Gerald Charles Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary With Mr. Genta’s Favourite Stone

Gerald Charles announced the introduction of the Maestro 2.0 Ultra-Thin Lapis Lazuli, the first watch in its history to bear a hardstone dial. The design joins the brand’s flagship collection and brings an elegant new dimension to the Maestro, a watch which subverts traditional notions of watchmaking. 

Neither a dress watch nor a sports watch, the Maestro 2.0 Ultra-Thin Lapis Lazuli blends opulence and practicality in a manner typical of the company’s founder, the legendary watch designer Gérald Charles Genta. Indeed, the stone chosen for the dial was Genta’s personal favourite. The creation of the lapis lazuli dial is a painstaking and highly skilled process, taking an average of 24 hours per individual dial. From the very first step - the cutting of the raw stone - to the final assembly, it is a tentative journey with a risk of failure at every stage. Even selecting the stone at the outset presents its own challenge, as the colour within cannot be known until it is cut. As each dial is cut and polished from an initial 5mm thick disc down to a final thickness of just 0.55mm, a majority will be discarded as previously invisible imperfections are revealed. Ultimately, to make 50 dials at least 150 discs will be needed. 

The Maestro’s polished stainless-steel case has been enhanced by the addition of a blue Colormix coating to the bezel, a combined physical and chemical surface treatment that results in a rich blue colour as well as improved scratch resistance. The contrast between the polished bezel and the main case echoes the bold juxtaposition of the applied hour markers, inlaid with white Swiss Super-LumiNova, and the organic pattern of the lapis lazuli dial. The dial design is completed by a new logo for the brand, with ‘Geneve’ now signed beneath the Gerald Charles word mark; this reinforces the watchmaker’s connection with the city where its atelier is located.