Gérald Genta, designer of numerous icons in horological history, presented a design to Swedish watch brand Arlanch. We all know Genta best for his outspoken Royal Oak and Nautilus designs, but he also designed a number of watches under his own label (now owned by Bvlgari). This eight sided timepiece for Arlanch reminds me of the design used by Genta’s own complicated timepieces he did in the 1990s.

Picture by Antiquorum, lot #390 of the 5-12-2007 auction.

The Arlanch logo on the sub dial, functioning as a second hand looks very cool, just like the lower side of the watch with a small wave in it. The hands remind me of the ones on a Royal Oak. Gabriel Arlanch, owner of Arlanch in Sweden is proud to present the octagonal Genta trademark case as his concept watch for his brand.

Arlanch started in 2007 and released one watch so far, an ecological gold watch (details can be found on www.arlanch.se). Since that time, Gabriel has been researching oil-free technology for mechanical watch movements. In the meanwhile, Gabriel got in touch with Gérald Genta and received this design. Furthermore, Genta suggested the Swiss made La Joux-Perret caliber 3532 movement for this particular design. It has a power reserve of 44 hours and beats 28,800 times an hour.

Gabriel Arlanch: “As a piece unique by Genta the most appropriate would be a white gold, platinum or palladium case.”. When I asked him about the clientèle for this timepiece, he answered “I guess it would be someone very familiar with the work of Genta and his unparalleled influence on the watch industry.”.

Unfortunately, this octagonal Arlanch watch is just a concept and it is not sure (yet) whether we will see it in production. As the interest in these specific Genta designs has been proven during auctions by Antiquorum, I am pretty sure there will be clients for this Arlanch by Genta as well. Their design represent more of Genta than the Genta-Bvlgari models do in my humble opinion.

More on Genta here and here.