Sandstone – a Galet Micro-Rotor with a date movement, if you will. And it’s also the sixth watch in the brand’s Serie Atelier.
This collection, named Serie Atelier, gathers some of the most exclusive models of the brand, designed to offer its fans a collector’s oriented limited edition. It gave birth to the Classic Origin Green, the Annual Calendar Navy, the Magnetic Green Traveller and Magnetic Green Micro-Rotor, and finally the Sport Auto 40 Racing Green. The sixth watch of this series available exclusively online has just been presented and, contrary to before, it’s not just an evolution of an existing model – often a new dial or new colour – but an unprecedented model.
What’s the Laurent Ferrier Classic Auto all about? Well, if we had to summarize, it’s basically the reunion of the case and elegance of a Classic/Galet model with the automatic Swiss-Lever and date movement of the Sport Auto. A slightly more casual, slightly more wearable option, with the versatility of a stable and robust movement and yet the elegance you somehow expect from a Laurent Ferrier watch. The best of both worlds…? I will let you judge that.
This new Classic Auto is housed in the now emblematic Classic case, measuring 40mm in diameter, with a complete absence of angles – don’t pronounce that word next to Laurent, he truly doesn’t like it. The smooth, pebble-shaped case is here made of polished stainless steel with a domed sapphire crystal on top and the traditional ball-shaped crown to wind the movement and adjust the time. Soft, timeless, and good in all situations, it remains a rather dressy option but with a contemporary touch of casualness. The 30m water-resistance won’t allow you to go adventurous, so better look at the Sport Auto if that’s what you need.
A new display means a new dial, and the Classic Auto Sandstone plays once again on soft and warm tones dear to LF, with coppery, sandy tones. The base of the dial is vertically brushed, with a circular satin-brushed railway track and a snailed small seconds. Time is still indicated by the emblematic and superbly finished Assegai-shaped hands, combined with drop-shaped indices – all made from polished white gold. Yet, the most remarkable new feature is the date window, with its gentle slope on the left side – a feature that’s been used on the Sport Auto and that was created to lead the gaze towards the date indication.
Under the sapphire caseback is a well-known movement, which was first presented on the Sport Auto, the calibre LF270.01. This movement is a more robust take on the brand’s famous micro-rotor architecture, as it replaces the superb, technically fascinating but less stable natural escapement with a classic regulating organ with Swiss lever escapement. Still, it retains its handsome architecture with the off-centred 950 platinum micro-rotor and a solid power reserve of 72 hours. For significant benefits in shock and vibration resistance, this movement is equipped with a unidirectional ball bearing.
The view through the back is, as always with LF, very pleasing. The movement is traditionally decorated (139 manual finishing operations) with interior angles, hand-bevelled bridges, rhodium-plated Côtes de Genève across all the bridges and mirror-polished steel parts. For this Serie Atelier, a new decoration replaces the data from Le Mans 1979 present on the Sport Auto, with chevrons indicating the winding direction.
Worn on a casual brown calf leather with tone-on-tone Alcantara lining, the Laurent Ferrier Classic Auto Sandstone is limited to 20 numbered pieces and is priced at CHF 50,000 excluding taxes. It is available exclusively from 29 August 2024, at www.laurentferrier.ch.
8 responses
The level of creativity it requires to come up with an entirely new style of date window, which is still integrated well and doesn’t pop off the dial, while keeping everything classy and restrained, is beyond me.
Perfect simplicity is hard to master.
the date window is missing the previously present Cyclops
Hubertje, I hope that was sarcasm!
Am I the only one unimpressed by the movement? Huge plates replacing the beauty of classic bridges and cocks, with that entirely superfluous cinch in the one mirror-polished piece, as a needless compensation…
Honestly I think this can only impress someone who hasn’t seen nice movement before, even “normal” ones like VC 1400, PP 25-21 (without any pretence of haute-horologie, and at comparatively sane prices).
I was talking about the dial side, and I take no issue with the movement and finishing thereof.
When it comes to prices… Well, I’d say the value proposition of a luxury watch at this level is largely irrelevant.
The FPJ Chronometre Bleu has a magical looking movement (seriously, hidden wheel!), made in 24K gold, a truly unique 9 layer dial, a tantalum case, actually original design hands, a double sided alligator strap, and it costs around 20K. That’s before you realise it’s made by an actual legend, that it’s made in a very small numbers, etc.
Surely there’s a massive difference in what constitutes the value proposition, at any level. You could spend the same amount for a Picasso or a Warhol.
The retail price of a Journe Chronometre Bleu is closer to 40k these days; he increased it to around 37k in 2022 so I can imagine it’s only gone up further since. However, I don’t think that detracts from your criticism of the Ferrier – it’s not that much of a step above the Origin, which is around 30k before tax, so it’s quite the ask.
It is beautiful though, I will credit Mr Ferrier that much.
I was fortunate to buy it from the Geneva Boutique at 20 CHF, and received very nice extras with it too!
@ R P
You lucky man! Genuinely envious as that is an absolute bargain for what is probably the finest non precious metal dress watch out there. Damn.