-
Diamonds
By Category
-
Engagement
By Category
-
Weddings
Featured
- Jewellery
By CategoryBy Metal TypeBy GemstoneBy BrandBy Edit- Watches
By CategoryBy CollectionBy Luxury BrandBy Designer Brand- Rolex
FeaturedBy Collection- Rolex Certified Pre-Owned
- Brands
FeaturedBrands A-Z- Gifts
By CategoryBy PriceBy Popular Brand- Pre-Owned
- Sale
Sale JewelleryBy Price- Sell Your Watch
Sell your watchWe will expertly assess your watch and offer you
a competitive and accurate valuation for the
watch you wish to sell to us.Free Instant Valuation
Drop off at any Showroom
Unrivalled Knowledge & Expertise- Editorial
- Jewellery
- Shop by Category
- Diamonds
- Engagement Rings
- Weddings
-
Jewellery
- Back
- Jewellery Offers
- Shop All Jewellery
- Jewellery Home
- By Category
- By Metal Type
- By Gemstone
-
By Brand
- 886 by The Royal Mint
- Amor
- Bijoux Birks
- BOSS
- Calvin Klein
- Chopard
- Emporio Armani
- Fabergé
- FOPE
- FRED
- Georg Jensen
- Goldsmiths
- Gucci
- Jenny Packham
- Kiki McDonough
- Lauren By Ralph Lauren
- Mappin & Webb
- Marco Bicego
- MARIA TASH
- Messika
- Michael Kors
- Olivia Burton
- Pasquale Bruni
- Pomellato
- Repossi
- Roberto Coin
- Skagen
- Susan Caplan
- SUZANNE KALAN
- SWAROVSKI
- Ted Baker
- THOMAS SABO
- Tommy Hilfiger
- By Edit
-
Watches
- Back
- Watch Offers
- Shop All Watches
- Watches Home
- By Category
- By Collection
-
By Luxury Brand
- Rolex
- Rolex Certified Pre-Owned
- BALL
- Bamford
- Baume & Mercier
- Bell & Ross
- Breitling
- Bremont
- Cartier
- CHANEL
- Chopard
- DOXA
- Frederique Constant
- Girard-Perregaux
- Glashütte Original
- Grand Seiko
- Gucci
- Hublot
- ID Genève
- IWC Schaffhausen
- Jaeger-LeCoultre
- Junghans
- Longines
- MeisterSinger
- Montblanc
- Nivada Grenchen
- NOMOS Glashütte
- NORQAIN
- OMEGA
- Oris
- Panerai
- Piaget
- Rado
- RAYMOND WEIL
- TAG Heuer
- TUDOR
- Ulysse Nardin
- ZENITH
- By Designer Brand
- Rolex
- Rolex Certified Pre-Owned
-
Brands
- Back
- View All Brands
-
A-Z
- Rolex Watches
- Rolex Certified Pre-Owned
- 886 by The Royal Mint
- Accurist
- Amor
- Arnold & Son
- BALL
- Bamford
- Baume & Mercier
- Bell & Ross
- Bijoux Birks
- BOSS
- Breitling
- Bremont
- BVLGARI
- Calvin Klein
- Cartier
- Certina
- CHANEL
- Chopard
- Citizen
- DOXA
- Elliot Brown
- Emporio Armani
- Encelade 1789
- Fabergé
- Fendi
- FOPE
- FRED
- Frederique Constant
- Garmin
- Georg Jensen
- Gerald Charles
- Girard-Perregaux
- Glashütte Original
- Goldsmiths
- Grand Seiko
- Gucci
- Hamilton
- Hublot
- ID Genève
- IKEPOD
- IWC Schaffhausen
- Jacob & Co
- Jaeger-LeCoultre
- Jenny Packham
- Junghans
- Kiki McDonough
- Lauren By Ralph Lauren
- Longines
- Mappin & Webb
- Marco Bicego
- MARIA TASH
- Maurice Lacroix
- Michael Kors
- Messika
- Mondaine
- Montblanc
- Nivada Grenchen
- NOMOS Glashütte
- NORQAIN
- Olivia Burton
- OMEGA
- Oris
- Panerai
- Parmigiani Fleurier
- Pasquale Bruni
- Piaget
- Pomellato
- QLOCKTWO
- Rado
- RAYMOND WEIL
- Repossi
- Roberto Coin
- Rolex
- Rolex Certified Pre-Owned
- Seiko
- Skagen
- Susan Caplan
- SUZANNE KALAN
- SWAROVSKI
- TAG Heuer
- Ted Baker
- THOMAS SABO
- Tissot
- Tommy Hilfiger
- TUDOR
- Ulysse Nardin
- Vivienne Westwood
- William Wood Watches
- WOLF
- ZENITH
- Gifts
-
Pre-Owned
- Back
- Shop All Pre-Owned
- Pre-Owned Home
- By Category
-
By Brand
- Rolex Certified Pre-Owned
- Pre-Owned Patek Philippe
- Pre-Owned TAG Heuer
- Pre-Owned Cartier
- Pre-Owned Jaeger-LeCoultre
- Pre-Owned Breitling
- Pre-Owned OMEGA
- Pre-Owned Longines
- Pre-Owned Tudor
- Pre-Owned IWC
- Pre-Owned Panerai
- Pre-Owned Blancpain
- Pre-Owned Breguet
- Pre-Owned Chopard
- Pre-Owned Rado
- Pre-Owned Vacheron Constantin
- Pre-Owned Zenith
- SALE
- Sell Your Watch
- Editorial
- My Account
- Wishlist
- Store Finder
- Book an Appointment
- Help & Support
![GPHG awards.png](/medias/GPHG-awards.png?context=bWFzdGVyfHJvb3R8NjA5OTk2fGltYWdlL3BuZ3xhR001TDJoa05pODVNVGszTXpNM056TTVNamswTG5CdVp3fDcyZTU5YjYwMmI0ZjI3ODAxOWRhYTVhZjU1ZDZkODI2MjI0OGUzNDNjMjZiN2I3NzA4ZTJkY2I5NTIwMGQ2OGY&imwidth=1920)
The Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève results are in, and there are some surprises.
