GPHG 2024 Award Winners And Highlights

After months of brands submissions, votes cast, jury deliberations recorded and more, the 2024 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) has come to a close, with more than 20 awards bestowed on companies and individuals that highlight the history and vision of this industry. There are a few stand-out moments and brands that deserve added recognition, though, and I want to highlight those here.

To begin with, we can’t miss the fact that Van Cleef & Arpels won three distinct awards – all in different categories but all for its incredible métiers d’Arts craftsmanship and horological excellence. IMHO, Van Cleef & Arpels has always been a sleeper brand – a quiet giant that simply rides in on white horse, makes a statement and rides away – leaving some gaping jaws in its wake.

Three Van Cleef & Arpels GPHG 2024 wins

Artistic Crafts: Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté

Ladies’ watches: Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Jour Nuit

Ladies’ Complications: Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Brise d’Été

Each is more beautiful and alluring the next thanks to the amount of work that goes into the dials and movements. For me, the star is the Ladies’ Complication winner Brise d’Ete. White- and yellow-gold butterflies in plique-à-jour enamel flutter off the dial, thanks to an on-demand animation module that also animates flowers and stems in vallonné enamel. The corollas’ azure hues and spessartite garnet pistils contrast against matte mother-of-pearl. Champlevé enamel leaves and grass blades in tsavorite garnets enhance the poetic scene. It is a stunning representation of nature and movement.

Interestingly enough, during Watches & Wonders Geneva 2024, when the Lady Arpels Brise d’Été watch was first unveiled, I received unprecedented numbers for a Reel I posted on Instagram – setting the record for the most views during the show. I know a winner when I see one.

Daniel Roth’s Win

Speaking of wins, when Watchonista asked me earlier this year to pick my favorite watch at GPHG, one I was sure would be a winner. I didn’t hesitate to zero in on the Tourbillon category winner: Daniel Roth’s Tourbillon Souscription. While my “explanation for the pick” write up had to be edited due to space constraints, this is what I actually wrote about my selection.

“The watch I would love to own and wear comes  from a special place in my heart. It is the Daniel Roth Tourbillon Souscription watch from the Tourbillon category. Classic yet cutting edge, complex yet still a daily wearer, the Souscription watch hails from one of the most influential watchmakers I knew in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Daniel Roth was an incredible legend in his time and I was grateful to get to talk with him time and again. With every work of art  he created and built, it was as though he was imagining his own legacy. One  that would never die. That includes his tourbillon design of 1988 that was the first Souscription.

I was happy last year when LVMH brought the brand under its wings and into the La Fabrique du Temps workshops (headed by watchmakers Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini). I knew they would be true to the origins of this once independent, yet fiercely ahead-of-his time watchmaker. The new watch is exacting in so many ways –right down to the use of 18-karat yellow gold for the case, which is era-specific and  which I love. The Double Ellipse case is unmistakably Daniel Roth and immediately identifiable by any watch insider. The intricate dial is produced by contemporary master Kari Voutilainen – making it an incredible blending of arts and minds. The tourbillon movement, Caliber DR001, conceived of exclusively for Daniel Roth by La Fabrique du Temps, is mechanically superb.”

Small And Mighty GPHG Brand Winners

I think the concept of the small and mighty competing (and sometimes winning) alongside the large and mighty is a great equalizer  — a coup for GPHG.

Take, for instance, a legend in his craft, Bernard Lederer who rightfully won the discretionary Chronometry award.

And then there is Berneron, which won the Audacity prize for its Mirage Sienna watch. Three years in the making, the watch was so difficult to achieve because of its asymmetrically shaped movement and case, that the project was nicknamed Mirage. It boasts  asymmetric hands and stunning allure. Kudos to this independent brand, as well.

It wouldn’t be a GPHG if there wasn’t at least one watch by Kari Voutilainen – master of the arts and this year, Voutilainen won the Men’s category for its KV20i Reversed.

High Jewelry Dreams

Another timepiece that bears conversation and may not get enough simply because it is a woman’s watch and a high-jeweled masterpiece is the Chopard watch that won the high-jewelry category.

The Chopard Laguna High-Jewelry Secret Watch is a jewelry marvel. Yes, it is powered by a quartz movement, but this watch isn’t at all about mechanics. It is about art and craftsmanship; it is about elegance; it is about dreams.  Designed by Caroline Scheufele, Co-President of Chopard, the one-of-a-kind Red Carpet piece (CHF 780,000), the cuff watch recalls the beauty and mystery of nature. Focusing on shells to tell its tale, the watch, made of ethical rose and white gold, is meticulously set with pink, violet and pastel blue sapphires (totaling 10 carats), topaz (4.28 ct), a natural pearl (1.63 ct), emeralds (1.47 ct), diamonds (1.28 ct) and purple, Demantoid and Mandarin garnets.

GPHG 2024 Winners

Meanwhile, here is the lineup of 2024 GPHG winners. Let me know your thoughts on if these were surprises or not.

Aiguille d’Or Grand Prize (Best of Show):

Considered the biggest prize of the event, and not a category, is the Aiguille d’Or Grand Prize. A veritable best of the best from all of the categories – and the winner this year was incredibly well deserved and, in my opinion, a highly expected win. The Grand Prize this year goes to IWC Schaffhausen for the Portugieser Eternal Calendar watch with moonphase accuracy for 45 million years. In my short list of fewer than 30 Top Watches of 2024 for Elite Traveler Magazine, this was a top pick for me.

Mechanical Exception (automatons, striking watches, exceptional horological concepts): Bovet 1822 Récital 28 Prowess 1

Tourbillon (watch with tourbillon escapement, may have other complications): Daniel Roth Tourbillon Souscription

Calendar and Astronomy (calendar, equation of time, astronomical indications): Laurent Ferrier Classic Moon Silver

Jewelry (high-jeweled masterpieces): Chopard Laguna High-Jewellery Secret Watch

Artistic Crafts (Watches employing metiers d’ arts techniques): Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté

Iconic (reinterpretations of originals that make a lasting influence on watch design): Piaget Piaget Polo 79

Ladies’ (three-hands, moons, dates, seconds and up to 9 carats of gemstones): Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Jour Nuit

Ladies’ Complications (any complication added to the watch): Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Brise d’Été

Time Only (three-hands, no gemstones): H. Moser & Cie. Small Seconds Blue Enamel

Men’s (hours, minutes, seconds, date, power reserve, moon phases, retrograde): Voutilainen KV20i Reversed

Men’s Complications (any complication added to the watch): De Bethune DB Kind Of Grande Complication

Sports: Ming 37.09 Bluefin

Chronograph: Massena Lab Chronograph Monopoussoir Sylvain Pinaud x Massena Lab

Petite Aiguille (retail price between CHF 3,000 and CHF 10,000): Kudoke 3 Salmon

Challenge (retail for less than 3,000 CHF): Otsuka Lotec | No.6

Discretionary Awards:

Audacity (A discretionary prize based on jurors’ decision for non-conformist watchmaking): Berneron Mirage Sienna

Horological Revelation: (Discretionary and awarded to a brand less than 10 years old): Remy Cools Tourbillon

Chronometry (Discretionary and awarded for remarkable precision according to strict standards): Bernard Lederer

Eco-Innovation: (developments linked to sustainability): Chopard L.U.C

GPHG Itself

Stay tuned tomorrow for an honest review of my thoughts on the GPHG — not the winners, the event.