GPHG 2024: Luxury brands battle for watchmaking’s biggest prize

The most hotly anticipated evening in the watchmaking calendar is just around the corner. On 13 November, 57 luxury Swiss watch brands will go head-to-head at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève which celebrates the most exceptional timepieces of the year.

All the winners will be announced at an exclusive ceremony at Geneva’s Théâtre du Léman but you’ll be able to tune in to the live stream here on Euronews Culture to be the first to know.

The most coveted prize of the night will be the “Aiguille d’Or”, for the best all-round creation of 2024, but there are 15 further categories including men’s, ladies’, sports, mechanical exception and artistic craft. For the first time, there will also be an eco-innovation prize awarded on the night which celebrates developments in sustainability and traceability.

Style Council

The CEO of the winning brand of the Aiguille d’Or sits on the judging panel for the following year’s awards. In 2023, it went to Audemars Piguet and CEO Ilaria Resta is joined on the judging panel by historian, author and journalist Nick Foulkes, president of the jury, and 28 industry representatives including watchmakers, consultants, journalists, retailers, designers and collectors.

Competing are some of the top names in the watchmaking world who have been put forward by their peers, including Breitling, H. Moser & Cie, Zenith, Piaget and Ulysse Nardin. Leading the nominations this year are Parmigiani Fleurier and Chopard with six timepieces in the running each.

“It’s something really special. It’s the first time in all the 24 editions that the brand gets six nominations. So it’s a moment of pride,” says Guido Terreni, CEO of Parmigiani Fleurier.

Parmigiani Fleurier is nominated in the ladies’, men’s, calendar and astronomy, chronograph, sports and, a new category for 2024, time only, which awards a classic timepiece with two or three hands and no complications. “It is the most difficult category because it’s the simplest watch and, in design, to be iconic with simplicity, is a very difficult exercise,” says Terreni. Parmigiani Fleurier’s Tonda PF Micro-Rotor No Date watch has been nominated in this category. It features a 40mm steel and platinum case, a hand guilloché dial in a barley grain colour and an automatic micro-rotor movement.

Terreni believes Parmigiani Fleurier’s success in the nomination is in part due to its longstanding reputation as a luxury brand that has a modest design signature. In an era of ‘quiet luxury’, this is helping the brand, ironically, to stand out: “If you look at our nominations all together, and you feel the brand identity, you feel a new language and luxury that we are bringing, which is less ostentatious, deeper, and this is appreciated by collectors and the trade industry.”

Hermès hopeful

Hermès, a brand also well respected for its luxury goods but less well known for its watches, is nominated in the ladies’, mechanical exception and artistic crafts categories.

Laurent Dordet, CEO of Hermès Horloger, says that the brand has been making watches since 1978 but began entering the GPHG Awards in 2011. “When we have the chance to be shortlisted, and sometimes to win, it’s very valuable for us because I think it establishes the long-term notoriety of Hermès as a watchmaker. Hermès is a very well-known brand, but very much so for other categories. I think we have to prove every year, through our own product, that we are stepping up to more complex watches, more technical watches, more legitimate watches that establish the reputation of the brand also in this category,” he says.

Each of the three nominated timepieces have uniquely Hermès design characteristics. The wheels in the movement of the Arceau Duc Attelé are inspired by the wheels of the “duc” horse cart from the Hermès logo along with two horse-shaped hammers on the front. The Arceau Chorus Stellarum is inspired by one of the brand’s classic scarves featuring a skeleton riding a horse.

The Hermès Cut is a simpler design from a new line, but Dordet explains that the cut of the bezel at the four outer points of the circle are a subtle signature of this watch and the font on the numerals was created especially for it.

The Hermès Cut is nominated in the highly competitive ladies’ category of the awards and Dordet says this would be a particularly special win. “The first GPHG we won was in 2011 with the men’s watch category for our Time Suspended watch. It was a very important sign for us because the Time Suspended is more than a watch, it is really all about Hermès philosophy about suspending time. So that’s why, 13 years after Time Suspended, we are hoping to be granted the ladies’ prize. The category would be kind of destiny.”

New kids on the block

The GPHG Awards don’t just celebrate the big names in watchmaking, it’s also an opportunity for new and independent brands to compete.

Hoping to win the challenge category is first-time nominee SpaceOne. Founded only 18 months ago, the TSpaceOne which has been shortlisted is only from the brand’s second collection. “To be already nominated is quite an honour and it’s a prize for the work that has been done by the team. So, I’m super happy, and we hope we’re going to win this,” says Guillaume Laidet, who cofounded SpaceOne with award-winning watchmaker Theo Auffret.

ADVERTISEMENT

The challenge category is for watches that retail at 3,000 CHF (3,209 EUR) or lower. Laidet says that the lower price point is what is special about this nomination. “It’s the first time there is a planetarium at a good price… Our concept with SpaceOne is to democratize the independent complication that normally you cannot buy for less than EUR 100,000. The complexity was to find a way to make a complication but for an affordable price.”

Laidet says that they have been able to retail the Tellerium for 2,900 CHF (3,102 EUR) thanks to developing everything in house rather than outsourcing to agencies.

Each of the 90 watches nominated at the GPHG this year is a unique piece encapsulating the height of design, technology and craftsmanship and each is deserving of a win. But there can only be one winner for each category. Tune in live on the Euronews website on the 13 November to find out who takes the crown.