Artisans de Genève is an independent company specializing in the personalization of timepieces. Artisans de Genève is not affiliated with Rolex SA nor authorized by them to intervene in their products for any reason whatsoever. Artisans de Genève is a watchmaking workshop based in Geneva, Switzerland, offering an exclusive service of watch modification for private customers. Their modifications are made exclusively upon request in a very limited capacity, in their workshops in Switzerland, by independent and highly skilled craftsmen. Artisans de Genève is an independent workshop, and that independence is a testament to quality and creativity.
When starting a personalization, each project holds unique stories, and reminiscences engraved in a timepiece. The craftsmanship offers infinite possibilities to express their client’s desires. Precious materials. Deep symbolism. A tribute to the history of Venetian glassmaking, while capturing the very essence of chance that shaped this unique material adding it to a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona ref. 116500. Aventurina in Italian means “by chance”. A stroke of destiny, a fortuitous meeting of copper and glass. Rose gold —also containing copper— was chosen. Sapphire too was selected, to echo the transparency of glass. Shaping these materials is no easy feat. Aventurine demands incredible precision to reveal its sparkle without losing its magic.
By choosing aventurine, their client embraced unpredictability through a material’s story, born by chance, becoming his own. Their client states:
“With my watch, I’ve traveled through time and across Europe, from London to Geneva and all through Italy, Venice, Murano. This fifth custom project with Artisans de Genève introduced me to aventurine. From its 18th-century origins to the way my watch took shape, everything feels like real fate. This watch made me understand real craftsmanship. Old techniques like aventurine, modern ones like sapphire.”
The delicate and fragile nature of aventurine, contrasting with the hardness of glass, makes the machining and polishing processes very intricate. This material requires specialized and highly technical expertise to shape it into a dial for all assembly operations. The dial features appealing contrasts between mirror-polished aventurine, translucent sapphire, and metallization for improved readability. The transfers are applied by hand and the hour-markers are crafted from solid rose gold.
Over 32 hours, the bridges and plates of the Rolex calibre 4130 were entirely hand-cut using a small bocfil saw and decorated before being colored in anthracite tones known as Black Or. A special skeletonized rotor in rose gold was also added. The chronograph mechanism is revealed through the three counters at 3, 6, and 9 o’clock. The mirror-polished aventurine dial is enhanced by a satin-finished rose gold bezel, complemented by an aventurine insert.
The Artisans de Genève Ventura Daytona is a timepiece made of contrasts: the deep blue of aventurine meeting the warmth of rose gold, the mysterious transparency of glass, and the warm shimmer of copper as common threads.
As with every one of this client’s customizations with Artisans de Genève since 2018, the Ventura story unfolds naturally, as if every piece of the puzzle falls into place, between symbols and encounters, whether by chance or not. The Ventura Daytona is a living adventure on his wrist and he is ready for the next ones.
Sticker Price CHF 39,520 —approx. USD 46,000. The price of the service does not include the watch
and varies according to the personalization requirements. The watch has to be supplied by the owner for personalization. For more info on Artisans de Genève click here.
