GÉRALD GENTA AND THE WATCH THAT KICKSTARTED HIS CAREER

In 1954 at just 23, Gérald Genta designed the Polerouter, which would lay the foundation for a remarkable artistic career of watch designs, paintings, sculpture, and other unique creations.

Gérald Genta (1931-2011) was not only the most famous watch designer who ever lived, he was also the hardest working. Every day he sat down at his desk at 6 o’clock in the morning. According to Genta’s widow, Evelyne Genta, the intricate and unique designs flowed from his pen like water from a fountain, and she estimates that he made around 100,000 designs in a career that spanned more than six decades. “Whenever Gérald talked about his career, he always started with the Polerouter and Universal Genève – it was the start of it all,” she said of the watch her late husband designed when he was just 23 years old.

The son of Italian immigrants in Geneva who were severely affected by the 1930s Depression, Genta grew up in harsh conditions. When he was a child, his father jumped from job to job, trying to support the family. Gérald often had to help his nearly blind mother with various errands after school. And school was something he didn’t like, especially after a teacher disparaged his Italian heritage.  

But he found a personal sanctum. According to the book The Maestro and His Art, at age seven he cut a piece of wood into a palette and started painting in secret. From then on, he remained torn between two worlds: one of free, artistic, colourful creation which he disappeared into for hours, and the other to succeed and give himself and his parents a better life.  

Somehow these worlds fused when he made an apprenticeship to become a jeweller. But once completed, it was only months before the job became a source of frustration. Genta could not create the jewellery he imagined in his vivid mind. Add to that artistic clashes with management, and one day Genta simply stormed out, throwing his tools into the Rhône River, and vowing never to have a boss again.  

To get by, he found small creative gigs, dreaming of a career in fashion. But he soon realized that while Geneva had much going for it, it was neither Paris nor Milan. But the Swiss city did have a thriving watch industry in need of creative input. Remember, this was a time when the word “designer” barely existed, and Universal Genève was one of the very few brands that even had an in-house creative department.  

So, inspired by the success stories of Raymond Loewy, known as the father of industrial design, the 20-year-old Genta made drawings, which he would sell on spec to watch manufacturers. In the beginning, Genta knocked on their doors and was often met with suspicion. But if the manufacturers liked what they saw, they would purchase a few designs at 15 francs a pop. It sounds like a fairytale today, but this is how he gained the trust of Audemars Piguet, who became a regular client of his.

Soon the word of the young, talented designer spread to Universal Genève, whose director was the colourful Raoul Perret. It is not known whether it was Perret himself who, in 1954, reached out to Genta to design the Universal Genève Polarouter (renamed Polerouter in 1957). But it is highly likely, since Perret was very involved in his company’s designs.  

Genta’s watch developed for SAS airline pilots featured an intricate two-layered dial and other functional aspects that made it shock-resistant, water-resistant, dust-proof, and most importantly, anti-magnetic – a necessity for flying the first commercial routes over the North Pole. 

The Polerouter would kickstart Genta’s career. He would go on to design or redesign iconic watches like the Omega Constellation (1959), the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak (1973), Patek Philippe’s Nautilus (1976), IWC’s Ingenieur (1976), Bulgari Bulgari (1977), and Cartier’s Pasha (1985). Several of these even gave birth to a completely new genre: luxury sports watches in steel.  

At just 23, he cemented a legacy of timeless, clean-lined designs with the Polerouter. His ties to any one company, however, were somewhat less enduring. “He was with Universal Genève for a long time, but he was never an employee there,” Evelyne explained. “He didn’t like being an employee anywhere.”  

In parallel with his icons for other houses, Genta founded an eponymous brand in 1969. Its raison d’être was exceptional and eccentric watches for unique clients. Royals and sultans from Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Oman, England, Spain, and Brunei, were among the clients of this brand as well as business leaders and sports stars. Many watches were unique creations, and some were made in small series. Genta’s ingenuity could be seen in models like the Gefica Safari and the Grande Sonnerie.  

Later Genta would also show his playful side, as he introduced cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse and The Pink Panther on the dials with rotating arms to indicate the time. These watches quickly became pop-culture icons.  

In 1996 he sold his brand, according to The Maestro and His Art, because it had grown to be more of a cumbersome corporate affair than an outlet for artistic creation. But Genta could not stop designing watches, and throughout his career, he kept painting and sculpting for art exhibitions. He also designed exquisite clocks and automatons.