Hands-On The Laurent Ferrier Sport Auto

The demand for integrated-bracelet sports watches doesn't seem to be cooling meaningfully. Sure, it seems like Thierry Stern wasn't wrong about discontinuing the steel base-level Nautilus. I haven't seen a steel 5711 or 5811 on a wrist in a while, and the word "Nautilus" doesn't get bandied about like it used to, which means that Patek might slowly be divorcing itself from a newcomer's understanding that Patek is a one-trick-pony. But a Nautilus is certainly not significantly easier to get. Instead, much of the demand seems to have fallen on Royal Oaks. Just like the core model of the Nautilus, a Jumbo Royal Oak is still hard to get at retail. So, where else can you go for your integrated sports watch fix?

I've been thinking about that question lately, or more broadly, about high-end sports watches. Instead of banging your head against a wall for an allocation that feels like it may never come, what else can you get with your hard-earned stack of cash that can scratch that specific itch? Among the solutions to that (for me) very imaginary problem was to look to smaller, independent makers who could potentially better finish for the money. Those makers would, in theory, also be more communicative as you go through buying (or even waiting) for your watch, which for a lot of people would be worth the extra cost. No more shouting into the void, begging unresponsive ADs to take your money.

Laurent Ferrier is one of the first brands that came to mind. In what I'd consider the high-end luxury integrated sports watch category – I'll pick an arbitrary cutoff of $20,000 – there are relatively few options to compete with the Nautilus, Royal Oak, or Overseas, but more seem to be coming by the minute. Chopard has its Chopard Alpine Eagle Cadence 8HF at $20,800. Sneaking in just under the cutoff is the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT. Neither of those brands are "small" by any means, but they offer two good options.

Moving even higher in price opens up more options. You can get a Czapek Antarctique "Dark Sector" for $37,600. There's the F.P. Journe Automatique Réserve, which is in the $40,000 range. And at maybe the highest price point, there's also the A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus in Titanium for $56,600 (although, to my knowledge, those haven't started to be delivered yet). You're probably mentally screaming about all the other options I've missed – there are certainly others – but if you were paying close attention, you'd have noticed a common theme that ties those options in with the Sport Auto. It was also one of the most surprising and rewarding parts of the Sport Auto experience.

Laurent Ferrier's Sport Auto is part of a small group of high-end integrated-bracelet sports watches in titanium. I still sometimes struggle to wrap my head around the lightness of titanium on the wrist. Looking back to Richard Mille's introduction of the RM-009 in 2005, people have been challenging the concept that heft equates to value or quality for a while now. But while I've started to come to terms with a $4,700 Tudor Pelagos 39 in titanium, it's a puzzling experience when you're talking about a CHF 46,000 watch like the Sport Auto. 

The watch measures 41.5 mm wide by 12.7mm thick in that grade 5 titanium case. That's a bit on the thick side for a high-end sports watch, especially at the price point. I was surprised because the Sport Auto uses an automatic microrotor movement. On paper, one of the benefits of a microrotor is it keeps the movement thinner. The magic number for me is between 8.1mm and 8.3mm thick – there's a reason the Jumbos from AP and Patek balance so well. But the weight is stated to be less than 100 grams (I, unfortunately, couldn't find my scale), and the weight reduction seems to counteract the thickness enough that it's comfortably forgettable from a wearability perspective.

While, on average, you certainly are bound to give up a bit of the practical sportiness, i.e. water resistance, the higher you go in price point, there's something about the thoughtful design and high-end finishing at this level. Here, you get the same water resistance of the 5711 – 120 meters – instead of the 50 meters on a Royal Oak. But one of the improvements over a Nautilus is what I consider a slightly more thoughtful dial design.

While a textured matte dial might not be as iconic or complicated as a tapisserie or horizontally embossed dial, the brand continues to play on the double meaning of the "Auto" name. Yes, the movement is automatic, but the date window, for instance, has the shape of a sloping hood or side vent on a race car. Instead of trying to hide the date window, it makes the date a design element. 

Much of the rest of the design language comes from the Grand Sport, which is where tastes tend to diverge if my informal poll of the office tells me anything. Laurent Ferrier's website says the case shape "evokes the elegant, timeless curves of racing cars,"  and maybe it's my lack of "car nerd" experience, but I didn't see it. Instead, the watch case shape feels far more like a first-generation Oldsmobile Silhouette van than any sporty car. In the office, some people loved it, some people didn't quite get it. I was one of the ones that really enjoyed it, as I did the visual language of its predecessor, the Grand Sport. But instead of costing nearly $200,000 for a sports watch with a tourbillon, the Sport Auto will set you back CHF 46,000.

As you'd expect for the price point, there are plenty of other details that make the Sport Auto stand out as very much its own thing. The union crown, for instance, screws down to maintain water resistance. But despite its large size, it doesn't seem that out of place when looking down on your wrist. It's not exactly what I'd expect for a sports watch, but that's all the better. What fun is there when everything converges to a point regarding design? As I said before, the dial texture and play between the dial and subdial also kept me happy looking at the watch repeatedly.

A big part of what people go to independent watchmakers for is the movement and finishing and Laurent Ferrier doesn't disappoint here, even if it's not the traditional style we usually see from Swiss watchmakers. Geneva stripes are classic, but why not switch it up a bit? The zinc-polished surfaces and numerous satin-brushed and circular-grained finishes are compelling alternatives with a more modern feel. I know the finishing hasn't been to the taste of some collectors who are more used to centuries of a certain style but the anglage here pays tribute to the old masters with deep and well-polished cuts.

If there's one place I felt a little let down by the Sport Auto, it was the bracelet. One of the best parts about a well-constructed bracelet is both the tightness of the construction and the tightness visually. I like the faceted polished edges and brushed surfaces on the Sport Auto bracelet, but the gaps between the links kind of drove me crazy. The bracelet design isn't one that is a "hair-puller" per se, but I would imagine it would be possible to tighten up the tolerances on these parts so that there's less of a gap.  If the rest of the watch is so refined, why not bring that to the bracelet?

There's one more competitor on the market I didn't mention, one that just recently announced yet another option in their stable of small-batch sports watch offerings, now with integrated bracelets: Romain Gauthier. The "C" (the artist – I mean watch – formerly known as the Continuum) now comes on a titanium bracelet. While I haven't tried that version of the watch on, the rubber strap version wears incredibly well and is thinner than the Sport Auto (though it lacks in water resistance). That watch comes in at CHF 42,000, which looks like a decent deal on paper compared to the Sport Auto.

With a total production of less than 500 watches each year, there's inevitably a waitlist for the Sport Auto like there seems to be with any watch nowadays. For Laurent Ferrier, that's a two year wait across the board. The question is, is it worth the wait? I think that largely depends on the buyer.

I want to love the Sport Auto. After handling and wearing it for about a week, I don't doubt the work behind the watch, with finishing that largely impressed me across the board. But at CHF 46,000, there are many different ways you could spend your money. While it still comes in far under the price of a 5711 on the secondary market and is a bit more than half of a 16202, at that price, my mind starts to wander away from sports watches to something vintage. For others who love independent watchmaking, on the other hand, it may be a no-brainer. My hope is that sometime next year I'll be able to visit the workshop and see the craftsmanship for myself, and take my potential love of the brand to full throttle. Who knows, maybe we'll even find a Porsche 935 to zip around in outside of Geneva.