Horologii

An Introduction to Gucci Watches

Undeniably one of the world’s largest luxury fashion Houses, Gucci is unfamiliar to no one. They are renowned for their sense of boldness and opulence displayed through clothing, shoes, bags, scarves, jewellery and of course, watches. Created at the pinnacle of Italian craftsmanship, Gucci watches currently flourish under the vision of creative director Alessandro Michele who over the last few years has set the brand on a relentless path to success.

While the Gucci brand is known to everyone, a fact surprising to even us was that Gucci’s revenues  place them among the top 25 Swiss watch brands in the world, something of a difference between its sister companies Ulysse Nardin and Girard-Perregaux, additional pedigree watch brands also owned by the Kering Group. Despite this, the team here at Horologii have yet to explore the Gucci watch collections in more detail and so here we are, introducing Gucci watches to both ourselves and our readers.

A Brief History of Gucci

Regarded as one of the oldest Italian fashion brands still in operation, Gucci was founded in 1921 by Guccio Gucci. In the centre of Florence, he opened the House of Gucci, an equestrian and luggage shop that for over twelve years grew at a stable pace. Then, in 1933, Gucci’s son Aldo joined the business and in turn evolved both its marketable logo and products. The brand still produced leather goods alongside premium knitwear, silk goods, shoes and handbags all embossed with the distinctive double G emblem that still decorates Gucci’s modern-day collections. The monogram quickly found itself adorning the bodies of wealthy travellers as well as some Hollywood stars.

In 1953, Guccio passed away and the business continued under the supervision of his three sons, Aldo, Vasco and Rodolfo. It was during this time the Italian fashion House introduced even more accessories to their portfolio including fine jewellery, and our favourite, luxury watches. Over the next few decades, the brand would continue to succeed, that was until 1983 when Rodolfo Gucci died and his son Maurizio struggled to maintain its reputation. In order to restore the Gucci name, Tom Ford was hired as Creative Director in 1994, who with bold, flashy designs and hyper-sexualized advertising won over a whole new customer base.

More recently in 2015, Alessandro Michele, originally an accessory designer at Gucci, was promoted to Creative Director. His unique approach to combining both Gucci’s historic motifs and designs with contemporary elements of indulgence and luxury has proven a huge success particularly with younger audiences. In early 2017, it was declared that Gucci had attained record sales under Michele’s leadership, fuelling an 11% boost in profits for Kering.

The Gucci Watch Collections

Under the creative direction of Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s most recent luxury watch collections have seen huge success with both trendsetting youths and more experienced watch aficionados. One of their biggest launches, which hit wrists just this year was the Gucci 25H watch collection. Launched during the Watches & Wonders 2021 event, the line revealed a selection of ultra-thin luxury sports watches including a sample of quartz and automatic designs and a rare tourbillon watch which has officially marked the Italian firm’s entry into the high-end watch market.

The Gucci 25H Tourbillon watch is one we hope to review in detail someday soon, but it’s streamlined 40mm stainless steel case houses what has been named the GG727.25 automatic winding mechanical calibre developed by Kering in the Swiss watchmaking town of La Chaux-de-Fonds. It’s the House’s first in-house movement and it comes with a micro rotor and a solid power reserve of 60 hours. The watch itself is a real statement piece, tourbillon or not, with a silver brushed dial, a brushed stainless steel case and matching integrated bracelet.

Another of Gucci’s best-selling watch collections is the Gucci Grip. Launched in 2019, this family of unisex watches takes inspiration from the world of skateboarding and the way a rider’s trainers stick to the grip tape on a board. This imagery is frozen within the streamlined cushion-shaped cases, some of which come with groove detailing, and the solid link bracelets. A quick glance at the Gucci Grip watch collection and you can see it’s incredibly retro, particularly the arrangement of the hours and minutes. They are set on a rotating dial with the top arch showing off the hours and the middle displaying the minutes.

Other Gucci watch collections include the Gucci GG2570 watch series again taking tropes from the 1970’s with geometric architecture, squared-off bezels and statement straps designed for both men and women in sizes ranging from 29mm to 41mm. There’s also the Gucci Dive watch collection promising decent durability and water resistance for those with a passion for adventure. These watches have water resistant ratings up to 200 metres and come equipped with large ratcheted unidirectional bezels detailed with 60 minute scales.

As you can see, there’s plenty of Gucci watch collections to explore and we hope to review some of them in more detail soon. Before then, you can view all the latest Gucci watch collections on the Jura Watches website here.