Once in a while, a watch is released with a rich vintage vibe but sans homage, and the Gagà Laboratorio Labormatic fits the bill. This makes my watch-collecting spider-sense tingle in a year of brand derivatives with a few strong exceptions.

Gagà Laboratorio is a creative spinoff from Italian watch brand Gagà Milano, where the flamboyant case design and 12 o’clock crown have their origin. If you’re a wrist-shy fan of monochrome tool watches, their designs will be a shock to the system. But maybe that’s just what you need to enter a new age of collecting, embracing a sense of Italian design flair.

The story behind Gagà Laboratorio

The recent appearance of two watches from Ruben Tomella’s Gagà Laboratorio marks a retro-modern spinoff for the Italian brand. As someone who has worked for many years with Italian interior design before pivoting to writing full time, I often wondered why we don’t see more wrist-flair from Milan or Rome. With a country so rich in design, tailoring, and the Dolce Vita, wristwear seems to be an entirely natural progression.

Italy is home one of the world’s strongest collector communities, the source of nicknames like the Longines Tre Tacche, the Rolex Explorer II ‘Freccione’, and many more. For me, the emergence of Gagà Laboratorio is a timely breath of retro-infused fresh air. Using the term Laboratorio, Tomella underlines the inspiration behind the spin-off, where watches with mechanical innovation set it apart from the main Gagà Milano brand, a national stronghold in its own dazzling right.

Ruben Tomella’s main collaborator in designing the two versions of the new Labormatic, the Cinquante and the Bauhaus, is the multi-hyphenate Mo Copoletta. Mo is an Italian artist known for touching many hearts and genres and, quite literally, the skin of his fans. Copoletta has worked with brands such as Bvlgari with an Asian tattoo-inspired Finissimo, and Romain Jerome, while also running the famed London tattoo parlour, The Family Business.

The 50s’ charm of the Labormatic

The Labormatic comes in two versions of a dramatic 42mm case, hitting you with its flamboyant flared lug design and crown at 12. The charming retro-digital design is a first for the brand, while the wild flare of the lugs is a rounded version of the Milan brand’s calling card. You might feel 42mm to be large on paper, but the delicate curvature of the Copoletta-infused watch has a wrist-hugging quality that makes it feel instantly at home.

All watch collecting is intensely personal, and so it should be. For me, that means a love for polarising designs like the dramatic Labormatic, which will not be for everyone but stands out. And it does so with a dial that evokes jewellery and decorative mid-19th-century architecture. In fact, the Cinquanta, with its mint-fresh demeanour, takes its inspiration from the sharp-suited Dolce Vita of 1950s Italy, together with its Teutonic brother, the Bauhaus.

The focal point of the Cinquanta is the rotating running seconds indicator, a matte gold central cap with an ornamental pattern based on the Gagà logo. Under this appears a minute indicator sporting an instrument-like frame with a delicious tiny red arrowhead. The ornamental vibe is strong, but it is remarkably legible for such a quirky design. An outré set of curvaceous Arabic numerals alternate in size, while the strict monochrome of the Bauhaus has a sector-like minute disc with a vibrant red lollipop pointer.

Both watches have a rhomboid hour window at 12 o’clock, the Bauhaus playing a dark game, while the green tonality of the Cinquanta (50 in Italian) makes me think of 1950s car dashboards. The cases have polished top sections that dramatically step down to a brushed lower section for the fresh Cinquanta and a gunmetal PVD finish on the Bauhaus reference.

The watches are also imbued with unusual details that help set the watches and brand apart, offering the sought-after quality of instant recognition. Powering the Gagà Laboratorio Labormatic duo is an automatic La Joux-Perret G100 movement, the calibre du jour for many small brands this year for all the right reasons. Fitted with a dark grey semi-skeletonised Gagà rotor, it boasts a 68-hour power reserve and runs at 28,800vph. The G100 comes with value-boosting finishing that includes Côtes de Genève and perlage.

For an old petrolhead like me, the vibe is one of coach-built Lancias and Ferraris; even Fiats from the flamboyant fifties spring to mind. I imagine myself cruising through Rome in a Cifonelli suit on a vintage Lambretta scooter wearing the Cinquantanta, and this sense of Bon Vivant style is so important in our tech-filled times. Gagà Laboratorio does this with pizzazz but without falling short on legibility and ergonomics. The Labormatic Cinquanta and the more serious blacks and grays of the Bauhaus put me in a good mood and even inspired me to dress up more. Sure, both will look great with a denim shirt and some jeans, but go on, live a little and put on that suit for a change. The Gagà Laboratio Cinquanta and Bauhaus are both available from Gagà Laboratio at CHF 3,900.

Tech Specs: Gagà Laboratorio Labormatic

Movement: Automatic-winding La Joux-Perret G100; 68-hour power reserve
Functions: Digital hours, analogue minutes and central rotating seconds disc
Case: 42mm × 13.3 mm; stainless steel; 50m water-resistance
Dial: Domed and segmented dial in green (Cinquanta) or black (Bauhaus)
Strap: Saffiano hand-made leather strap in green or black with steel pin buckle
Price: CHF 3,900