The results are in: This year’s Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève winners reflect the very best in watchmaking. Here are some of the highlights.
All the 2019 GPHG winners take a star turn in Geneva.
Triple Crown
Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet scored an unprecedented three awards for 2019. The unmistakable Royal Oak self-winding Perpetual Calendar ultra-thin ($141,465) won the Aiguille d’Or grand prize. The new Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet Minute Repeater Supersonnerie timepiece ($295,000) garnered the men’s complication prize. And the colorful Royal Oak jumbo extra-thin ($55,400) took home the most iconic watch of the year.
Ladies’ Complication Prize
The inventive House of MB&F took this ladies’ category with its first watch made for women, the gorgeously elegant Legacy Machine FlyingT (from $115,000). Recalling elaborate bell jar table clocks from the 18th century, this timepiece sets a fascinating tableau with its encased enamel-work dial propped up from the main face of the watch. This approach leaves plenty of real estate to adorn the timepiece with diamonds and precious stones—if so desired.
Diver’s Watch Prize
Seiko’s dive watch experience dates to 1965, and the award-winning Prospex LX (from $5,000), developed in collaboration with Ken Okuyama, carries some of that classic midcentury design, with gleaming stainless-steel construction, a rotating bezel and a crown located precisely at 5 o’clock so it won’t get caught on your wetsuit sleeve. However, a state-of-the-art automatic with manual-winding capability movement, 72-hour power reserve and 30 jewels power this superb marine timepiece.
Calendar and Astronomy Prize
Judges mooned over this inventive timepiece from Hermès. The Arceau L’heure de la Lune ($25,000) puts a moon phase function center stage with twin opposing moon faces—one for the Southern and one for the Northern Hemisphere—and two slowly rotating dials that display the time and date, which gradually overlay the satellites to indicate the proper moon phase. Hermès, CityCenterDC
Photography by: brands
