Gucci Gets Into Customizable Timepieces With Third High Watchmaking Collection
MILAN — Gucci is taking its watchmaking collection to new heights — quite literally.
After celebrating its centennial with its first high watchmaking collection and marking 50 years of Swiss-made timepieces with a second iteration, the Florentine luxury house is debuting its third range in Geneva this week.
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The collection reveals a space travel inspiration with moonlight and cosmo references informing the precious and gemstone-rich designs.
Among the standouts, three new versions, including a fully customizable one, join the G-Timeless Moonlight family.
Charting the waxing and waning of the moon, the design includes a Gucci movement GGV838.MP and promises up to 360 years of accuracy. The new made-to-order 41-millimeter watch, in 18-karat white gold and blue aventurine glass and mother-of-pearl dial, can be personalized entirely to a client’s place, time and date of birth.
Depicting the sky at the moment of birth, six natural gemstones decorate the dial’s moveable rehaut to represent zodiac signs, alongside six diamonds, and customizable characters print. The crown has a cabochon birthstone, and the oscillating weight features the client’s astral map and coordinates. Its alligator strap can be customized, too.
“Gucci’s new G-Timeless Moonlight masterpiece reflects the trend for personal expression, exclusivity and customization… This is a very special timepiece imbued with a deeply personal message, one we are proud and excited to launch,” said Maurizio Pisanu, Gucci’s managing director of watches and jewelry.
The new customizable timepiece is flanked by two other versions, equally precious, one featuring a mother-of-pearl and purple-blue lacquer dial that highlights a multicolored opal moonphase disc, and the other boasting a green aventurine glass and mother-of-pearl dial and green opal moonphase disc.
The collection is complemented by new iterations across Gucci’s four other timepiece families.
Four additions to the G-Timeless Planetarium range feature a rotating halo of 12 Ethiopian opals or a combination of opals and topazes, peridots and amethysts, among other versions. A star-studded timepiece boasts a halo of 12 diamond-punctuated gold stars.
“Just as a planetarium reflects the night sky, this extraordinary timepiece captures the mystery and wonder of our cosmos,” said Pisanu. “It really is a piece that answers the call for beauty and enchantment.”
For its jumping hour Grip family, Gucci added a new version laid with vintage-like hard stones, such as brick-red jasper and chrysoprase, set in 18-karat pink gold, while the G-Timeless Dancing Bees collection sees the addition of a 0.45-millimeter-thick turquoise dial and pistachio green opal dial versions — both exalting the house’s craftsmanship.
As part of the ultra-thin Gucci 25H family, the brand is introducing a new timepiece powered by the GG727.25.PC movement that the company said won’t need adjustments before the year 2100.
A testament to its commitment to the category first introduced in 2021, the house has unveiled the Gucci Watch Lab, its newly renovated watch manufacturing site in Cortaillod, Switzerland.
Aimed at bringing most of the different watchmaking steps under the same roof, the 96,875-square-foot space employs 140 people. There Gucci carries out R&D, quality control, prototyping and production, assembly and finishing of its timepiece collections.
Powered by green energy in sync with the brand’s sustainability goals for 2022, the complex houses the division’s offices, laboratories, as well as showroom, VIP and exhibition areas. The latter hosts a permanent display of Gucci’s Swiss watchmaking heritage over the past 50 years.
“It’s a living, breathing home of creativity and craftsmanship where exciting new designs and ideas come to life,” said Pisanu. “This newly renovated state-of-the-art facility will ensure that Gucci timepieces continue to be globally recognized for their innovative and contemporary design, quality and craftsmanship,” he said.
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