Surprise stars shine at the ‘Oscars of watchmaking’

It’s no surprise to find famed names such as Audemars Piguet in a horological winners’ circle, along with brands well known to aficionados for their watchmaking chops – for example, Ferdinand Berthoud or Ulysse Nardin.

But there alongside them on the stage at the annual Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) awards last month were rank-and-filers such as Tudor, Raymond Weil and Christopher Ward, the very watches we strap on every day.

This is a welcome mix for members of the general public who are much more likely to be wearing a Tudor than a tourbillon, and it lends relevance to an event that’s the major red-carpet shindig on the timepiece calendar. It’s one that carries significant marketing weight, providing a boost to up-and-coming brands, bolstering support for established names, and providing a genuine fillip for a make that might have slipped from view.

Not all brands enter – Rolex and Patek Philippe are notable absentees – but most recognise its value to the industry. The 2023 jury, chaired by journalist Nick Foulkes, awarded prizes after a vetting process by the 847-member GPHG Academy (which includes your writer) to cull 90 entries.

“Excellence and creativity” in contemporary watchmaking are the criteria for selection. The watches were indeed notable for overall cleverness and impressive complexity, along with visual diversity. If the Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 Complication was a worthy overall winner, it faced strong competition, a feature of each category.

Inevitably, some watches were unlucky to miss out. The Van Cleef & Arpels Éveil du Cyclamen Automaton comes to mind as a real omission in the Mechanical Clock division, a superlative confection in every way, and more beguiling to my eye than the eventual victor, a clock-in-a-car that I found more fun than fantastic.

Oddly, there was no winner named in the men’s category, despite impressive entries from Parmigiani, De Bethune, Simon Brette and Ferdinand Berthoud, although the latter two picked up awards for chronometry and horological revelation.

I thought a contender for the women’s complication prize might have been a Louis Vuitton Fiery Heart automaton; in the mechanical innovation contest I was impressed by non-winners the Jacob & Co Astronomia Revolution and Louis Vuitton’s luridly appealing Opera Automaton. In the iconic category, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore should have been unbackable, but no.