GPHG Announces Nominees for Annual Horological Awards

September 4, 2018

The jury of the 18th Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) has announced the official pre-selection for this year’s horological award show.

The 72 pre-selected watches, divided into 12 categories, are competing to win one of the 16 prizes that will salute the year’s finest watch creations, including the prestigious Aiguille d’Or Grand Prix.

This 18th edition of the GPHG has attracted record participation with representatives from all the major watch groups, as well as a number of independent maisons. Creations from both large and small brands are thus vying with each other within a unifying spirit designed to enhance the international reputation of an industry that consistently pushes technical and artistic boundaries, while displaying impressive vitality.

The 2018 jury, composed of 30 or so experts and passionately dedicated individuals from a variety of backgrounds, will meet behind closed doors in early November to evaluate the pre-selected watches and cast their vote by secret ballot. The winners will be announced Friday, November 9 at the 18th GPHG gala. Held in Geneva’s Théâtre du Léman, the award ceremony will be attended by Johann Schneider-Ammann, Federal Councillor and Economic Affairs Minister, along with Genevan authorities and representatives of the international watchmaking profession, all gathered to celebrate the art of horology.

French actor and producer Edouard Baer will serve as master of ceremonies for this event, which will notably be broadcast live on Euronews, gphg.org and several international media partner websites. In keeping with an ever more connected world, a digital platform will be set up to provide almost real-time access to pictures, interviews and other information (mediacenter-gphg.org).

The resolutely global GPHG will assemble the watches pre-selected by the jury for a series of exhibitions offering the international public a series of exceptional opportunities to admire the diversity of contemporary watch production representing more than 40 different brands.

The 2018 roadshow will kick off in Venice on September 28 with an event organized at the Arsenal in partnership with BMW Italy. The 72 pre-selected watches will then fly off to Hong Kong, where they will be on show in the Liang Yi Museum on October 10 and 11, for private events organized by our principal partner, LGT private bank and then a public presentation in partnership with the Wine’s Link company. After that, they will stop off in Singapore at The Hour Glass, a prominent retailer hosting the roadshow from October 17 to 21 in its Malmaison boutique, where exclusive events will be organized in parallel with the exhibition’s public opening hours.

Upon returning to Geneva, the 72 watches will take up residence in the Palatine rooms of the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire (MAH) from November 1 to 14, where the GPHG will organize a multi-facetted exhibition dedicated to watchmaking art and culture, with the support of several local institutions. Alongside the watches pre-selected by the GPHG jury, the public will be able to view:

a selection of works from the MAH fine arts collections
screenings of videos by international artists taken from the Telling Time exhibition presented by the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH)
a creation and several research projects by students from the Chair in Watch Design of the HEAD – Geneva University of Art and Design
an exhibition of the winning pictures of the Watch Photo Awards (watch-photo-awards.com), an international competition open to the public at large and launched on the WorldTempus watch information website
In addition, various educational and entertaining watchmaking workshops will also be organized for visitors, along with other cultural mediation activities.

The 2018 roadshow will end in Vienna, where the presentation of the prize-winning watches will be part of an exclusive event organized at the Liechtenstein City Palace by the GPHG’s principal partner, LGT private bank.

As part of Cellini’s exclusive Meet the Watchmakers event on October 25, many of the timepieces pre-selected for the 2018 GPHG will be on display at the NYC flagship. See nominated watches by De Bethune, Girard-Perregaux, Laurent Ferrier, Ludovic Ballouard, MB&F, Ulysse Nardin, Vacheron Constantin, Voutilainen, Zenith, and more. For more information about the event, click here.