Set to mark its birth at the 2019 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève on November 7th at the Théâtre de Léman, Genus Watches puts all its hope into its first timepiece, the GNS1. The young player is a new independent watchmaking brand from Geneva that takes a shot at a new creative Haute Horlogerie with an all gold timekeeping marvel.
While there are many attempts to reinvent the wheel in watchmaking, Genus has already made a first good impression through the way they’ve managed to display time. Sure, it drifts away from what we’re used to, but we have to admit their ingenuity.
The hour is indicated at the traditional 9 o’clock position, but it’s not something we’ve seen before. The hours rotate on a white-gold track, passing – when their time comes – in front of a small white arrow that points right to the 9 o’clock position. The hour track moves clockwise, while each hour adjusts its position in transit for added visual impact.
Reading the minutes becomes even more interesting and takes place in two stages. The first one shows the tens of minutes and does it through the use of two discs arranged in a figure of 8 in the center of the watch’s dial and a snake of blue arrows – called the ‘genus’ – flowing around them in a figure eight pattern in between the 60 and the 10 on the tens of minutes sub dial located at traditional 12 o’clock.
The second part of the minute indicator – the precise minute – is shown at 3 o’clock via a small rotating dial with indices from 0 to 9.The watches come in 18k white gold, with manufacture calibers and hand finished components. The caliber frequency is 18,000vph and everything is enclosed in a 43 mm case, water resistant up to only 30 meters. The total power reserve rises up to a total of 50 hours.
The watch is indeed a beautiful and artistic creation and if you really don’t have better things to do with $288,500 and almost never need to know the exact time, well, you can go for it. Otherwise, it can be prove to be too much for something for which you need at least several minutes of intense focus to figure out what time it is.
