This sumptuous clock is probably a unique achievement. We attribute it to the Georland workshops in Paris, which we know have been making this type of timepiece since the 1970’s and 1980’s, notably for the Asprey house in London, which was also active in New York.
Georland, Paris
Georland was founded in Paris in 1954 by Georges Richard and Roland Bouder, then taken over by Henry Marteau in 1958. The house creates and manufactures numerous Haute Joaillerie collections for the big names on the Place Vendôme in Paris (Fred, Boucheron, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, etc.) or elsewhere (Asprey in London, Graff in New York, etc.).
The house also makes exceptional jewellery for the world’s greats, such as the platinum, diamond and sapphire necklace of Princess Lady Diana, the gold, rubies, diamonds and pearls jewellery set offered to Queen Sophie of Spain, or the gold mystery box, set with a 30-carat emerald cabochon, invisible-set rubies and diamonds, with the arms of Queen Elizabeth II, or the tiara of a famous American actress adorned with a 280-carat sapphire.
The house has been present in New York since 1958, then in Geneva and London in the 1970’s. In the 1990’s, Stéphane and Jean-Gabriel Marteau succeeded their father at the head of the company. Today, it is the third generation of the Marteau family to develop the house: Romain in New York, Axel, Clément and Jean-Jérôme in Paris (20, rue Danielle Casanova, 2nd arr.).