Hands-On Review of the Gerald Charles Masterlink
A couple months before Watches & Wonders 2024 I found myself chatting with the Gerald Charles team. They were telling me that they were coming out with something exciting for the big event but wouldn’t tell me any details. Thinking about the brand, and its legacy, I threw a guess out to them. For a brand that touts itself on producing Gerald Genta’s last design, it seemed rather obvious. A stainless steel sport watch. Thanks to the Patek Philippe Nautilus and Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, Genta has become synonymous with steel sport watches.
A couple months later this educated guess would be confirmed as Gerald Charles released the Masterlink at Watches & Wonders. Look, I am not going to pretend my guess was anything but predictable. But nobody who had any inside knowledge knew exactly what the brand’s take on a steel sport watch would look like.
Genta’s final design, the Maestro, has been the foundation for all the brand’s recent designs. But up until the Masterlink, the Maestro was only offered in precious metals, on rubber or leather straps, and sometimes with complications.
So designing a steel sport watch involved evolving Genta’s design, in a way that paid proper tribute to the man behind the brand. And I have to say, Gerald Charles did a great job with the Masterlink.
Gerald Charles has maintained a close link to their namesake Gerald Genta. Indeed, it’s a huge part of the brand’s identity, and yes, marketing. So in evolving the Maestro into a steel sport watch, it was important for the brand to “get it right”. So how did they do it so successfully? Let’s take a look.
When first looking at the Masterlink, the similarities to the Maestro are readily apparent. The case retains the general shape of the Maestro. It is asymmetric with the brand’s signature “smile” at 6 o’clock. However, on the Masterlink, the case is less long and rectangular, and more square. This makes it a little smaller lug-to-lug and more wearable on the wrist. Indeed, the dimensions of the watch are smaller than the Maestro, making it a great everyday wear. It is 39mm in diameter, a nice and short 44.9mm lug-to-lug, and just 7.9mm thick.
But where the Masterlink really shines is the details. The bracelet is a prime example of this. The asymmetric top and bottom of the case presented some difficulties aesthetically, when designing the integrated bracelet to go with the watch. To make everything flow seamlessly between the case and bracelet, Gerald Charles did something I do not believe I’ve ever seen before. The links on either side of the bracelet actually mirror the shape of the case. So flowing from 12 o’clock to the clasp, the links are all flat. But from 6 o’clock, all the links are slightly curved, matching the smile I discussed earlier. This is a very nice touch and provides a little bit of quirkiness that I really like.
Beyond these details, the bracelet is extremely well finished and feels worthy of its price. The outer links are polished, while the inner links are brushed. Normally, the polishing is on the inside, but I quite like bracelets that do it this way. The clasp bears Gerald Charles’ logo and this creates a seamless link between the two sides of the bracelet.
The one thing, however, I wasn’t as big a fan of on the bracelet is the way that you remove links. Instead of standard screws on the side of the bracelet, Gerald Charles designed (and patented) their own new system. On the Masterlink the screws are on the underside of the bracelet. I’ll admit that aesthetically, this provides for a much cleaner and better looking bracelet. But, the removal system wasn’t as simple as just removing the screws and seemed very complicated. I would prefer for a watch without a microadjustment to have an easy bracelet sizing mechanism. But is it a dealbreaker? Definitely not.
Beyond the bracelet and case shape, when I think Gerald Genta, I think dial. The Royal Oak has the Grand Tapisserie dial pattern and the Nautilus has a horizontal striping pattern. Taking a page out of the Nautilus playbook, the Masterlink has a striping pattern, but it is vertical instead of horizontal. It is well executed with applied indices that boast a lot of lume, more lume than your typical stainless steel sport watch. I reviewed the blue model, and the deep blue well done. The dial is not overly cluttered, but I’ve come to expect this from stainless steel sport watches. This allows for a clean and high-end aesthetic. The watch is also available with a silver dial. While I didn’t review it here, I did manage to see it at Watches & Wonders and really liked it.
The watch runs on the CGA-5401 movement. It is an extremely well finished microrotor movement. It is also impressively 2.67mm thick. As I described earlier, this allows for the case to be just 7.9mm thick (yes thinner than the Royal Oak and Nautilus). The movement is finished with multiple different finishings from Cotes de’Geneve to brushing, to circular brushing, and sandblasted finishing. Additionally, the watch beats at 3 Hertz and features a 50-hour power reserve.
Overall, the watch is just easy to wear. At 38mm in diameter and 44.9mm lug-to-lug (do to the square-ish shape), it fits nicely on my 6.75 inch wrist. Surely, those who have a Royal Oak or Nautilus and are looking for something a little different (but still Genta-designed), the Masterlink is a great choice.
