Gerald Genta :: Manufacturers :: Essence of Time, Inc.

This site requires JavaScript to function properly. Please enable JavaScript in your web browser.

Essence of Time, Inc. :: Manufacturers :: Gerald Genta

Founder: Charles Gérald Genta, one of the world’s most talented watch designers, was born in 1931 and died in 2011.

Country: Switzerland

History: Genta was born in Geneva in 1931. By 1951 he had completed jewelry and goldsmith training and shortly thereafter began working for Universal Genève SA, for whom he designed the Polerouter Microtor. He also designed Golden and White Shadows for them in the 1960s. Genta went on to design Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak, Patek Philippe’s Nautilus, IWC’s Ingenieur and Da Vinci, Omega’s Constellation and Titane, Cartier’s Pasha, and the Bulgari-Bulgari. He launched the Gérald Genta brand in 1969 and later created the Octo Granda Sonnerie Tourbillion, which had four gongs and rang at each quarter and on the hour. The Grande Sonnerie Retro of 1994 was called the world’s most-complicated wristwatch and had a price tag of two million dollars. Genta created playful Disney-character watches in the 1980s that were much-celebrated. Many of Gérald Gent’s timepieces are among the world’s most complicated. Bulgari acquired the brand in 1999.

Ambassadors: King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain, King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, England’s Queen Elizabeth, a host of actors and musicians, and many others.

Timeline & Accomplishments:

• 1969 → Gérald Genta brand is launched.

• 1980s → Designs successful Disney-character watches.

• 1994 → The Grande Sonnerie Retro is called the world’s most-complicated wristwatch.

• 1996 → Gérald Genta is the first brand to combine jumping hours and retrograde minutes on a wristwatch.

• 1999 → Bulgari acquires the Gérald Genta brand.