Long before every fashion house had a watch collection, Gucci was already on the wrist. In the 1970s it became one of the first luxury fashion names to put its signature on a Swiss-made watch, and the house borrowed its most famous design codes to do it. The vintage Gucci horsebit-style link watch in our vault is a striking example of what happens when a saddlery heritage meets Swiss watchmaking.
From Florence Luggage to an Equestrian Icon
Gucci's story starts in 1921, when Guccio Gucci opened his first shop on Via della Vigna Nuova in Florence. As a young man he had worked as a porter at The Savoy hotel in London, and the elegant English travellers he met there, with their luggage and their love of horse riding, shaped everything he went on to make.
That equestrian world gave Gucci its best-known motif. Early in the 1950s the house began using a horsebit, the double ring joined by a bar that sits in a horse's mouth, as hardware. In 1953, the same year Gucci opened its first store in New York, it put the horsebit on a leather loafer. The Horsebit 1953 loafer became one of the most recognisable shoes in the world, and the horsebit became shorthand for Gucci itself.
Gucci Goes Swiss: The Severin Montres Years
Gucci's move into watches came through an unlikely salesman. Severin Wunderman, a Belgian-born entrepreneur raised in Los Angeles, persuaded Aldo Gucci to order a batch of Gucci-branded watches. When the supplier struggled to deliver, Wunderman set up his own company to make them, and in 1972 Severin Montres took on the licence for Gucci watches.
Wunderman's big idea was to sell Gucci watches through department stores rather than traditional watch shops, using the strength of the Gucci name. Production was based in Lengnau, near Biel in the heart of the Swiss watchmaking region, where his team sourced parts made to Gucci's specifications from workshops across the Jura and checked every finished watch. By the early 1990s, more than a million Gucci watches a year were being made and sold. Gucci's Model 2000 even made the 1978 Guinness Book of World Records for selling over a million watches in just two years.
The partnership lasted around 25 years. In the late 1990s Gucci took its watchmaking back in-house, and today Gucci watches are made in La Chaux-de-Fonds, another historic Swiss watch town.
Inside Our Gucci
This is a watch that wears like a piece of jewellery. It takes Gucci's horsebit language and turns it into the bracelet itself, and the details are pure designer-watch confidence:
- Oversized horsebit-style links. Large, open geometric links joined by polished bars echo Gucci's famous double-ring-and-bar hardware. It's the standout feature and an unusual one to find.
- A grey sunburst dial. The dial catches the light and shifts tone as you move, framed by slim applied silver baton markers.
- Clean, sharp hands. A simple two-hand display with dauphine-style hands keeps the dial uncluttered.
- The GUCCI signature. The name runs boldly across the dial, with a cut-out G-shaped detail at three o'clock.
- A sculpted case. The soft square, cushion-like case flows straight into the integrated bracelet for a seamless look.
Why It's Worth Owning
Designer watches from Gucci's Swiss-made era sit in a sweet spot. They carry one of the most famous names in fashion, they were made in Switzerland, and they're still far more affordable than most luxury watches. This piece adds something extra: a bold bracelet design that looks nothing like an ordinary watch strap and works just as well as a statement bracelet.
It's a pre-owned vintage watch with visible signs of previous wear, including scratches and surface marks across the polished case and bracelet. The dial is clean and well preserved, with the Gucci branding and markers still crisp. Take a good look at the photos on the Vintage Gucci Horsebit Link Watch product page. It's priced at £235, and like every watch we sell, it has been checked by our in-house specialists.
Fancy another touch of Gucci? We also have a Vintage Gucci Web Stripe Quartz Watch with Gucci's red and blue stripe on the dial, or you can browse the full In the Safe collection.
Final Thoughts
From a Florence luggage shop to a horsebit loafer to a million Swiss-made watches a year, Gucci turned its equestrian heritage into something you can wear every day. This horsebit-style link watch brings all of that together on one wrist, and at £235 it's a confident, eye-catching way to own a piece of designer watch history.
Explore more vintage pieces at skylinesjewellery.co.uk, and catch us live on TILT every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at 9pm.
Sources: History of Gucci (Gucci), Europa Star, JCK and ROX Magazine. Images: Skylines Jewellery product photos.