The watch that resembles me the most. Gerald Genta, 2004 Baselworld
Nature does not know straight and sharp lines. Rather, it prefers organic forms. And, it is the organic form that best adapts to our body, to our wrist. Gerald Genta
Founded in Geneva in 2000, Gerald Charles was the final independent maison of Gérald Charles Genta (1931–2011), bearing his first and middle names as a mark of personal authorship. Having created some of the most recognisable timepieces of the twentieth century — among them the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, Patek Philippe Nautilus, IWC
Ingenieur SL and Omega Constellation — Genta established the house to pursue, free of commission, the designs closest to his own sensibility.
Presented at BaselWorld 2004, the present Tourbillon is the summit of that pursuit. Departing from the angular architecture for which Genta was best known, the 44.5mm pink gold case takes a smooth, oval form inspired by stones worn soft by flowing water — part of the Renaissance collection, in which Genta turned explicitly to nature as his guiding grammar. The mother-of-pearl dial, with its dark central disc and 6 o’clock aperture, is at once decorative and quietly restrained. Genta himself regarded this watch as the most autobiographical of his career, uniting the two themes on which he had built his life’s work: an exceptional movement, and an organic shape.
The movement was entrusted to Antoine Preziuso, the Geneva-trained independent master whose career at Patek Philippe’s complications atelier preceded his own celebrated work in f lying and multi-axis tourbillons. The flying tourbillon he developed for this watch is signed, on the movement, «TOURBILLON BY A. PREZIUSO». In a gesture at once technical and affectionate, Preziuso shaped the tourbillon bridge in the form of Genta’s own moustache — so that the watch resembles its designer not only in spirit, but literally in feature.
Ref. GC1 is understood to have been produced in two case metals — platinum and pink gold — each in a tightly limited series, with only a handful of examples ever surfacing at public auction. The present pink gold example, numbered 07/25, is preserved in excellent condition and accompanied by its original presentation box and certificate — a rare opportunity to acquire what its creator himself considered his truest self-portrait in horology.
