The wait is over! Seven years after Laco launched the Frankfurt 43 GMT, the contemporary dual-time pilot watch returns with a smaller form factor. And it’s almost perfect.
Whilst Laco is a historical brand, in recent years it’s taken a thoroughly modern approach to watchmaking by offering a choice of case sizes across many of its collections. It’s therefore perhaps a surprise that it’s taken this long to reinvigorate the Frankfurt GMT. So, is the wait worth it?
LACO Frankfurt GMT Collection Overview
Laco is famed for its traditional pilot watches, but it has widened its appeal considerably since the introduction of its ‘Pilot Watches Special Models’, of which the Frankfurt is part of.The original Frankfurt 43 GMT was launched in 2019 and just one year later won the Red Dot Award for Product Design where it was praised for its classic yet modern appearance. The new 40mm iteration carries over the same design, second time zone functionality and dial colours (grey or black), staying true to Laco’s largely monochromatic approach. However, the 40mm case will appeal to a much wider audience. The overall case thickness is also reduced slightly to 11.9mm, which is an improvement over the 12.5mm of its bigger brother. The case houses the same Swiss-made Sellita 330-2 GMT movement.
The price for both the Frankfurt 40 GMT Schwarz (Ref. 862187) and Frankfurt 40 GMT Grau (Ref. 862188) in standard spec is €1850 EUR / $2220 USD / £1580 GBP. The watch comes thoughtfully packaged in a very cool folding, silver aluminium case complete with custom foam cut-outs for a ‘remove before flight’ key tag, additional straps and strap changing tool. Two straps are included, a black water-resistant Fibretech and a grey/orange nylon two-piece with NATO style hardware. However, if you opt to upgrade the Elabore movement to Top Grade, the price increases to €1980.
The Case and Wearing Experience
The 316L stainless steel case of the Frankfurt 40 GMT gets the signature Laco dark sandblasted treatment which brings a practical, tool-watch aesthetic and no worries about fingerprints and smudges. This satin smooth finish also feels very tactile, although I’ll be interested to hear from long-term owners how well the finish holds up over time, as unlike other German brands such as Sinn or Damasko, Laco doesn’t mention any case hardening technology.
The lug-to-lug is 47mm, it’s 11.9mm thick and the watch weighs 82 grammes on the Fibretech strap, or 84 grammes on the NATO. For the most part the case shape is simple meaning there is nowhere for imperfections to hide. Thankfully the finish to the three-part case is flawless.
Working from top to bottom, the double-domed sapphire crystal sits slightly proud of the sloping bezel which has straight sides where it joins the mid-case. The crystal features an anti-reflective (AR) coating to both sides, bringing incredible clarity and legibility, although not quite to the standard of Damasko.
The mid-case flows continuously into the slightly downturned lugs, which help with wrist comfort. On the right-hand side of the case Laco injects considerable character where the lugs flow into beautifully sculpted crown guards that flank the two utterly gorgeous onion crowns. The 7mm crowns are a contemporary take on the traditional onion crown, having more of a cupcake shape with flat top and are very deeply knurled, providing excellent grip. Lock-down and operation is also very confident. Laco really does do some of the best crowns in the business! I also love the fact that the crown guards really hug the crowns, which demonstrates tight tolerance levels for engineering.
The screw-down caseback features a deeply embossed depiction of an aircraft and globe, with watch specifications engraved around the perimeter. The case also provides magnetic field protection (although Laco doesn’t specify to how many Gauss), and water resistance is a very impressive 200 metres, which matches or exceeds many dive watches!
The click-stop, bi-directional bezel is operated by the upper crown at the 2 o’clock position and features a two-tone 24-hour / GMT scale which marks even hours with Arabic numerals, with simple hash marks for the odd hours. There is also an inverted orange triangle at 12 o’clock. The bezel markings are all filled with a bright Super-LumiNova C3 compound which glows green at night to aid low light legibility. Like the main crown, the bezel crown is screw-down and its operation feels satisfying thanks to the ball bearing mechanism. However, the bezel markers on my review watch didn’t line up with any of the dial’s hour markers, in fact they were considerably out of synch. Hopefully this is only a problem on my review watch and not indicative of quality control.
The watch comes supplied on a black water-resistant FiberTech two-piece strap with contrasting stitching and matching buckle. The FiberTech strap is backed with leather and tapers down to 18mm at the buckle. It’s lovely quality and more supple than most similar straps I’ve tried. Also included within the presentation box is a two-tone, ribbed, nylon strap tonally matched to the dial (black and orange for the black dial, grey and orange for the grey dial). This is quite rigid initially but softened up even in the short period of time I had the watch for. The supplied straps do not feature quick-release spring bars, which is a shame, and the metal strap keepers and pin buckle are not finished the same as the case. However, the Frankfurt’s 20mm lug width makes it very easy to find alternative straps. I tried it on a double stitch leather and a Marine Nationale style fabric strap, both of which worked well. I think it’d also look cool on a traditional riveted leather strap or even a bund if you’ve got large wrists.
