Sotheby’s annual themed auction “Gérald Genta: Icon of Time” was successfully held earlier at three locations. In May, a masterpiece Royal Oak by Audemars Piguet owned by the late Gérald Genta was sold for approximately HK$16.6 million, breaking the world record for the same series. Moving on to June, this special event will bring another online auction, presenting 35 original design drawings from the master collection of Gérald Genta. Among them, there will be a never-before-seen and unreleased design sketch of an IWC watch by Gérald Genta.
This time, from the private collection of legendary watch designer Gérald Genta, this design drawing of a luxurious stainless steel complex function sports watch was discovered, which is considered to be of great historical significance in the watchmaking industry. Originating from this sketch, it is understood that it was discovered by the research and development team at Sotheby’s, and is known to be the earliest design drawing of a stainless steel complex function sports watch. The drawing features the logo of “IWC,” which was a design sketched by Gérald Genta for the brand.
The auction house speculates that this sketch could have appeared in two possible time frames: 1) it could have been as early as the late 1960s, but due to not being discovered or exposed after completion, the watch industry generally believes that the Royal Oak designed by Gérald Genta in 1970 is the pioneer of luxury stainless steel sports watches; 2) the design sketch could also be from the 1970s, as Master Genta had designed the highly acclaimed “Ingenieur 1832 SL” for IWC Schaffhausen in 1974, so the sketch could have been born during this period.
However, there are currently three important clues that lead us to believe that this design may have originated as early as 1967. First, from the dial design, it is evident that this watch should have a manual winding movement, which was replaced by automatic winding chronograph movements after 1969. Secondly, IWC board member, former Executive Vice President and current Sales Director for Europe, Hannes Pantli, has been with the brand since 1972 and was unaware of this design drawing before that time. Thirdly, research indicates that IWC watches may have been planning to introduce a chronograph watch as early as 1967, leading to the creation of this design by Gérald Genta.
Although Genta himself had pointed out the importance of this sketch to his family, it wasn’t until today, with the help of IWC museum curator Dr. David Seyffer, that the outside world was able to fully and carefully understand the significant meaning behind this work. Over the years, whenever Genta’s groundbreaking designs are mentioned, people often first think of the Royal Oak and the Nautilus series designed for Patek Philippe, but in this discovered sketch, many distinctive design features of Genta’s later period can still be vaguely seen on the design drawing – such as stainless steel bracelet, screw-decorated bezel, sharp angular lines of the case, all revealing the unique master’s touch. Moreover, compared to the Royal Oak and Nautilus series which only added chronograph function in 1998 and 2006 respectively, this IWC watch design already incorporated the chronograph function from the beginning (presumably in 1967).
For the presentation of such important original design drawings this time, Benoît Colson, Director and International Expert of Sotheby’s Watch Department, said: “This design comes from the golden age of Gérald Genta’s stainless steel sports watches. In just a few years, he broke new ground with innovative designs, subverting and renewing the public’s concept of watches, bringing about a revolutionary change in the watch industry. Its importance is definitely not inferior to ‘Royal Oak’, ‘Nautilus’, or ‘Ingenieur 1832 SL’.”
As the only existing design drawing related to IWC in Genta’s personal collection, this special sketch will make a grand appearance at the third and final auction of “Gérald Genta: Icon of Time.” This online exclusive event by Sotheby’s in New York will take place from June 8 to 22, featuring a total of 35 original design drawings from Gérald Genta’s private collection, each accompanied by a unique NFT artwork.
Finally, this auction will also present many classic watch design original drawings by Gérald Genta, from the never-before-exposed Seiko Credor Locomotive, BVLGARI Roma design original drawings, to the controversial Gefic Safari matte bronze watch that caused a stir in the mid-1980s, and another representative work of Gérald Genta’s own brand, the Disney Fantasy series. For more information on this, stay tuned for ZTYLEZ MAN’s follow-up report.
