Gérald Genta

In the midst of the so-called Quartz crisis, Audemars Piguet commissioned Gérald Genta to design a sporty yet elegant watch in stainless steel. Launched in 1972, the Royal Oak entailed an innovative disruption in haute horlogerie that revitalised the Swiss watchmaking industry.

Produced more than 35 years after the first sketch of the Royal Oak, Le Leman provides a captivating insight into Gérald Genta´s more intimate side and his unleashed creativity, which strikingly contrasts with his methodological and rigorous watch designs that Sotheby’s has proudly offered in the Icon of Time Series.

In this painting, Gérald Genta depicts a vibrant and colourful sunrise scene of Lake Geneva, the crescent-shaped lake in which the “cradle of watchmaking” is located. Perhaps reflecting upon the new era in the horological industry and eternally marked by the introduction and launching of the Royal Oak, Genta’s iconic design of the Royal Oak’s bezel with its 8 screws replaces the sun and thus embodies a new dawn for the Swiss watchmaking industry.