What value an award? Bradford-born screenwriter Dean Cavanagh is credited with the line that “our minds are big enough to contemplate the cosmos but small enough to care about who wins an Oscar.”
Not the most complimentary view, but not one we should swallow whole with the after-party champagne, either. Awards do matter, particularly the big ones, and even though it’s clearly simplistic to say as much, we wouldn’t have them if they didn’t.
This is because awards at their best are a barometer that helps us choose what to buy and consume (in theory – hearty congratulations to anyone who stayed awake through Power of the Dog). Award winners love them for exactly that reason, while the overlooked are often quick to ridicule. So far as I can determine, Mr Cavanagh has yet to come close to winning an Oscar.
Almost as glib is the aphorism that some awards are created more equal than others. But this is true, too, and in any circle, whether movies, cars or beauty pageants. Just ask the Belgian Film Critics Association.
In watches, a beauty pageant of sorts, there are more awards dos these days than there are components in a Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime (1,366 for the watchnerds sitting at the front). But sitting alone at the pinnacle is the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, usually abbreviated to “the GPHG”, and often dubbed “The Oscars of Watchmaking”.
The GPHG is indeed the big one. Since the event was first held in 2001, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin and TAG Heuer have scooped the Aiguille d’Or top prize, while countless Watches of Switzerland Group brands have picked up awards from a category list long enough to rival that of Hollywood’s most famous love-in. Each has benefitted from its win.
This year’s GPHG, held in Geneva last week, presented 21 awards, garlanding some of the finest watches made during the past year. I say “some” – as several of the greatest names in watchmaking decline to take part in the event, which, speaking as a member of this year’s Jury, is a sadness.
But among those that did, the standout was the popular independent MB&F, whose breathtaking Legacy Machine Sequential Evo took home the coveted Aiguille d’Or.
MB&F’s winning watch is a work of mechanical art, with two independently controllable chronographs that bring split-second, sequential (lap-time) and cumulative “chess match” modes together under one bulbous dome. Created for MB&F by Stephen McDonnell, one of the great watch movement creators of his generation, it is a genuinely astonishing watch that I’m sure will live long in the memory.
Also welcomed to the stage were Parmigiani, whose dial-moving Tonda sports watch attracted the Ladies’ Watch Prize, one of five it was nominated for; TAG Heuer, which picked up the Icon Prize for a Gulf edition of its evergreen square-cased Monaco; and Tudor, which was recognised in the Diver’s Watch category for its crowd-pleasing Pelagos FXD.
Grand Seiko’s reputation as a rival to the best of Swiss grew further when the Kodo Constant-Force Tourbillon picked up the Chronometry Prize. The Kodo is both Grand Seiko’s first mechanical complication and also the first watch in history to combine a tourbillon and a constant-force mechanism as one unit on a single axis. Esoteric stuff, and certainly worthy of this award.
Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo Ultra was a shoo-in for the Audacity Prize, having not only set the record for the world’s thinnest mechanical watch at a barely-there 1.8mm (although only briefly; it lost the title to Richard Mille after the window for nominations closed), but also because it integrated a QR code into the dial which linked it to an NFT and the metaverse – not for everyone, but undeniably audacious.
As a member of the judging panel, perhaps I’m biased in suggesting the right watches won on the night, but I’m not blind to the anomaly of Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak walking away empty-handed in its 50th anniversary year. Few watches have shaped the industry as we know it today as singularly as Gerald Genta’s most recognisable design, but as you’d hope of an awards ceremony, the judging process behind the GPHG is democratic and subjective (and secret), which means results we may not agree with, and also that we have to accept.
Besides, there’s always next year. In the meantime, if you haven’t already, watch Belfast. Quite brilliant.
Sign Up For Calibre Newsletter
Get a round up of the latest stories from Calibre every month, directly to your inbox.
© 2024 Goldsmiths
Goldsmiths is a trading name of Watches of Switzerland Company Limited. Registered Office: Aurum House, 2 Elland Road, Braunstone, Leicester, LE3 1TT, Registered in England and Wales, Company number 00146087. Registered VAT Number 834 8634 04. Watches of Switzerland Company Limited acts as a broker and not a lender and offers finance from Secure Trust Bank PLC trading as V12 Retail Finance and PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH trading as PayPal Credit. Watches of Switzerland Company Limited is authorised and regulated by the Finance Conduct Authority. Our registration number is 308710. Credit provided is subject to age and status, minimum spend applies. Terms and Conditions apply. UK residents only. We may receive a commission if your application is successful, and the amount may vary depending on the product chosen and the amount of credit taken out. Not all products are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and FOS protection will not be extended to unregulated agreements. Please note the Consumer Credit Act states that should your purchase / loan amount cost more than £30,000 you will not be covered under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.
*Next day delivery available on most items. See product pages for more information.