Overall, the Frankfurt is a comfortable watch with well-balanced proportions, taking a wide, but flat stance on the wrist, partially because of the double crown arrangement which makes the watch look wider. I think the crown and case geometry around the crown guards is a thing of beauty. The downside is that there is no matching bracelet option available, which will put some people off.
Frankfurt 40 GMT Movement
The Laco is fitted with an Elaboré grade, Swiss-made Sellita SW330-2 automatic movement, which is regulated in-house to three positions bringing accuracy to within 0 to +14 seconds per day. The SW-330-2 is a ‘caller/office’ style GMT movement, which means that, unlike a ‘true/flyer’ GMT, it’s the 24-hour hand that is independently quick-set rather than the local hour hand. In terms of operation, you pull the crown out to the first position and wind forwards to set the GMT hand, reverse it to set the date, and pull out to second position to hack the seconds hand and set time. The fact it’s not a ‘true’ GMT might put some people off. Others will prefer it. Some will be indifferent or just want a GMT for looks!
The Sellita is a mainstay for many brands due to its reliability, availability and relative ease of servicing. This hacking and hand-winding movement has 25 jewels, beats at 28600 and has a power reserve of 56-hours. It also benefits from Incabloc shock protection, a gilded nickel balance wheel and Nivarox 2 hairspring. For an additional €130 you can opt to have your Frankfurt fitted with the Top Grade version of the movement which is regulated to five positions improves accuracy to 0 to +8 seconds per day. This premium version also benefits from an upgraded Glycydur balance wheel and Nivarox 1 hairspring which should bring a more consistent rate of oscillation and greater precision over time.
The Dial and Handset
The Frankfurt 40 GMT has a bold dial configuration featuring prominent Arabic numerals at 3 and 9, balanced by the iconic pilot watch inverted triangle flanked by two dots at 12, and a black-on-white date window at 6. These four ‘anchor points’ on the dial all feature accompanying short hash marks to balance with the larger hour markers around the rest of the dial. A simple minute track is printed at the perimeter of the main dial, which then leads into the sloped internal bezel. All dial markings are printed in an off-white colour (green/yellow), although it’s difficult to be sure as the Super-LumiNova C3 luminescent compound is so strong that I’m not sure what’s lume and what’s ambient colour. Dial text is minimal and printed in pure white, just the Laco logo at 12, GMT at 6, and ‘Made in Germany’ flanks the shortened 6 o’clock marker. Depending on which reference you choose, the dial itself is either a matt black or matt grey to minimise reflections and aid legibility. My review model was the black variant.
The alpha-style hour and minute hands have thermally blued borders, generously filled with Super-LumiNova C3 in the centres. The simple white, lumed, seconds hand has a matt grey counterbalance in the shape of an aircraft, nice touch! The GMT hand is matt grey with a bright orange skeletonised triangle at its tip, which again is coated with Super-LumiNova C3. There was minor QC issue with this hand in that there was a small blob of black paint on the shaft. The bold dial design, double AR and copious amounts of lume ensure that both daytime and nighttime legibility is excellent. However, just be aware that outer AR gets scratched more easily than bare sapphire crystal!
Final Thoughts on the Laco Frankfurt
Laco hasn’t gone completely ‘off-piste’ with the Frankfurt 40. It’s still a relatively understated watch, and form still follows function, but it’s less sterile and less ‘serious’ than the purist pilot watches for which Laco is famed. The signature DNA remains, such as the case finish, crown design and traditional pilot hands, but the injection of colour, together with inner rotating bezel and added GMT functionality bring a new distinct offering. The only other GMT in the Laco catalogue is the Hamburg GMT DIN 8330, which is more hardcore and considerably more expensive due to the stringent tests that help it achieve the official DIN 8330 Pilot Watch certification.
The Frankfurt has been a joy on the wrist and it’s almost the perfect modern Pilot GMT. Just two things let it down. The first is the poor alignment of the internal rotating bezel, which is unforgivable and incredibly frustrating when the rest of the watch is so good! The second is that there is no bracelet option, which will put some potential buyers off. If you can get over these two things, at €1850 EUR the Frankfurt is a truly fantastic watch that will have immense appeal to those looking for a good-looking, bold, modern tool watch from a dependable brand. Case finishing is excellent, water resistance is as good as most dive watches, daytime and nighttime legibility is impeccable, it’s fitted with a solid Swiss movement and is beautifully packaged. I also like the fact you can opt for a Top Grade movement for a little extra. It’s such an easy watch to love and a difficult one to send back. If Laco sorts the bezel alignment, I might even buy one myself!
