Hands-On: The Gerald Charles Maestro 4.0 Ducati 30º Anniversario 916
During Geneva Watch Days 2024, Gerald Charles announced the exclusive Maestro 4.0 Ducati 30° Anniversario 916 created in collaboration with Italian motorcycle manufacturer Ducati. The watch celebrates the 30th anniversary of the legendary Ducati 916 motorcycle. It features Gerald Charles’s well-known Maestro case with a ruby-red vulcanized rubber strap for the occasion.
Gerald Charles Maestro 4.0 Ducati 30º Anniversario 916
The Maestro 4.0 Ducati 30° Anniversario 916 is a collaborative vision of CEOs Federico Ziviani from Gerald Charles and Claudio Domenicali from Ducati. Both companies carry on important artistic heritage from their former designers. This heritage influences the design of the Maestro 4.0, an expression of both watchmaking and motorcycling. It combines Gerald Charles’s expertise with Ducati’s enduring legacy. The GC4.0-CF-11 is a subtle homage to the iconic Ducati 916 motorcycle. It captures the Ducati’s spirit in finely crafted watchmaking details.
Looking back at the Ducati 916 Strada
The Ducati 916, designed by Massimo Tamburini, is often celebrated as one of the most beautiful motorcycles ever made. Launched in 1994, the 916 revolutionized the sportbike world with its cutting-edge design and performance. Its unique look, featuring a single-sided swingarm, under-seat exhausts, and a sharp, aggressive fairing, quickly captured the attention of enthusiasts. Powering the bike was a 916cc desmodromic L-twin engine, delivering impressive power and torque for its time. This engine, combined with a lightweight chassis and top-notch suspension components, made the 916 an almost unbeatable machine on the racetrack.
Ducati’s 916 made its mark in the World Superbike Championship, dominating the competition. Riders like Carl Fogarty and Troy Corser brought home numerous victories and titles, cementing the 916’s status as a racing legend. Fogarty, in particular, won four World Championships aboard the 916, solidifying its place in motorcycle history. Over its production run from 1994 to 1998, the 916 underwent various updates, which featured larger engines and further refinements. Despite these changes, the core design and spirit of the 916 remained intact. The 916’s influence extended beyond motorcycles and impacting automotive and industrial design. Subsequent Ducati models and design philosophies of other manufacturers show its legacy. The 916 is a testament to Ducati’s commitment to innovation, performance, and style, and it remains an icon in the world of motorcycling.
Gerald Charles Maestro collection
The Maestro design is unique to Gerald Charles and an homage to the company’s great founder, Gérald Charles Genta. The baroque architecture of Rome inspired the Maestro case’s shape, and the Gerald Charles Maestro collection now includes six main variations. Models like 2.0 Ultra-Thin, GC Sport, 3.0 Chronograph, 8.0 Squelette, and 9.0 Tourbillon all have their specific complications.
Today, we’re looking at the Maestro 4.0, which sports a marbled black forged carbon case body topped with a matte black ceramic bezel. Movement-wise, the Maestro 4.0 distinguishes itself with a new, proprietary jump-hour caliber, the GCA 3002JH. This caliber consists of 265 components and measures 6.15mm thick. It runs at a 4Hz (28,800vph) frequency and offers 50 hours of power reserve.
Jumping hours
A jump-hour complication is recognizable by the absence of an hour hand. Instead, a window (or guichet) displays the hours, revealing a part of a rotating disc underneath the dial. A minute hand rotates every 60 minutes, indicating the correct time in combination with the hour digit displayed in the jump-hour window. Because the Maestro 4.0 is partly skeletonized, it doesn’t have much of a real dial. However, it does feature a black rehaut with white 60-minute markings and a concentric-grained black base with trapezoid-shaped recesses. In the center is the skeletonized hour disc, and a red rectangle printed on the glass’s underside highlights the hour.
Carbon, ceramic, and titanium
As mentioned, the Gerald Charles Maestro 4.0 sports a forged carbon body topped with a black ceramic bezel. The case back, the crown, and the buckle are all Grade 5 titanium. These materials are famous in the motorcycle world for their lightness and resistant properties. They’re an ideal match and the perfect choice for this commemorative watch. Due to the Maestro 4.0’s special case construction, Gerald Charles guarantees high water resistance to 10 ATM (100 meters) and shock resistance to five g.
The Maestro 4.0’s titanium case back comes complete with a sapphire crystal. It displays the movement with its golden rotor and is enriched with the Ducati 916 logo. Ducati clients who bought the tribute to the original 916 — the limited-to-500 Panigale V4 SP2 30° Anniversario 916 motorcycle — can also have their bike’s serial number engraved on the case back.
Final impressions, pricing, and availability
Wearing the Gerald Charles Maestro 4.0 Ducati 30° Anniversario 916 is a very pleasant experience. Its 39mm diameter, 46.9mm lug-to-lug, 11.15mm thickness, and 73.6g weight make it a perfectly fitting watch. And the flexible and soft rubber strap surely adds to its comfort. The watch will be released in a limited run of 250 pieces, each with a retail price of €37,300 / US$42,400, excluding taxes. Each limited-edition watch will come with a dedicated lithographic sketch of the watch designed by Octavio Garcia, the head of GC’s creative team. You can find more information on the Maestro 4.0 Ducati 30° Anniversario 916 and the possibility of ordering on the Gerald Charles website.
The bike used in this article is an original Ducati 916 Strada, one of the only 1,600 units produced in 1994. It is a rare find in fully original condition. Most of these bikes were successfully used for competitions and, therefore, were usually adapted to track conditions and/or damaged by falls or crashes. Insider giveaways for its originality are the aluminum subframe (instead of steel), a shorter chain guard, and, best of all, the year stamp in parts like the fairing and clutch handle. Have a closer look at the penultimate picture in this article.
What’s your opinion about the Gerald Charles Maestro 4.0 Ducati 30° Anniversario 916? Is it a worthy tribute to the iconic Ducati 916 motorcycle? And what’s your take on the bike? After 30 years, does it deserve its status as the most beautiful motorcycle ever made? Please don’t hesitate to leave your comments below!
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