When Matthieu Hegi met Evelyne Genta, the widow and longtime business partner of the famed watch designer Gerald Genta, he immediately took note of her one-of-a-kind wristwatch, an unusual round model with tiny beads dotting its case.
Mr. Genta designed the piece in 1994, and named it Oursin, French for sea urchin, because the spiny case reminded him of the creature, Ms. Genta said by phone recently from her home in London. She noted that the design owed much to the family’s frequent vacations to Corsica, where Mr. Genta “was always eating urchins.” (The designer died in 2011.)
The Oursin made an impression on Mr. Hegi, the artistic director of Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, the watch factory owned by the luxury group LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. So when LMVH took over the Gérald Genta watch brand in 2023, Mr. Hegi felt the urge to revisit the unusual watch.
Last year the brand introduced three reimagined versions of the Oursin in its Gentissima collection, and January saw the release of the fourth and most flamboyant iteration so far: the 10-piece limited edition Oursin Fire Opal. Set with 137 beads of Mexican fire opal that are affixed to the case by tiny 18-karat gold pins, the 36.5-millimeter yellow gold watch boasts a matte glass-blasted finish and is complemented by an orange-red carnelian dial faceted into an octagon, Mr. Genta’s signature shape. (Price on application)
On a recent video call from his studio in Geneva, Mr. Hegi reflected on why, out of thousands of sketches in the Genta archives, he chose to remake the Oursin. “It was very eye-catching,” he said, as he absently played with a sea urchin shell that he keeps in his office. “And that’s the reason why, when we started thinking about the relaunch of the Gérald Genta brand, we thought it was a nice thread to pull, to connect the story from past to future.”
As for the Oursin Fire Opal, “I wanted to come out with a version that really embodies the spirit of Corsica, of the South of France, of warmth, of sun, of happiness and joy,” said Mr. Hegi, who is a trained gemologist. “And of course, I chose the stone I have loved forever: the fire opal.
All opals are delicate, a factor that made Mr. Hegi’s idea a bit risky. “The most challenging thing was to drill the beads because they are very small and opal contains water, so you cannot drill it with a laser, for instance,” he said. “You have to do that by hand, and they are very fragile.”
The process of fashioning the Oursin’s spiky exterior took place at La Fabrique des Boîtiers, a specialized division of La Fabrique du Temps dedicated to case making, also located in Geneva.
Ms. Genta described the opal watch as “very Gerald.”
“My husband was a painter and he loved red and orange,” she said, “and he was constantly telling me that fire opals, which he had used before, were magical.”
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