Text by Anandhi Gopinath
Gérald Genta at work.
The words visionary and influential are grossly inadequate to describe watchmaker Gérald Genta, whose role in contemporary watchmaking will take more than one story to fully articulate. One of the key people to pull Swiss watchmaking out of its post-quartz doldrums, Genta is the genius behind some of the most-loved watches of today. He knew what fans of haute horlogerie were looking for well before they did, and this forward-thinking approach defined his entire body of work until his death in 2011.
It was a headlining moment last year when LVMH announced that it would be relaunching the long-dormant Gérald Genta brand at Louis Vuitton’s High Watchmaking atelier, La Fabrique du Temps. That too, under the aegis of respected master watchmakers Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini – who both worked with Genta before – and with the blessing and cooperation of his widow Evelyne Genta. In one of the most ambitious revivals in recent years, the youngest scion of the Arnault family, Jean announced that the Gerald Genta name would once more be associated with the very highest reaches of complicated watchmaking, as it was during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990.
It’s easy to see why Jean would jump at the chance to revive the brand – Gérald himself was an enigma, the brand that carried his name, just as incredible. Born
in Geneva in 1931, young Gérald studied jewellery-making but found the work unappealing and, in a typically flamboyant and independent gesture, hurled his jewellery tools into the violent gushes of the Rhône river. He briefly considered a career in couture, but Geneva was not the capital city of fashion. However, it was the centre of excellence for watchmaking, so he set out to establish himself as a couturier of time.
He first found success with Universal Genève (which was recently acquired by Breitling), for whom he designed the Polerouter, and his creative input is also evident in Omega’s Constellation collection, which was launched in 1959. But it was in the 1970s that Genta’s genius truly came to the fore in his designs for the luxury sportswatch genre.
Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak.
The screw-punctuated octagonal bezel of Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak was inspired by Genta’s childhood memory of a diver in Lake Geneva sealed into a scaphander diving suit, while Patek Philippe’s Nautilus gets its shape from a porthole. Other now-iconic collections that bear his handprint include IWC Schaffhausen’s Ingenieur and Bulgari’s Roma lines.
Behind the scenes of these world-famous commissions, Genta worked on his own brand of watchmaking, aided by his wife. Constantly creating and innovating, he combined new shapes and materials with major watchmaking complexities. His eponymous brand established an aesthetic identity predicated on the interplay of circular and rectilinear geometric shapes, articulated through a series of core collections.
Not only was he a pioneer of high-compliant watchmaking in those tremulous years after the quartz crisis, he was also a forerunner in the independent watchmaking movement. Then again, it was only someone brash enough to throw one’s jewellery-making tools in a river who would have had such gumption back in the day.
Genta became a master of chiming watches, displaying a knack for building such timekeeping devices with incredible instinct. Developed with the complicity
of master watchmaker Pierre-Michel Golay, his first skeletonised self-winding minute repeater wristwatch appeared in 1980. He conquered the minute repeater with utmost flair, ensuring that the case provided an exceptional sound. One of his most famous pieces, the Grand Sonnerie, featuring the same chimes as Big Ben, was considered as one of the world’s most sophisticated wristwatches, taking five years to research and build.
Always working towards an unprecedented idea, largely inspired by painters and innovative designers, he quickly earned respect and high esteem from
the industry and watchmaking enthusiasts throughout the world.
Genta created one-off, unique pieces for his coterie of exclusive clients, which grew to include the Moroccan King, the Sultans of Oman and of Brunei, the King of Spain, the King of Saudi Arabia, the Queen Mother of England as well as leading businessmen, sportsmen and entertainers of his time. Genta and his urbane, erudite wife Evelyne – who today is the Monégasque ambassador to the Court of St James’s – dealt regularly with global plutocrats and potentates of the late 20th century and manufactured items that defied conventions and beggared belief; this included (but not limited to) large scale automata to gem-set erotic watches.
Gérald Genta with Evelyne Genta.
In the 1980s, he put his ingenuity and innovative spirit on display yet again by establishing a most unexpected partnership with Disney. It was a choice that outraged conservative Geneva watchmaking circles, but Genta didn’t seem to care – this was a celebration of his wit and whimsy and became a defining moment in history. Since then, other watchmakers have placed other characters on their dials – Omega and Snoopy, for example – but Genta did it when no one else thought it was acceptable to do so. And because the leader of Disney at the time was a Genta fan, it was a deal that was fair to both parties. This year, Disney celebrated its centenary, the Genta watch with Mickey on it turned 50.
The Gérald Genta brand was acquired by Singaporean retailer The Hour Glass in 1996, then by Bulgari in 2000. Genta passed away in August 2011 at the age of 80 after designing more than 100,000 watches for some of the world’s most famous brands, his vision and savoir-faire breaking boundaries and shaking up pre-existing norms and rules.
Through Evelyne, Genta’s spirit lives on through a foundation that bears his name, established to celebrate his creative genius whilst supporting the talent of tomorrow. Supported by industry experts and pre-eminent horologists, the Gérald Genta Heritage Association aims to raise awareness around the generosity, creativity and visionary spirit of the Picasso of watches whilst encouraging and rewarding up-and-coming young talent.
LVMH’s acquisition of the Gerald Genta brand further trains the spotlight on his innovative spirit for a new generation. Evelyne has also allowed La Fabrique du Temps full access to her late husband’s archives which includes many hundreds of designs that were never realised. But in true Genta fashion, the new watches bearing this iconic brand name will not be pieces simply drawn from the past.
A Patek Philippe design by Genta.
“I’m not a fan of one-to-one re-editions of what was done in the past, so we’re not going to do that,” Arnault told watch historian and writer Nick Foulkes in a Financial Times article. “Instead, we are going to take inspiration from what was done with the Gérald Genta brand in the past, and from the thousands of detailed drawings he made, but bring it into the 21st century. We’re keeping volumes very, very low and focusing on the high watchmaking side of things.” Genta would have approved of this strategy, Evelyne commented in the same piece. “Gérald never looked back. He was never interested in the past.
It was always the next watch. I am happy that we are moving forward with young people and with some models that Gérald designed, which are very forward-thinking.”
There is a lot of pressure on La Fabrique Du Temps’ Navas and Enrico Barbasini in their quest to revive the Gérald Genta brand, but the Arnaults couldn’t have chosen better partners to work with. Not everyday does an opportunity like this come about, that allows a heritage brand that redefined the industry once upon a time to be revived and rejuvenated by a company that exemplifies the same values, but with a contemporary spirit, clear vision and influential backing.
It’s like Genta all over again.
