text by Anandhi Gopinath
Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) 2023
Although the world is well on its way to making a recovery after the few almost impossibly difficult years of the pandemic, any chance to bring any industry together and mend fractured relationships or forge new connections is never a bad idea. The watch competition known as the Oscars of haute horlogerie, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) has aimed to do this since its founding in 2001, by offering all brands – Swiss or international, small or large, with mechanical or quartz movements, and even connected watches – the opportunity to enter this competition. It has certainly achieved this aim, also becoming a platform for both well-known players and newcomers to haute horlogerie to profile themselves.
This year, Malaysia benefitted from Loretan’s efforts when retailer The Hour Glass brought the GPHG nominee showcase to Kuala Lumpur for the first time. The showcase travelled to key cities all over the world, concluding at the Kunsthaus in Zurich in December.
GPHG nominee showcase in Kuala Lumpur brought by The Hour Glass
For the GPHG’s 2023 edition, 90 timepieces – 84 watches and six clocks – were nominated across 15 categories, the winners chosen by a judging panel headed by historian and writer Nick Foulkes. On 9 November, the awards were given out at a glittering ceremony at its traditional venue, the theatre in the Fairmont Hotel in Geneva.
The highly coveted Aiguille d’Or, the event’s top prize, went to a grand complication model from Audemars Piguet’s Code 11.59 series, easily one of the most polarising collections in watchmaking when it was first unveiled. A new category, sportswatches, made its welcome debut this year – a move marking the continuous evolution of the awards – but let’s hope, in the coming years, the Women’s Complication prize is abolished in the name of gender equality.
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More than a century after the production of its ultra-complicated Universelle pocket watch, Audemars Piguet is introducing its very first ultra-complicated self-winding wristwatch in the highly contemporary design of the Code 11.59 collection. While paying tribute to the manufacture’s legacy of high complications, the Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet Ultra- Complication Universelle RD#4 has been crafted with ergonomics and contemporary usage to offer unprecedented comfort and simplicity of use. This new creation regroups the manufacture’s horological savoir-faire into a single movement, the self-winding Calibre 1000, which counts over 1,100 components.
A feat of engineering and fine watchmaking tradition, this pioneering mechanism builds on three generations of innovation and incorporates 40 functions, including 23 complications, among which are a Grande Sonnerie Supersonnerie, a minute repeater, a perpetual calendar, a split-seconds flyback chronograph and a flying tourbillon.
The timepiece also boasts, for the first time, a ‘secret’ gold caseback that amplifies the watch’s acoustic performance when worn, and reveals the beauty of the mechanism, thanks to the new supersonnerie sapphire soundboard. Engineers, designers, watchmakers and craftspeople worked hand in hand for over seven years to bring the RD#4 to life, continuously broadening their skills to push the limits of haute horlogerie craftsmanship to new heights.
The Special Jury Prize at GPHG 2023
A significant prize this year is one that isn’t awarded regularly, but at the discretion of the judges. The Special Jury Prize was given to pioneer independent watchmakers Svend Andersen and Vincent Calabrese for establishing the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants (AHCI) in 1985. Seminal figures in the field, the duo’s influence is immense with a career that somewhat peaked in the 1990s but, based on the standing ovation they received during the event itself, summon a great amount of regard and respect.
GPHG nominee showcase in Kuala Lumpur
What would be interesting to see is how the GPHG awards continue to evolve, recognising a new generation of watchmakers and aficionados of haute horlogerie. Under Loretan’s stewardship, we expect only great things – here’s to a bright future for this hugely influential platform.
