Q&ARiding Together: Gerald Charles’s Chief On The Ducati Partnership And Their Italian Heritage

What are these watches that you have with you today? Could you tell me about them?

I’ve brought with me some very nice ‘candies’ from Geneva, directly from the Gerald Charles atelier. You have the Maestro Skeleton, open-worked with 66 baguette-cut rubies. It’s a limited edition of 10 pieces. And what’s special about this watch is that even as jewelled watch, it is 100m water resistant. And then we have the Maestro GC 9.0 Roman Tourbillon, which I knew you would like a lot. I think you already have an article about it.

Yes, indeed we do.

This is so special because it takes three weeks to make. You take a round plate of 18-karat gold, hammer it, and then you cut it all around in the shape of the case. You place the indexes. The very special thing about this watch is that it’s underneath the water. You don’t find any other hammered-dial watch with a 100m water resistance. This one is suitable even for the gym and in turbulent conditions. You see things like gem-setting and tourbillons—these things are usually towards a very classical side for other brands, but at Gerald Charles, what we wanted was a hand-hammered gold dial, but in a watch that is still sporty, water-resistant, shock-resistant and comfortable. This really is the full package.

This is also the reason for the higher cost. If I was making this watch 30m water-resistant, the cost would be much lower. If I was making this watch round—again, much cheaper. But if you make this comfortable, shockproof waterproof, and with the precious stones—that is difficult.

"The Maestro GC 9.0 Roman Tourbillon is so special because it takes three weeks to make. You take a round plate of 18-karat gold, hammer it, and then you cut it all around in the shape of the case." This is Federico Ziviane's wrist, with the Roman Tourbillon on it

You place the indexes. The very special thing about this watch is that it's underneath the water. You don't find any other hammered-dial watch with a 100m water resistance

How do you go about deciding when a collection needs gemstones or when you want to do a skeletonised display or when you want to add a specific feature?

We have the archives of Gérald Genta. There are several sketches that we can use, and we respect the legacy. He made a lot of gem-set watches. He made a lot of skeleton timepieces, and we now use modern technology to improve on what was done before. So we work a lot with the legacy when adding models to the existing collections.

"We have the archives of Gérald Genta. We work a lot with [that] legacy when adding models to the existing collections." Seen here is the new Masterlink, which adapts the Gerald Charles case shape with an integrated bracelet

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The Masterlink runs on an automatic movement with a micro-rotor

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The links of the Masterlink bracelet takes forward the curve on the lower end of the case

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What are the challenges of being innovative and staying in the same case shape?

Yeah, it’s the beauty more than the challenge, you know, because we have a strong contrast. If you innovate, and you don’t respect the legacy, it’s not valuable for me. If you just respect the legacy, but you don’t innovate, it’s not valuable for me. So to be able to respect the legacy and innovate adds great value for the collectors. Our objective is for the collector to have value. There’s artistic value as well as product innovation as part of the legacy, and a lot of people just stop at the design. At Gerald Charles, we are very technically driven as well. To make a case in this shape costs three and a half times more than to make regular round cases. It takes more than twice the time to make the cases. It’s also challenging for waterproofness

If I was making round case, it would be cheaper, easier. But I insisted that it should be 100m water-resistant, 5G shockproof, and the engineers said that they couldn’t do it. I said, “Yes you have to do it, otherwise you don’t work here.” As they start working on something, I push them, push, push, push, and then they understand. And then they try and then, innovate. We also made a very special construction for all the screw-down crown.

The atypical case shape works well for the Gerald Charles Maestro Chronograph

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The sub-dial at six o'clock is nicely cradled in curve on the lower end of the dial and case

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This edition is in gold, but the Maestro Chronograph also comes in steel

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And what are the challenges of designing watches and constructing movements that fit into this case?

It’s like ping pong between the designer and the engineer. The designer says that they want a particular look, and the engineer brings us the constraints. And then they must work like a team. Design understands the engineering necessity and engineering understands the design, and they work together to try and keep the design. It’s really creative work and cannot be automated.

Can you talk about your collaboration with Ducati? How did it come about and what were the thoughts that went behind creating the special edition?

