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Gucci Celebrates 50 Years of Watchmaking

by Bhanu Chopra . Aug 24, 2022

Gucci Celebrates 50 Years of Watchmaking

The father of the famous Gucci fashion house, Guccio Giovanbattista Giacinto Dario Maria Gucci, was born in 1881 to a family that claims a line tracing back to Florence around 1410. At the tender age of 16, Gucci left Florence to travel around Europe. He worked as a bellhop at the famous Savoy Hotel in London and for the Compagnie des Wagons-Lits, a European luxury travel rail company that hosted upscale travel services such as The Orient Express.

It was there that Gucci began to understand the tastes and lifestyles of the wealthy, from the quality of fabrics in their clothing and jewelry to the conditions they endured while traveling. He brought those experiences and all he’d learned home to Florence, founded his own shop in 1921 and began to build the empire that it would become today. The first Gucci global tagline from 1947 captured the spirit of what Guccio Gucci had created: “Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten.”

Guccio Gucci

Half a century of Gucci Swiss Timepieces

By 1972, Gucci was well established as a respected luxury fashion house and turned their expertise for beauty and quality to watchmaking. In true Gucci fashion, they made the strategic decision to settle in the very heart of the timepiece industry in Switzerland. For their atelier, they chose the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds in the canton of Neuchâtel, a city in the beautiful Jura Mountains and a few kilometers from the French border. Founded in 1656, it has been home to some of the most important watchmakers in the world.

The designs for Gucci timepieces are developed at the Gucci watch headquarters in Neuchâtel. The assembly and diamond-setting happens at the Kering watch manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Over in the Canton of Ticino, in a city called Besazio, is where Gucci’s Fabbrica Quadranti facility crafts the dials and adds special decorative touches.

It was a bold move as they were the first high fashion house to expand to watchmaking. With the quality of the pieces and the Gucci eye for design, the watches were an immediate success. In fact, their first timepiece, the Model 2000 Gucci watch, earned a spot in the Guinness World Records in 1974 when they broke the record for selling more than one million units in two years.

Gucci 2000M Swiss Quartz (Image: Vintagetimewatches.com)

Gucci wonderland in Geneva

This year marks the 50th, or “golden,” anniversary of Gucci watchmaking, and the maison is celebrating the milestone with the release of their 2022 High Watchmaking collection. The stunning lineup includes five new models inspired by the magic of a fairground: the impressive Gucci 25H Skeleton Tourbillon, the whimsical G-Timeless Planetarium, the stunning G-Timeless Moonlight, the dynamic G-Timeless Dancing Bees, and the playful Grip. With characteristic Gucci flair, the maison debuted the collection at their Gucci Wonderland event in Geneva.

This year Gucci presented its second high watchmaking collection at the Gucci Wonderland event in Geneva

Revolution was invited to join this grand affair with its magical winter wonderland atmosphere that turned out to be ever more special on an unexpected snow-filled day in April! We were privileged to get a first look at the five new models that encapsulate the creative side of Gucci timepieces.

Gucci 25H Skeleton Tourbillon

Gucci 25H Skeleton Tourbillon in white and yellow gold

At only 8mm thick, the Gucci 25H Skeleton is a stunning implementation of an ultra thin watch and is an inspired reinterpretation of the Gucci 25H Tourbillon from last year. The entire focus of the watch is the GG727.25.TS movement, and the skeleton dial has entirely been built around this retro futuristic centerpiece. At the six o’clock position, the flying tourbillon appears to float above the brushed and polished titanium bridges. The hands are skeletonized as well and layered to create a sense of visual depth that belies the incredible slim design.

The case is 40mm, a rounded shape with a wide bezel, and finished with a beautiful brushed technique. Available in either 100 percent recycled gold with a white or yellow bracelet variation, or in slate gray titanium with a rubber strap, the Gucci 25H Skeleton Tourbillon is a sophisticated timepiece with a modern sport aesthetic.

G-Timeless Planetarium

G-Timeless Planetarium in yellow gold

G-Timeless Planetarium in white gold

The G-Timeless Planetarium switches gears from sport to luxury jewelry. The dial is everything one would expect from the exclusive Italian fashion house. Inside a dramatic ring of 12 princess-set colored gemstones rests an intricately decorated Dancing Hours Flying Tourbillon with its diamond star at the center. The effect is a set of concentric circles that include the beautifully worked case for a timepiece that serves as a gorgeous piece of quality jewelry.

The most magical part of the GGC.1976. DS caliber movement isn’t evident at first glance. With the press of a button, the gem-set wheel comes alive in a rotating dance that will surprise and delight viewers with a gala of light. The G-Timeless Planetarium is available in white, rose or yellow gold variations with the rotating wheel of tsavorite, blue tanzanite or yellow beryl gemstones. Bold and whimsical, the Planetarium is a playful take on elegance and high fashion as well as a showcase for the technical mastery of the Swiss watchmakers.

