This year Grand Prix d’Horlogerie Genève welcomes its 15th edition; the prestigious celebration of fine-watchmaking. The jury is announcing winners from the 72 pre-selected contestants in 12 categories at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, 29 October 2015. Like every year, GPHG has travelled all these exceptional pieces to four major cities around the world, this time Hong Kong (October 2-3), Seoul (October 6-8), Dubai (18-21 October as part of Dubai Watch Week), Geneva (October 26-27) and London (November 12-14 as part of Salon QP) in order to promote the worthy competition and of course Swiss watchmaking.
In 2015, of the 193 watches submitted, the judges have pre-selected 72 finalists which are now in the running for the awards – Ladies’, Ladies’ High-Mech, Men’s, Chronograph, Tourbillon, Calendar, Striking, Mechanical Exception, “Petite Aiguille” (retail price up to 8,000 CHF), Sports, Jewellery, Artistic Crafts, Aiguille d’Or or the public’s prize.
GPHG2015 welcomes Audemars Piguet as a re-entrant; the brand was absent from the GHPG for many years, now entered three watches in this year’s competition. The independent watch brands will once again be very well represented.
The jury is headed by the well-known vintage timepiece expert Aurel Bacs (Co-Founder and Partner with Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo) and he has 25 “jury-mates”; professionals from watchmaking or watch-collecting circles, specialist from print/online media and other opinion leaders.
However the Award has been received also questioning comments and critics throughout the years, it has constantly undergone some renewals and development, with keeping the same goal in the focus: support and “advertise” Swiss finewatchmaking and its values.
We saw the GPHG exhibition in Hong Kong, in the Liang Yi Museum – a private museum that houses one of the world’s largest and best-curated collections of Chinese antique furniture – opened on 181 Hollywood Road in 2014. The tastefully restored minimalist environment (the building originates from the 60s, now utilising 4 floors for the museum) was a nice and spacious surrounding for the finalist timepieces.
Check out a few from the pre-selected timepieces in different categories below or see the full list on the site of GPHG.
Photo credits: Loupiosity.com.
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