Gérald Genta - The Geneva Watch Auction: XIX featuring the Guido Mondani Collection Geneva Saturday, May 11, 2024 | Phillips
  • Manufacturer: Gérald Genta
    Year: Circa 1990
    Reference No: G3632
    Case No: 79'927
    Model Name: Retro
    Material: Stainless steel
    Calibre: Automatic, cal. GA3R, jeweled
    Bracelet/Strap: Leather
    Clasp/Buckle: Stainless steel pin buckle
    Dimensions: 36mm Diameter
    Signed: Case and dial signed
    Accessories: Accompanied Gerald Genta warranty card label-stamped by Biassono (italy) retailer "Gioielleria Pozzi", instruction booklet, sale tag, presentation box and outer packaging

  • Catalogue Essay

    The present watch exemplifies how one can own a piece of watchmaking history - and quite an important one, in hindsight - without having to spend millions of dollars. As by today’s standard the association between pop culture icons - both fantasy ones as well as real-life ones - and watchmaking is a most cemented trend, it is difficult to imagine a time when putting a cartoon character on a watch was considered blasphemy. The very first one to infringe this taboo was indeed what is arguably the most gifted watch designer (and, later, maker) of all times: Mr. Gerald Genta.

    When he first showed such creations at Basel World in 1984 - where for the first time in history the likes of Mickey Mouse, The Pink Panther and Popey made an appearance on high-end mechanical timepieces - the organisers commented that “such a serious exhibition…has no room for mice, panthers, Popeye and other unsuitable characters” and Genta consequently decided to retire from the show. The 1984 EuropaStar article from which the previous excerpt is taken continues with what now sounds like a very prophetic question: “The use of … cartoon figures may shock us today because they seem to belong to a minor art. But what about tomorrow?”.

    Being tomorrow today, we all know what the answer to that question is, and it all started from a scorned line of timepieces of which the present watch is a remarkable example.
    One of the most committed merging of pop-culture and watchmaking, it truly checks all the boxes: precious metals? Check: mother-of-pear dial. Complicated movement? Check: retrograde minutes, jumping hours. Pop culture reference? Double check: beyond the obvious Donald, golf itself is a sort of pop-culture sport.

87

Lot offered with No Reserve

Ref. G3632
A rare, whimsical, attractive and very interesting stainless steel automatic wristwatch with retrograde minutes and jump hours time system in the shape of Donald Duck playing golf, and mother-of-pearl sky and minute track

Circa 1990
36mm Diameter
Case and dial signed

Estimate
CHF10,000 - 20,000 
€10,200-20,400
$10,900-21,900

Sold for CHF19,050

Contact Specialist

Alexandre Ghotbi
Deputy Chairman, Watches, Head of Watches, Europe, and Middle East

+41 79 637 17 24
AGhotbi@phillips.com

Tiffany To
Head of Sale, Geneva

+41 79 460 55 88
TiffanyTo@phillips.com

The Geneva Watch Auction: XIX featuring the Guido Mondani Collection

Geneva Auction 11 - 12 May 2024