Remembering Gerald Genta

It still amazes me of how much he did in the watch industry. Read this this morning I never knew the back story to the AP Royal Oak

At the time of its launch in 1972, the Royal Oak was revolutionary. It was one of the first luxury Swiss watches to be made of stainless steel, and is credited by many for rejuvenating the mechanical watch industry at a time when quartz watches were in the ascendancy.

One of the highlights of the interview comes when Genta remembers how he famously came up with his groundbreaking design for the Royal Oak in a single night:

‘One afternoon, at four o’clock, Mr Georges Golay, the Managing Director of Audemars Piguet, rings me up and tells me: “Mr Genta, I need a steel sports watch that has never been done before. I want it to be something totally new and waterproof [and] I want the design by tomorrow morning.” I designed it over night.’

http://www.watches-of-switzerland.co.uk/category/news/remembering-gerald-genta-royal-oak-vacheron-omega-speedmaster




GÉRALD GENTA, A HISTORICAL INTERVIEW

Imagine a man who has - all on his own - designed the Beetle, the E-type, the DS, the Mini, the 911, the DB2, the 300SL, the GTO and hundreds of thousands of other car models...

Gérald Genta has created the Royal Oak, the Nautilus, the Ingénieur, the Pasha, the Bvlgari-Bvlgari, many state that by creating the 222 by Vacheron Constantin, he is also the spiritual father of the Overseas. He contributed to the creation of the Seamaster and of the Constellation (practically, the majority of successful sports watches today), as well as to at least 100,000 watches for most Haute Horlogerie companies (Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Piaget, Chopard, Van Cleef & Arpels, Omega, Chaumet, Corum, Hamilton, Universal, Seiko, down to his latest collaboration with the Confrérie Horlogère of Mathias Buttet), also by executing specially commissioned pieces for members of royal families and collectors from all corners of the world, without neglecting to design the most widely sold watch at the time, a Timex, which was produced in 30,000,000 copies !...

For the rest http://www.veryimportantwatches.com/el/articles/news/gerald_genta_a_historical_interview

Cool dude..one of the dead people I would invite to a dinner party.