ALL HOURS

Gérald Charles Genta's elegant timepieces can be sported round-the-clock

More than any other wristwatch architect, Gérald Charles Genta’s visionary aesthetic owed as much to the spirit of industrial design engineering as it did to fine horology. His iconic, groundbreaking work for some of Switzerland’s most notable manufacturers found the so-called ‘Picasso of watchmaking’ creating genre-defining sporty models and Grand Complication timepieces alike, but also introducing new ways to read time with his retrograde and bi-retrograde movements. Defying convention, Genta’s designs for these watches’ cases, pushers, and bracelets made reference to nautical and military hardware, ships’ portholes and deep-sea diver helmets, and even ancient Roman coins. Famously, Genta’s classic Patek Philippe Nautilus was designed to look like an industrial hinge, while the screw heads on his Audemars Piguet Royal Oak case were, outrageously, left exposed.

Not content with working for other marques and determined to add to a legacy of innovation and excellence, Genta first founded his own label in Geneva in 1982. After selling the Gérald Genta brand in 2000, the designer started another venture, Gérald Charles, maintaining a role as designer-in-chief at the atelier until his death in 2011.