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The Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) stands as a pinnacle event in the watchmaking world, celebrating innovation and excellence. In 2014, the 14th edition saw record participation, bringing together major watchmaking groups and independent companies. Small-luxury-world offers a first-hand account of the ceremony, providing personal impressions and an overview of the winning timepieces.
For me it was the first time to attend but it already was the 14th edition of the GPHG and from what I know with record participation this time. There have been representations from all major watchmaking groups and not to forget a number of independent companies. Still there are some important brands missing!
It was held in the Grand Theatre de Genéve and with about 1.500 guests from all over the world – more or less. The jury is presented by a quite eclectic mix of experts (from different fields and not only from the watch industry) from almost each major market – 25 people in total.
I won´t go in too many details here, because those of you with in-depth interest will probably have seen the ceremony live on the internet. Still I thought it could be interesting for you to get some more personal impressions from the festivity and a brief overview about the winners. In addition I will share live pictures of the watches, when I had the pleasure to shoot them in advance.
Let´s start with some pictures from the exhibition which was travelling around the world.
In Geneva the exhibition was here and on display like shown – for the public:
The ambiance during the ceremony in general was more relaxed than I expected it to be and at least the moderators tried to be international. The latter was not always the case for all of the speeches, which is understandable but still not appropriate for such an international audience. Even when it is maybe “tricky” in some cases, English should probably be the common language for all attendees. It would be much more interesting for everybody if you have a chance to follow all the talking. I won´t be too fussy here as they had my full attention most of the time, but still it would have been nice.
The audience was quite interesting to say the least and not only in the first rows. Some of you will detect familiar faces, for sure.
As it probably would be too much to share all the pictures taken at the ceremony, only a few more to cover the spirit in general:
Not everybody seemed to be emotional affected (at least on the stage), but some have been deeply touched. To me it is always nice to see “human emotions” in the sometimes so serious or even arrogant industry as it shows it is more than just (BIG) business only.
Note : all pictures without dedicated picture credit shown are official ones from GPHG
"AIGUILLE D'OR" GRAND PRIX Breguet Classique Chronométrie LADIES' WATCH PRIZE Blancpain Women Off-centred Hour LADIES' HIGH-MECH WATCH PRIZE Christophe Claret Margot MEN'S WATCH PRIZE Urban Jürgensen & Sonner Central Second CHRONOGRAPH WATCH PRIZE De Bethune DB29 Maxichrono Tourbillon TOURBILLON WATCH PRIZE Grönefeld Parallax Tourbillon CALENDAR WATCH PRIZE A. Lange & Söhne Richard Lange Perpetual Calendar "Terraluna" STRIKING WATCH PRIZE Hublot Classic Fusion Cathedral Tourbillon Minute
Thanks a lot for sharing the atmosphere of the evening. From the results we know and to join what you said about the spirit of the industry, I really think independant watchmaking brings something that would really be lacking if they didn't exist. I'm happy to notice each day that many of the people working in that field are true watch fans and not only business professionals. Cheers Oliver, Mark
which show the ambiance ... proud winners and their "groupies" ... fellow PuristS ... What are those gentlemen and fellow PuristS looking at, with a smile? Sorry ladies, even when you are beautiful the full attention that night was at the winners - Bart Grönefeld in this case :-) I will stop here with ambiance pictures, even when the party went further and all night long for some. It is just a matter of discretion, isn´t it :-)
nothing more, nothing less. (I know it is not the black one, but thought it doesn´t hurt :-) )
passion . The latter is especially shown by independents, but not only. Let´s support the good ones :-) Cheers, Oliver
And the hard work and dedication to this craftmanship of Mr Lange for instance is a good example :) Cheers, Mark
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