Gerald Charles is an exciting debutant at this year’s WatchPro Salon, a watchmaking business founded by Gérald Charles Genta, the 20th century’s most celebrated watch designer.
Mr Genta passed away in 2011, but his work lives on, not only in the iconic aesthetics of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and Patek Philippe Nautilus watches that he designed in the 1970s, but in every Gerald Charles timepiece produced since he launched the company in 2000.
Gerald Charles was sold in 2003, and is now run by a team headed by CEO Federico Ziviani and creative director Octavio Garcia.
It has the rights to create watches imagined by Mr Genta, and is capturing the imagination of a new cohort of collectors who appreciate the uncompromising design and engineering in a range of luxurious but sporty styles.
Its watches are rare, with production of around 2,000 pieces per year, and hard to find in the UK with just two points of sale, which makes the brand’s appearance at WatchPro Salon in November an unmissable opportunity to get up close with timepieces designed by a man who the industry refers to as The Maestro.
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Gerald Charles watches
The signature collection of Gerald Charles is the Maestro, which comes in an immediately recognisable asymmetrical case with a rippled bezel and “smile” at 6 o’clock.
The curve of that smile is used in the design of spectacular dials, in particular it draws the eye to a large tourbillon in the 2023 Maestro 9.0 Tourbillon timepiece.
“The tourbillon was always going to be the focal point of this watch, and so from the outset we applied ourselves to the design of the tourbillon cage. How could we create something that captured the mature narrative of Gerald Charles, the spirit of the Maison’s founder and the design language of a contemporary technical sports watch? It was a long process and we worked through countless iterations before we settled on a design based on the GC logo. The result is intensely graphic, as much sculpture as a mechanical watch,”
creative director Mr Garcia says.
The luxury of this watch, with its rich royal blue sunray dial is clear, but its sportiness is also important, which is why Mr Garcia has used surgeon-grade stainless steel for the case and paired it with a rubber strap embossed with a Clous de Paris pattern.
It is powered by the GCA 3024/12 automatic flying tourbillon calibre, made by Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier, which has an impressive 50-hour power reserve and is elevated with a solid gold oscillating weight.
The Gerald Charles 2023 Maestro 9.0 Tourbillon is priced at £82,200 and is available for pre-order now with deliveries starting in October.
Other versions of the Maestro, which will be on show at WatchPro Salon, include a chronograph that combines a mirror-finished titanium case and a vivid blue sunray dial.
The shape of the Maestro case is picked up in the angles of its chronograph pushers and lugs, while the signature Clous de Paris design is used on both the sporty rubber strap and to provide grip on the crown.
The Maestro 3.0 Chronograph watches, available with blue, green or black dials, are priced at £20,900 in titanium.
There is also an 18ct gold version selling for £36,100.
For tennis fans, there are three-handers with date in stainless steel that have dials in either green, for the grass court season, or brown for clay courts.
They both have crowns positioned to the left of the dial to make them less likely to dig into the wrist of a right handed player.
Both watches, priced at £15,600, are currently in a pre-order phase for delivery in October, so UK watch lovers at WatchPro Salon will be the first to see them.
WatchPro Salon 2023
Gerald Charles is appearing among a line up of over 50 prestigious watch brands and a carefully curated lounge of pre-owned businesses exhibiting at this year’s WatchPro Salon, which takes place at The Londoner Hotel on Leicester Square from November 10 to 11.
Click here for full details and to book your tickets.
The ever-expanding exhibitor list of watch brands and prestigious certified pre-owned traders includes:
ARCANAUT | AWAKE | BALL WATCH | BLOOMBAR | BROOKLANDS WATCH COMPANY | DUCKWORTH PRESTEX | EBAY | ELLIOT BROWN | GERALD CHARLES | HERBELIN | ISOTOPE | LUMINOX | MERAUD WATCHES | ORIENT | OUT OF ORDER | PERRELET | ROBOT WATCH | SEIKO | SHERPA | SINN | SQUALE | TEMPUS LORD | THE WATCH REGISTER | THE DIAMOND BOX | VAN BRAUGE | VICTORINOX | WOLF | YEMA WATCHES | ZEITWINKEL | ZODIAC
