The list of watch designer Gérald Charles Genta’s achievements is long, and it feels there’s never a time when he or his creations are not in the spotlight. Credited with designing some of the most iconic watches we know today, including the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, Patek Philippe Nautilus, Omega Constellation, Bvlgari-Bvlgari, IWC Ingenieur, and more, his namesake brand Gérald Genta is currently being revived by LVMH, with its watchmaking and design to be handled by Louis Vuitton La Fabrique du Temps. However, this isn’t the only brand that Genta established. In 2000, as a free expression of his creativity, Genta founded Gerald Charles, giving his first two names to the brand, to “establish a strong bond between him and his creations”, states the company website.
There’s another quote on the website on how Genta developed Gerald Charles. Taken from a 2005 catalogue of the brand, it states, “I created each of these timepieces with passion. As always since the beginning of my career, I have sought to combine technology and aesthetics. I searched for the ideal shape and used colours like a painter uses in his painting to present you with a timepiece that will give you a sense of pleasure each time your eyes are drawn to it. In keeping with this, Gerald Charles’s first collection, ‘Renaissance’, launched in 2001, featured tonneau-shaped watches in stainless steel, gold, and platinum. It included time and date models, chronographs, and tourbillons.
Shortly after, in 2003, Genta sold the company to close industry friend Giampaolo Ziviani, who joined as general manager, while Genta continued as the chief designer of the brand until his demise in 2011. Currently, Gerald Charles operates as an independent, family-owned brand, where Frederico Ziviani, Giampaolo’s nephew, joined as the CEO in 2019, and his father Franco is the chairman.
Esta historia es de la edición October - December 2024 de WatchTime India.
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Esta historia es de la edición October - December 2024 de WatchTime India.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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A WELLORDERED CELEBRATION
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WELCOME TO THE CLUB
With the Nomos graduation watch launched back in 2007, the Club had almost left its teenage years behind. Reason enough for the manufacturer in Glashütte to revise this watch's design for the first time ever, but without altering its character. Our test shows how well the Club is maturing.
AT NIGHT MISSION
Breitling has relaunched the Avenger collection and sharpened its profile. The new pilots' series brings fresh new chronographs into the picture, along with an automatic and a GMT version. And now, the Breitling in-house Caliber 01 makes its appearance in a slightly smaller fuselage. Our test shows what the new Avenger B01 Chronograph 'Night Mission' version has to offer.
Sportsmanship
A closer look at the latest colour options for Parmigiani Fleurier’s Tonda PF Sport, a high-frequency chronograph in stainless steel that aims to offer “simplicity and sophistication in sportive elegance”.
ODE TO JOY
For Delhi-based watch collector Ravi Sethi, the pleasure of collecting lies not just in timepieces but also in the people and community that help further it
TWICE AS NICE
Montblanc's manufactures in Le Locle and Villeret in Switzerland are giving the brand an edge few other watchmakers can match. We visited both facilities to understand how two approaches one futuristic and the other steeped in tradition have resulted in a wide range of Montblanc offerings that can cater to every kind of watch lover.
Purpose and Drive
In conversation with the 2024 Rolex National Geographic Explorer Fernando Trujillo on the causes, effects, and results of a life spent protecting the Amazon River dolphins
WRITTEN IN THE STARS
A close look at legendary watchmaker George Daniels's Space Traveller watches, which combined different concepts of time reading
HOT DOG
Richard Benc's Studio Underdog is bringing a quirky, colourful approach to horology