G-Timeless Moonlight

G-Timeless Moonlight in white gold

G-Timeless Moonlight in pink gold

The G-Timeless Moonlight is a watch that will capture attention at first sight. The star of this show is the in- house 29.5-day lunar phase movement with a gorgeous complication that reveals the moon from the most delicate silver crescent to a luminous, pearlescent full moon. Surrounding the beautiful moonphase wheel is a dial crafted from natural meteorite that has been decorated with planets and stellar diamonds. The star- shaped indexes ring the dial and a whimsical shooting star adds a wonderful final touch.

The G-Timeless Moonlight is available in pink gold and white gold with a luxurious alligator strap that completes the old world aesthetic.

G-Timeless Dancing Bees

G-Timeless Dancing Bees tourbillon with diamond-setting

Gucci has updated their G-Timeless Dancing Bees tourbillon with diamond-set models. This is a timepiece that honors the complex en-tremblant jewelry styles that were designed to move with the wearer. The Dancing Bees watches feature 12 bees around the dial that shimmer and dance with movements of the wrist. Gucci has added two new timepieces with a dial composed of rare pink and green opals cut into bricks and applied in a beautiful chevron pattern on mother-of-pearl. Each watch will be a one-of-a-kind due to the natural markings of the opals. The timepieces are paired with either white gold or yellow gold bracelet or with alligator straps. The caseback has been mirrored to create a space for a personalized engraving.

Grip Sapphire

Grip Sapphire in mint green colorway

The Grip Sapphire mechanical collection gets two new models in a mint green colorway. The cushion-shaped case is crafted from a pure sapphire with a specialist machine and then polished until completely transparent. Inside is a Swiss made jumping hour movement that displays the hours and minutes in a window on the dial for a playful interpretation of jumping hours. The two new mint green models are available with turquoise hour and minute disks or mauve pink disks. The timepiece is paired with a mint green rubber strap.

The five new models in the second Gucci High Watchmaking collection are a fascinating exploration of very different sides of timekeeping and luxury design.

The Exhibition

Gucci began by truly understanding the quality that lasts, aligned with a beauty that compels. It’s apparent in the High Watchmaking collections that this deep understanding of value and spectacle translated perfectly into the Swiss watchmaking division. With this second collection, the brand has brought the feel of luxury Italian design to the heart of Swiss timepieces with a touch of carnival magic.

To celebrate 50 years of Gucci Swiss timepieces, the maison has assembled a collection of watches throughout the decades of Italian born, Swiss designed timepieces. The collection includes a selection of interesting and curious timekeeping designs from the popular 1960s handbag watches to the futuristic steel watches of the ’90s. The exhibition explores Gucci’s influence on watch design from 1970 to today.

An elegant Gucci Greenhouse setting for the Gucci Wonderland event in Geneva with selection of interesting and curious timekeeping designs from the popular 1960s handbag watches to the futuristic steel watches of the ’90s

To reveal the new 2022 watch designs, Gucci has created an elegant Gucci Greenhouse setting for the Gucci Wonderland event in Geneva. In this special preview, there are four watches on show to highlight the core collection updates.

Gucci 25H

Gucci 25H in green aluminum

This year, Gucci has released three new 30mm Gucci 25H quartz models in stainless steel, stainless steel with gold plating, and a spectacular diamond dial model. There are also two new Gucci 25H glass dial designs with a 38mm gender neutral case in either turquoise blue or pink glass. The Gucci 25H in aluminum blends pink, blue and green with a pink brass dial and a special wave pattern decoration on the caseback.

G-Timeless

G-Timeless in yellow gold

The bee motif makes a return in two new editions in either a 32mm or a 38mm dial. Offered with either a quartz or an automatic movement and housed in either 18K yellow gold, steel or bi-metal, this timepiece is an artistic look at using metal with various dial materials like silver, gold, pink lacquer and black onyx to showcase 15 golden bees.

Gucci Dive

Gucci Dive with bio-based materials

The Gucci Dive watch is the brand’s 2022 take on a serious luxury sport watch with bio-based materials. Three designs were created with matte white, aquamarine and natural moss green. The case and the coordinating straps are crafted from a rubber-like material created with plant substances, including oil and corn.

Grip

Grip with yellow gold PVD dial

This is a signature version of the Grip watch with a yellow gold PVD dial in either 27mm or 38mm. This timepiece is a tribute to the watches of the 1970s with a contemporary look. Paired with a black alligator strap, this is a handsome addition to the Grip line.