Luigi Macaluso, also known as ''Gino'' (

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, 9 June 1948 –

La Chaux-de-Fonds La Chaux-de-Fonds () is a Swiss city in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura mountains at an altitude of 1000 m, a few kilometers south of the French border. After Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg, it is the fourth largest city loc ...

, 27 October 2010) was an Italian rally

navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's primar ...

and manager. Together with

Raffaele Pinto Raffaele "Lele" Pinto (13 April 1945 – 8 December 2020) was a rally driver, who won the 1974 Rally Portugal. Career Pinto began rallying in 1968. In 1972, he won the European Rally Championship in a Fiat 124 Sport Spider. The following year, t ...

, he won the

European Rally Championship The European Rally Championship (officially FIA European Rally Championship) is an automobile rally competition held annually on the European continent and organized by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship has b ...

in 1972 and the

Italian Rally Championship The Campionato Italiano Rally (C.I.R.) (''Italian Rally Championship'') is the main rally championship, which takes place in Italy. , the championship consists of eight rallies,Italian Rally Championship – Race Calendar 2017'. Retrieved 20 Febr ...

with Maurizio Verini in 1974. He was then the chairman and CEO of the Sowind group, under whose roof

Girard-Perregaux Girard-Perregaux SA () is a luxury Swiss watch ''manufacture'' with its origins dating back to 1791. Since 2011, the Swiss holding group of Girard-Perregaux, Sowind Group, has been a subsidiary of the French luxury group Kering. Headquartered i ...

, the watchmaker GP Manufacture and JeanRichard were united. Under his leadership, the Sowind group relaunched the historic watchmaking house with big investments in technology and design. In particular, the historic Manufacture of

, one of the last in the world, today boasts 110 haute horlogerie movements and 80 patents.

Career

Graduated in architecture at the

University of Turin The University of Turin (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the oldest universities in Europe and continues to play an impo ...

in 1975, Gino Macaluso began his long career in the world of watchmaking in Italy, joining the Italian distributor company of SSIH, now the

Swatch Group The Swatch Group Ltd is a Swiss manufacturer of watches and jewellery. The company was founded in 1983 by the merger of ASUAG and SSIH to move to manufacturing quartz-crystal watches to resolve the quartz crisis threatening the traditional Sw ...

. In 1982, in Turin, he founded Tradema, one of the largest watch distribution companies in Italy which includes the

Blancpain Blancpain SA () is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer, headquartered in Paudex/Le Brassus, Switzerland. It designs, manufactures, distributes, and sells prestige and luxury mechanical watches. Founded by Jehan-Jacques Blancpain in Villeret, Switz ...

, Breitling and

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

brands. In 1987 he became the official agent of Girard-Perregaux for the Italian market and, in 1989, he joined the Manufacturing board of directors. On 15 September 1992, he assumed the presidency of the Sowind Group. He personally designed, in collaboration with the internal Design Center, the models for the new collections, enhancing the Italian style in the world. The only Italian entrepreneur to be considered among the most authoritative in the international watch and luxury watch market, in 1998 he received the Gaïa Prize for the Esprit d'Entreprise, the most prestigious recognition in the Swiss watch world, awarded since 1993 by the Musée International d'Horlogerie to those personalities who made watchmaking and its art known through their activities. In spring 2009, after the strategic agreement with the

Kering Kering () is a French-based multinational corporation specializing in luxury goods. It owns the brands Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Yves Saint Laurent. The timber-trading company Pinault S.A. was founded in 1963, by ...

Group, which belongs to the French businessman Francois-Henri Pinault, he joined the

Gucci Gucci (, ; ) is an Italian high-end luxury fashion house based in Florence, Italy. Its product lines include handbags, ready-to-wear, footwear, accessories, and home decoration; and it licenses its name and branding to Coty, Inc. for fragrance ...

Group Management Committee with responsibility for the watch and jewelry sector and the Conseil de Surveillance of

Boucheron Boucheron () is a French luxury jewellery and watches house located in Paris, 26 Place Vendôme, owned by Kering. History At the origins The House of Boucheron is a French family dynasty founded by Frederic Boucheron in 1858, with the opening ...

