GENEVA — For its sixth high watchmaking collection, Gucci is stepping up its game with unexpected craftsmanship, including featherwork — in a move that seemingly suggests the brand’s ambition to court female watch enthusiasts.

The new lineup is being introduced here with an off-fair event held at The Woodward to coincide with high watchmaking trade show Watches and Wonders, which runs from Tuesday to April 20.

In a deep-dive into the Gucci archives, the signature G-Timeless watch family, introduced in 2021 when the luxury brand unveiled its first high-watchmaking collection, welcomes additions to the Métiers d’Art range. The latter was debuted last year as part of Gucci’s soft-launched fifth watchmaking collection.

Distinctive techniques including miniature painting, featherwork and enameling are leveraged to spotlight the luxury brand’s recurring themes, spanning nature, wildlife and movement.

The four new timepieces — all in a 40mm size on alligator straps and boasting a tourbillon complication at 12 o’clock — are inspired by archival silk scarf designs, from the 1966 Flora, famously created by Vittorio Accornero for the brand, to the ‘70s Animalia and other motifs Gucci introduced in the ‘80s.

The latter theme comprises two timepieces, both developed in partnership with French artist Nelly Saunier, known for her inlay designs with feathers collected exclusively during the birds’ natural molting.

They share the same diamond-decked case and are offered in rose gold and white gold, respectively.

The former iteration features a crane bird — outlined in gold and filled out in feathers — popping up on the white dial enameled according to the “grand feu,” or high-temperature, technique. The dial design is further embellished by baguette- and brilliant-cut diamonds arranged in sinuous lines and alternated with mother of pearl insets. It also boasts engraved blooming flowers set in mother-of-pearl and micro painted.

The second watch design in white gold boasts a mother-of-pearl dial with feathers in a gradient of blue, shifting from aquamarine to navy and forming the background for a toucan and green foliage done in engraved and overpainted mother-of-pearl. The tourbillon at 12 o’clock is adorned with a tiny fuchsia flower in micro painted mother-of-pearl.

A third wildlife-inspired timepiece directly nods to the late ‘70s Animalia motif. Encased in a rose gold frame with a knurled bezel, the watch’s mother of pearl dial is decorated with a hand-painted rose gold tiger emerging from the foliage and hand-engraved rose gold bamboo stem against a micro painted milky sky evoking the soft light at sunset.

In direct reference to perhaps the most iconic Gucci print, Flora, the G-Timeless Métiers d’Art watch is set on a white gold base clad in onyx and inlaid with gemstones including pink opals, blood jaspers and miniature painted and hand-engraved mother-of-pearl to recreate the black version of Gucci’s signature floral motif. The latter is further spiced up by a miniature grasshopper and dragonfly in micro painted and engraved white gold. The case is set with diamonds on the bezel and lugs, matched by the diamond frame encircling the tourbillon.

Building on the evolution of the Gucci 25H family since its introduction in 2021 when the luxury brand unveiled its first exclusive caliber, a new 40mm iteration of the 8.4mm thin case — here rendered with a thinner case frame compared to the original — is offered in a precious version with rainbow-colored, baguette-cut sapphires decking the open-work dial and framing the skeletonized movement within.