Two of the most popular watches, the Nautilus and the Royal Oak were designed by one man, Gérald Genta. In this fascinating conversation with his wife, Evelyne Genta, John Reardon discovers how their partnership resulted in some of the most important watch designs in modern watchmaking history. Equally impressive is her own distinguished career. Since 2011, Her Excellency Madame Evelyne Genta has held the prestigious position as The Ambassador, Monaco embassy to United Kingdom. Born in Monaco, she was educated in London and has lived there for the past 15 years. 

Between 1983 and 1999, Evelyne and her husband ran the watch brand Gérald Genta. During this exciting and extremely innovative period, Evelyne managed two factories in Switzerland with 250 employees while developing new markets in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

This spring, Sotheby’s is auctioning off a selection of Gérald Genta’s paintings, including his original 1970 painting of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and his 1976 painting of the Patek Philippe Nautilus. In total, 100 pieces, personally selected by Madame Genta and her daughter Alexia from his treasure trove of over 3,200 works will be sold. Importantly, Sotheby’s is selling each painting with an NFT which protects authentication and ownership. The sale is in honor of the 10th anniversary of the death of Gérald Genta and proceeds of the sale will go to the Gérald Genta Heritage Association of which Evelyne Genta is President and Chairperson.

Selecting which artworks to auction was a monumental task. Gérald Genta’s prolific design portfolio includes designs for all the great watchmakers: in addition to his iconic Royal Oak for Audemars Piguet and the Nautilus for Patek Philippe, he designed the SAS Polarouter for Universal Genève at the age of 23, The Constellation for Omega in 1959, The Ingenieur for IWC in 1976 and countless others for watchmakers such as Piaget, Cartier, Corum, Hermès to name but a few. In this Collectability Podcast, we learn how the pieces were selected for auction and hear extraordinary stories about the legend himself and the exciting life Gérald and Evelyne had during their 33 years of marriage.

For more information on Sotheby's auction of Gérald Genta's work please go to https://www.sothebys.com/en/series/gerald-genta-icon-of-time