Gérald Genta to be revived in the Louis Vuitton Haute Horlogerie workshop

Gerald Genta, one of the most recognised names in watchmaking, will once again be associated at the highest level with Louis Vuitton’s Haute Horlogerie atelier: La Fabrique du Temps.

Born in Geneva in 1931, Gérald Genta studied jewellery and, feeling that the profession was not enough for him, he threw all his tools into the Rhône. After rethinking his professional future, he decided to go into watchmaking and had his first successes at Universal Geneve, when he designed the Polerouter, a watch celebrating the trans-Arctic flight route linking the United States and Europe.

Among his most renowned designs are those found in Omega’s Constellation collection; the Royal Oak for Audemars Piguet; the Patek Philippe Nautilus; the IWC Ingenieur and the Bulgari Roma.

And although he continued to work for other brands, he decided to open his own company, thus establishing the GERALD GENTA brand and establishing an aesthetic identity based on the interplay of circular and rectilinear geometric shapes. He quickly became a groundbreaking watchmaker who mastered the minute repeater with the utmost attention.

In 2000, the brand was acquired by Bulgari and, 23 years later, the brand was revived through the Fabrique du Temps de Louis Vuitton. GERALD GENTA will be revived through Louis Vuitton’s Fabrique du Temps. Production will concentrate on large complications manufactured in small quantities. Evelyn Genta, Gerald‘s widow and partner, has given her approval to the project and has allowed the Fabrique du Temps full access to the archives, which include hundreds of designs that were never realised.

This combination of unlimited access to the design archive of one of the great masters of modern watchmaking and the unrivalled expertise of the watchmakers who worked closely with him on his most complicated pieces creates a unique opportunity for the Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton to draw on the past achievements of the GERALD GENTA brand to make 21st century timepieces once again worthy of Gérald Genta.