This is the first time that Ducati has participated in developing a watch with a manufacturer. Normally it’s: Okay, give me a logo and some brand colours. But in this partnership, it was more of a collaborative experience. Two years ago, Ducati came to visit us, saying that they wanted to celebrate the third anniversary of the 916 bike, and we expressed our interest. Then we went to Bologna to meet the CEO. I told him about the brand, the Maestro watches, and he spoke of the designer Massimo Tamburini, who’s referred to as a maestro. And as we started working on the watch, we got access to Ducati engineers and designers to develop this unique watch. So, here you have a carbon case, a ceramic bezel and titanium caseback—all together in a watch because of the motorbike criteria. You can recognise the top ceramic bezel. Then we moved on to the complication, and we visited the archives of Gerald Charles, and we found some jumping hours. Ducati says yes, and we decided to make the jumping hours like the wheel of the bike. The entire hour disc jumps when the minute hand, so you have no hand for hours. When the minute hand arrives at 12, the hour jumps. It’s unique—very different from everything else at Gerald Charles. Our watches are normally more elegant. This one is sportier. Why? Because it’s a marriage of Ducati and Gerald Charles. It’s 50 percent of Ducati aggressiveness and 50 percent of Gerald Charles’s elegance. What do you think?

Yeah, it’s beautiful. And it’s fascinating how this case is so adaptable, even though it doesn’t seem like it would be.

It’s a big development. It was difficult to make. The biggest challenge behind the scenes was this disc. It’s so big that we needed so much power to make it jump. Normally, you need to turn ahead. Think how big this is. And how much power is needed.

And what’s the power reserve on this?

It’s 50 hours.

"[When] we moved on to the complication, we visited the archives of Gerald Charles, and we found some jumping hours. Ducati says yes, and we decided to make the jumping hours like the wheel of the bike"

"The entire hour disc jumps when the minute hand, so you have no hand for hours. When the minute hand arrives at 12, the hour jumps." Seen here is the automatic movement running the complication, through the exhibition caseback

Gerald Charles Maestro

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Where does this collaboration go from here? What kind of a partnership are you looking forward to come out of this, apart from creating this and other potential special editions?

It’s a long-term partnership, which will go into next year. We will do a round of events, maybe organise a big one in India too. A lot of Ducati clients are already asking for the watch, without much marketing, so it’s not a marketing move. It’s a collaboration of creativity—a co-development in engineering. And we believe that people will like this watch even if they don’t like bikes, because it brings together efforts in design, materials and engineering. And it doesn’t have the Ducati logo.

What do you have to say about your Italian design legacy versus Swiss watchmaking? How do they come together?

They fully power together. Gérald Genta was originally from Italy, from Peidmont, and then his family moved to Geneva. He was born in Geneva to Italian immigrants. The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak is an original design of an Italian. The Patek Philippe Nautilus’s design is also an outcome of Italian legacy. Of course, he was Swiss, because he was born in Switzerland, but his origins were Italian. His ancestors are Italian. Italian design and Swiss mechanics is the best the combination. This is not because I say it; it’s because the market is telling us this. It’s very important—the Swiss precision, quality, processes, training, savoir faire. But the creativity… Before Genta, all the watches were round. You check the watches from the 30s, the 20s, etc. There were always round, gold watches. Audemars Piguet—round, gold watch; Patek Philippe—round, gold watch; Vacheron Constantin—round, gold watch; Rolex… Then the Italian legacy, creativity comes in. And that’s when these brands switched to next level.

"Our watches are more elegant," says Ziviani. Even the Gerald Charles Mestro Sport, which is suitable for sporting activity, is still on the elegant side

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It even goes with formal attire

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The grained finish on the dial shows the level of fine detailing seen even in their sport watches

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What do you see in the future of Gerald Charles? Where do you see the brand in about 10 years hence?

The brand will keep making complications. We are not a mass-market brand. We are a high-end, watchmaking, creative brand that needs to bring more and more innovation. So, expect more complications, more finishing, more innovation, but it’s always about remembering where you come from, the legacies. It’ll always be about elegance—classy, sporty together, with contrast and balance, but with higher complications. What you see at Gerald Charles today is a lot of entry-level pieces. They can be like candy for the collectors to get an entry to the brand, without having to spend a very high amount. But the higher-end pieces are coming in a bigger way, with complications, developed in-house.

What are your thoughts about mechanical innovation versus material innovation?

Both are very important. Here in the Ducati you see material innovation and mechanical innovation with jumping hours. For the first time in the Maestro case, ceramic and titanium together. It’s difficult because each material has different properties. Not too many brands make such combinations. But three materials together—one will have to check how many brands have three. There must be a lot of two-material combinations; but three, never. It’s the same as in the bike. To put the materials together and bring together their different properties present certain challenges. And we work on fixing things. We develop, we study, we research, we engineer. And then with complications and movements, innovation is so important—just like for the engine of a high-performance motorbike.