It seems strange to suggest that 2023 could be a breakout year for Gerald Charles, the independent watchmaker created by the late, great watch designer Gérald Genta, but a gentle upward glide for the business in recent years feels like it is about to get rocket boosters.
The company’s line up, using Mr Genta’s original designs, has been building a portfolio with instant impact for fans of the designer, but also with broader commercial appeal as stylish dress watches become more fashionable after the saturation of sports pieces over the past decade.
Not that Gerald Charles don’t have a bit of sportiness in it, as we see in a new Maestro 9.0 Tourbillon, Ref. GC9.0-A-01, which comes on a royal blue vulcanised rubber strap.
The star of the medical grade stainless steel watch is its tourbillon, nestling in a royal blue sunray dial.
It is the regulator for a GCA 3024/12 automatic flying tourbillon calibre, made by high end movement maker Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier.
The watch is a nod to an original Maestro flying tourbillon, created in 2005 by Mr Genta and comes in the familiar 42mm asymmetric Maestro case with its rippled bezel.
Gerald Genta creative director says the watch is naturally inviting, with its tourbillon in a cage shaped into the maison’s GC logo, forming a smile at the bottom of the face, but is highly challenging to create.
“Maestro’s form and volume make sense to the human eye. And yet when you come to hand-draw it, you realise it has one of the most complex case shapes in watchmaking. There are no straight lines. Even the indexes pose a challenge because they have to follow the case silhouette and underscore the Maestro design. The challenge as a designer is to find a balance between character and usability,” he describes.
The movement is fully exposed on the underside of the watch with a 22ct rose gold oscillating weight, decorated like honeycomb, winding twin barrels that deliver 50 hours of power reserve.
“Combining this level of finishing with this level of performance was a huge technical challenge. But the Maison’s ambitions were met by Gerald Charles’s engineers and Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier. We are absolutely delighted with the result. Even the components you can’t see are finished to the same impeccable standards of Swiss fine watchmaking and according to the Gerald Charles standards: without compromise,” says Federico Ziviani, Gerald Charles general manager.
Production will be limited to 50 pieces in steel with a steel bezel.
There will also be 10 pieces a year in 18ct white gold with a diamond-set bezel, and a further 10 white gold pieces with bezels set with sapphires.
