Behold The Best Watch Of 2024, According To Geneva’s Grand Prix Jury
Roughly 1,480 players in the world of fine watchmaking gathered this week at the Théâtre du Léman Genève to celebrate the winners of the 2024 Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG). It's the industry's top awards show, a.k.a. the 'Oscars of watchmaking,' and is decided by a 25-member jury of the profession's top brass. Sure, they're all a bunch of watch geeks—but these arbiters of innovation and creativity are also sporting the GDP of small nations on their wrists.
Toasted by countless flutes of Laurent Perrier champagne, the evening was a celebration of creativity, technical savoir faire, and confidence. The kind of confidence required to create something that has never before existed, and therefore advance the field. That is precisely what won the top prize for IWC Schaffhausen, which produced a new perpetual calendar and a new eternal moon phase display for its " Portugieser Eternal Calendar ." Such a feat of mechanical engineering represents progress for an industry unsure of its future in a tech-driven world. In accepting the "Iconic" prize for Piaget's Polo 79 timepiece , which earned nods for non-conformity, CEO of Piaget Benjamin Comar said: "We are not representing artificial intelligence, but artisanal intelligence."
"We are not representing artificial intelligence," said Piaget's Comar, "but artisanal intelligence."
Notably, some very influential watch brands chose not to participate in the GPHG awards, including Rolex, Swatch Group, and many Richemont brands. That said, the GPHG is still considered the best place to highlight the best and brightest of the watch world, and to give lesser known brands a shot at the honor. Here, the full list of winners for 2024 . Among these, here are the highlights:
IWC Schaffhausen Wins Best in Show For Its Portugieser Eternal Calendar
Price: 150'000 CHF
The coveted Aiguille d'Or winner was announced by Audemars Piguet's new CEO, Ilaria Resta, one of only two female chief executives in Swiss haute horlogerie, alongside Catherine Rénier at Jaeger-LeCoultre. Last year, Audemars took home the top prize for its Code 11.59 Universelle timepiece , and this year Resta passed the torch to Christoph Grainger-Herr, CEO of IWC Schaffhausen. For a brand associated with industrialization, IWC's winning watch is seen as remarkably ambitious. Automatically recognizing the different lengths of the months and adding a leap day every four years, IWC Schaffhausen's eternal calendar sets the benchmark for efficiency. It can calculate the leap year correctly up to the year 3999 (we don't yet know whether 4000 will be a leap year). IWC's engineers also created a new eternal moon phase display comprising three intermediate wheels, featuring a titanium base disc with two blue dots and a glass disc rotating above. Theoretically, it will only need an adjustment after 45 million years.
Van Cleef & Arpels Wins Three Categories, Including Best "Ladies' Complication"
Price: 169'000 CHF
It was a big night for Van Cleef, which brought home the top prizes for ladies' timepieces, ladies' complication, and métiers d'art (artworks). My personal favorite, the Lady Arpels Brise d'Été , is a self-winding mechanical stunner designed to "celebrate the freshness of a summer morning." In the garden of its dial, white and yellow-gold butterflies rendered in plique-à-jour enamel not only tell the time, but they actually flutter thanks to an automaton that can make the flowers and their stems move for approximately 12 seconds. While it doesn't include multiple traditional mechanical complications (like chronographs or calendars), the watch integrates innovative techniques like enamel artistry to achieve its poetic aesthetic—surely destined for a poetic and complicated woman.
Petite Aiguille—the 'Starter Watch' Category—Crowns Kudoke
Price: 9'905 CHF
This category awards watches with a retail price under CHF 10,000. Most of the 90 watches from 57 brands nominated in this ceremony cost at least the price of a new Porsche. So, it is refreshing to acknowledge horological talent at the 'entry level.' At once classic and unconventional. That's the appeal of the Kudoke 3 Salmon , created by the independent watchmaker Stefan Kudoke who has found his own way of displaying time. While the minutes are traditionally indicated by the large blue steel hand above the dial ring, the hour indication is unique. Placed on an attached plate and divided into three sections on the level below the upper dial, the hour is indicated by a triple-armed hour hand—each hand with different lengths running between the two dials.
LVMH's Jean Arnault Accepts Tourbillon Award for Daniel Roth
Price: 140'000 CHF
The yellow gold Tourbillon Souscription pays homage to the original Daniel Roth design of 1988. Although the dial retains the same markings as on the original, the typography has been streamlined to give it contemporary finesse. Essentially, this fashion-forward timepiece represents modernism in a brand owned by the world's largest luxury group LVMH. That this award was accepted by Bernard Arnault's son Jean Arnault, now the watch director of Louis Vuitton, reminded us all of the fashion world's relationship with watchmaking. As with brands like Hermès and Bulgaria, the ability to market a watch of this caliber is a powerful way to signal a commitment to serious design and craftsmanship.
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