, one of the greatest jewelers in the world. He was nominated three times – in 1999, 2001 and 2004 – president of the Association Interprofessionelle de la Haute Horologerie (AIHH). He was vice-president of the Italian-Swiss Chamber of Commerce in Zurich and advisor in the Chamber of Commerce of

Neuchâtel , neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier , twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (France), ...

. He was one of the three founding members of the Haute Horlogerie Foundation and of the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

, where in 2008 he presented a preview of the " Constant Escapement", a new constant-force escapement, revolutionary for the technology, the design and the materials used (silicon). Promoter of training initiatives with Swiss universities, he has engaged with the

Canton of Neuchâtel The Republic and Canton of Neuchâtel (french: République et Canton de Neuchâtel); rm, Chantun Neuchâtel; it, Cantone di Neuchâtel is a French-speaking canton in western Switzerland. In 2007, its population was 169,782, of whom 39,654 (o ...

in a project for the establishment of new university and post-university courses for haute horlogerie.

Passion for motorsport

Official navigator of the

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...

rally team, in 1972 he won the European rally championship and the

Mitropa Cup The Mitropa Cup, officially called the La Coupe de l'Europe Centrale or Central European Cup, was one of the first international major European football cups for club sides. It was conducted among the successor states of the former Austria-Hunga ...

paired with Emanuele Pinto on the Fiat 124 Spider and in 1974 the Italian Rally Championship together with Maurizio Verini on the Fiat 124 Abarth. In 1987 he joined Club Italia, a non-profit cultural sports association, established to enhance the historical heritage of the Italian classic car, of which he has been president for almost two decades. In 1997 he joined the ACI-CSAI (Automobile Club of Italy-Italian Automobile Sports Commission); in 2001 he was elected president: he will be honorary president until his death. While he was dedicating himself to promoting the cultural, social, aesthetic and historical values of the automobile, he decided to restore rally cars dating back to the golden age of the specialty: from here began a collection that is still today one among the most relevant in this sector. In 2000 he founded a team that aimed to compete in the Junior World Championship with Italian colors: the R&D Motorsport, which brought Andrea Dallavilla driving a Fiat Punto Rally Super 1600 to win the title of second world champion in the season 2001 of the

JWRC The FIA Junior WRC, also known as JWRC and previously known as Junior World Rally Championship, is an international rallying competition restricted to drivers under 29 years old. The championship currently consists of five select rallies of t ...

. In 2005, Gino Macaluso was elected President of the International Karting Commission, organ of the International Automobile Federation (

FIA FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used. Fia or FIA may also refer to: People * Fia Backst ...

), and became the representative of Italy on the World Council of the same.

Fondazione Gino Macaluso per l'Auto Storica

In 2018, Gino Macaluso's family established a

foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

that bears his name. Its purpose is to make Gino's dream come true: he considered the car "the most intense expression of creativity of the twentieth century". For this purpose and thanks to the collection that belonged to Gino, the foundation organizes, promotes and participates in events, competitions, rallies, exhibitions, fairs, seminars, conferences, workshops related to historic cars, motorsport and its protagonists. At the same time, it promotes studies, restorations and publications about historic cars.

Distinctions

In 2008, Gino Macaluso was appointed a Grand Officer of the

Order of Merit of the Italian Republic The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic ( it, Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana) is the senior Italian order of merit. It was established in 1951 by the second President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi. The highest-ranking ...

. In 2009, he was appointed a Knight of the

Order of Merit for Labour The Order of Merit for Labour ( it, Ordine al Merito del Lavoro) is an Italian order of chivalry that was founded in 1923 by King Vittorio Emanuele III. It is awarded to those "who have been singularly meritorious" in agriculture, industry and ...

References

External links

* http://www.girard-perregaux.com Website of Girard-Perregaux * http://www.worldtempus.com Website of Worldtempus * http://www.fia.com Website of the FIA (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile) {{DEFAULTSORT:Macaluso, Luigi 1948 births 2010 deaths Sportspeople from Turin Italian businesspeople Italian rally co-drivers Recipients of the Order of Merit for Labour Grand Officers of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic Car collectors