IWC marks 50 years of Gérald Genta’s Ingenieur with two limited-edition watches
A half-century since the celebrated watch designer created the IWC Ingenieur SL, the new editions honour his ‘elegant but also pioneering’ vision
‘Gérald Genta was such an unlikely person to change and save the watch industry,’ says Alexia Genta, the watch designer’s daughter and co-founder of the Gérald Genta Heritage Association. ‘I think that can really inspire people today.’
Alexia, alongside her mother Evelyne Genta, attended Watches & Wonders 2026 earlier this year to mark the 50th anniversary of one of Gérald Genta’s most famous watch designs, the IWC Ingenieur SL.
To celebrate the occasion, IWC is releasing the Ingenieur SL in two limited editions (a 35mm and a 40mm), distinguished by their elegant brushed silver-plated dials, which draw inspiration from a rare variant of the Ingenieur SL.
‘Design came first for him,’ Alexia adds. ‘He was not somebody who was ever looking at other watch brands, simply because he didn't care what they were doing. That's why he was always such a visionary, always bringing new things and shocking the industry. He was following his artistic vision.’
Genta (1931-2011) created the original Ingenieur SL, Reference 1832 in 1976, midway through a decade that saw the emergence of luxury steel sports watches with integrated bracelets, a form Genta mastered with his streamlined, ergonomic design.
Evelyne and Alexia Genta
‘A Gérald Genta design could be manufactured,’ says Evelyne. ‘Sometimes designers are very wild and very unusual – you give the products to the factory, and good luck! My husband designed what could be done, and this is an incredible quality. Giving it to a factory, he knew how thick it needed to be, so he would design the profile. You have to be perfectly clear and exact with a watch design, and he knew that.’
For David Seyffer, head of archive at IWC, the new editions mark a full circle moment. ‘When the Ingenieur first appeared in 1955, it was considered more of a tool watch,’ he says. ‘When Gérald Genta reinterpreted it [in the 1970s], it became a completely new design. He was a really free spirit. He always considered himself as an artist, not as a watch designer, and he brought this artisanal aspect into his designs. It's always interesting to see this transformation from the watch it was in 1955 to this very design-led watch.’
Thanks to this freedom of vision, the Ingenieur SL is a watch that has endured. ‘He was notoriously quite audacious,’ Alexia adds. ‘He was always bringing out visionary designs that shocked the industry. But if you think about them, they were always elegant and wearable. He was not trying to shock people on purpose, he was just creating something that was elegant but also pioneering.’