Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. The Gerald Charles Maestro GC39 Jumping Hour 25th-Anniversary Edition
Celebrating a milestone, the brand revisits a 2005 Gérald Genta jumping hours watch.
The Gerald Charles brand was founded by the legendary designer Gérald Genta in 2000, with backing from the Zivani family. After the designer’s death in 2011, Federico Zivani set about reviving the brand and has since created a solid collection of watches around the idiosyncratic yet immediately recognisable Maestro case. Celebrating 25 years of the brand, Gerald Charles unveils the Maestro GC39 with Jumping Hours.
In 2005, Genta designed a model with a sliding hours complication, entrusting the movement to friend and master watchmaker Antoine Preziuso. Indicating the hour via a rotating disc in an aperture at noon, Genta’s jumping hours watch was known as the GC39. Inspired by this model, the brand releases a 100-piece edition inspired by the GC39.
Genta’s unmistakable stepped case, inspired by Rome’s ornate Baroque architecture, hosts the complication. Crafted in titanium and polished, the lightweight case measures 42mm across with a thickness of 11mm. Despite its flamboyant dressy appeal, the watch has sporty features, like a screw-down crown with a Clous de Paris grip to ensure 100m water-resistance and a blue vulcanised rubber strap.
The dial has a central slice of lapis lazuli, Genta’s favourite semi-precious stone. Surrounding the lapis lazuli is an eye-catching spectacle of silvery rays. Like pleated satin, these dramatic rays are created using a proprietary micro-chemical engraving technique called meta-guillochage. A blued steel frame contains the arced aperture for the jumping hours, followed by a peripheral black minutes track with blued steel cabochon five-minute markers. An interesting feature is that the hours advance in an anti-clockwise direction.
To avoid hampering the view of the jumping hours, the blued central minutes hand is openworked. Underscoring the signature asymmetrical silhouette of the case, the lapis lazuli plaque, the blued steel frame, and the peripheral minutes track imitate its shape. A special 25th-anniversary logo appears on the lapis lazuli plate.
The automatic movement powering the jumping hours – calibre 4.0 – has a 50-hour power reserve, which is surprisingly robust given the energy expended by a complication of this nature. Developed and patented by Gerald Charles, the jumping hours module, placed on top of an automatic movement, required 80 components, some of which were manufactured in-house. Decorated with Côtes de Genève and perlage, the golden rotor features the honeycomb design and the brand’s 25th-anniversary logo.
The Maestro GC39 25th Anniversary is a limited edition of 100 pieces and retails for CHF 36,000 / EUR 36,000 / GBP 32,200 / USD 42,300 (all prices excl. tax). The brand will also be opening the Gérald Charles Museum in Geneva at the brand’s atelier, offering access to archival material and original hand-painted designs by Gérald Genta – by appointment only. More information at geraldcharles.com.
