Tour Grald Genta's Studio

February 10, 2022

Smack in the middle of the Genta family townhouse in London is the studio of the late Grald Genta. The double-height room is flooded in natural light from windows high above. He was in the center of the house and he liked that, recalls Evelyne Genta, his widow and partner in business and life. The room is where Genta, by far the most famous watch designer ever, drew every single day until his death, in 2011, at age 80. Even though he had sold his eponymous company more than a decade before his passing, Genta showed no signs of slowing down. Grald would never have lived the life of a retired gentleman, Mrs. Genta says. The part he liked about his work C the designing C that never stopped. Grald would be up every day at 6AM, put on a tie C it was unacceptable not to wear a tie C and usually a sports jacket and be at his desk. Genta has been called the Picasso of watchmaking and this spring Sothebys is auctioning off a selection of his paintings, where die-hard fans can pick up prizes like Gentas original painting of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, first rendered in 1970, two years before the watch launched. Theres also Gentas vision of the 1976 Patek Philippe Nautilus; a 1986 Mickey Mouse retrograde watch, in glorious Fantasia style; a 1995 Grande Sonnerie, then the worlds most complex watch; and a 1985 Cartier Pasha moon-phase with an unusual oval lapis lazuli sky and gold moon. And its not all watches, either: Also featured are Gentas paintings of jewelry and objects, like a gem-set pendant and belt commissioned by a European head-of-state as a gift for a Middle Eastern dignitary. The sale will run online, in three locations C Geneva this week (through Feb. 24), Hong Kong in March, and New York in April C and will culminate in the Important Watches sale in Geneva, live in May, when Gentas personal Royal Oak will go under the hammer. It has a pre-sale estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. A total of 100 of Gentas paintings are crossing the block, but that number pales in comparison to the 3,250 of his works that Mrs. Genta has kept (one can just picture the flurry of ingratiating watchmakers knocking on her door, hoping to get even the tiniest glimpse of her stash). Slimming down the auction list to 100 was no easy feat because her husband was so versatile. He could design a perpetual calendar in the morning and a jewelry watch in the afternoon, Mrs. Genta says. There was no way to classify them. There were also clocks, forks, spoons, and gold decanter tabs made for European royalty, but its watches where Genta always seemed to begin. Hed start each day by drawing a circle with his compass, intersecting it with lines as if dividing into a pie, then dive right in with brushes and paint (Grald didnt do sketches C he always did a design, Mrs. Genta says). Every morning, his daughter Alexia passed the desk where her father had already been designing for several hours as music played in the background: Usually classical, but sometimes hip-hop. Snoop Dogg, Alexia explains. Dad had a gangsta-rap phase. Anchoring Gentas studio is a large paneled wooden desk with a red leather top trimmed in gold, a traditional Indonesian garment hanging on the wall above. Purchased in Singapore on the Gentas many lengthy trips to Asia to meet clients, the cloth is stitched with a pattern of white shells. He thought the shells would have made a nice shape for a dial. Grald believed that everything you need to see is in nature, in architecture. Everything he saw, he would use again, Mrs. Genta says about the man whose Royal Oak famously mirrors a vintage diving helmet. For years Gentas paintings were piled about in his studio (Dad was not a messy person, he just wasnt organized, Alexia says) and even though the studio today is especially tidy and photo-shoot-ready, one can immediately sense not only how Genta worked, but also how the Gentas worked. The couple were true partners, traveling the world and working side by side. Before London, they lived between Monaco and Switzerland, where for 20 years the Gentas owned a manufacture in Geneva and another in Le Brassus for more complicated movements. Employing nearly 200 people, the manufacture was where Gentas prototypes were produced, both his own as well as those for many other brands his fans may not know he worked with C like Cartier, one of his favorite maisons. It was a life lived around watches. Wed get up together and go to the factory together, recalls Mrs. Genta. Grald would design C hed see the case being made, then talk to the guy making unusual dials. Then it was over to Le Brassus to discuss movements. Meanwhile, she looked after clients and sales, making sure they were paid on-time. (Our pieces were very complicated and took a long time to manufacture, she explains.) If Grald had had to do all that he wouldnt have been able to create. It was time-consuming and he didnt enjoy these things. Then wed go home and talk about watches. We basically talked about watches all day long. Alexia adds that her mother never interfered with her father on the creative front, giving him full artistic space. (My office was right next to his, but Id leave him alone, agrees Mrs. Genta.) But that doesnt mean the family was spared his artistic temperament. There have been the more public spats C like the time Genta famously stormed out of a Swiss watch fair after being told his Mickey Mouse watches were a disgrace to Swiss watchmaking. But there were private tantrums, too. It was quite something to navigate, Alexia recalls. Every dinnertime, wed get a least one new design, sometimes three or four. And if you dared say that you preferred the one from the day before C that was a disaster. You always had to be very positive. Dad always said his favorite design was the last one he designed, so you couldnt like a past one. For Mrs. Genta, each painting is linked to a story, like a memory of a special client. There are outr creations like a gold-dialed cushion-shaped watch inspired by Christopher Columbus exploration of America, a rakish ebony number for Herms, and a series of desk clocks, a private commission themed around families of animals. The latter C one which will be shown at Watches & Wonders in April C were set on rock crystal bases, the babies speckled with diamonds and all crafted in colored gold (like green gold for the alligators, pink for the elephants, and blue for the American eagle C?yes, really). Surely it must be hard seeing Gentas paintings go into strangers hands? A little bit, Mrs. Genta says. But at the same time, I think the recognition is super-important. I see the enthusiasm of young people on social media C Im talking about collectors who are 25, 30 C and its really great that these designs do not stay in a bank. They get to be known. I really think thats what Grald would have wanted. Most importantly, Sothebys is selling each painting with an NFT, which Mrs. Genta particularly likes for its features around authentication and ownership, especially since various parties have tried to take credit for Gentas work over the years. I like that idea of forever, she said. Its like written in marble except its written in blockchain, whatever that is. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, but for Mrs. Genta, the auction is more about the 10 years since Gentas death C and finally giving him the recognition that never quite came when he was alive. Like all artists, my husband loved recognition, Mrs. Genta says. Im a little bit happy but also a bit sad because not every brand gave him the recognition that he deserved. But now theyre all falling over each other to do that.