Zhong Tianyang
Known as the “Oscars” of the watch industry, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG), held the 2021 awards ceremony in early November, with PIAGET, LV (Louis Vuitton) and MB&F as the biggest winners, each taking home two trophies, while the most high-profile Grand Prize was awarded to Bvlgari OCTO FINISSIMO PERPETUAL CALENDAR TITANIUM WATCH. This year, the original watch “Blue Planet” of the Chinese brand “Xijia” won the Challenge Award, which is the first time that a Chinese watch brand has won the GPHG award.
Since its inception in 2001, the Geneva Haute Horlogerie Awards have become the world’s most watched watch awards, the most prestigious, authoritative and influential watch industry in the Swiss watch industry, and can be called the annual event of the watchmaking industry. Every year, around 300 brands and watchmakers compete for more than ten awards with their best creations.
At the 21st Geneva Watch Awards, Bulgari won the “Golden Pointer Award”, and the original watch “Blue Planet” of the Chinese watchmaking brand “Xijia” won the Challenge Award.
In order to ensure fair and impartial selection criteria and high-quality selection quality, GPHG’s jury committee is mainly composed of museum directors with strong academic backgrounds, historians, and media professionals with rich professional knowledge, and a quarter of the selection members will rotate regularly.
This year’s GPHG has a total of 18 watch awards, namely Women’s Watch, Women’s Complication Watch, Men’s Watch, Men’s Complication Watch, Iconic, Tourbillon Watch, Calendar and Astronomy Watch, Extraordinary Mechanical Function Watch, Chronograph, Diving Watch, Jewelry Watch, Craft and Art Watch, Golden Hands Award, Small Pointer Award, Challenge Award, Mechanical Innovation Award, Intrepid Award and Watch Apocalypse Award. In addition, since 2018, the GPHG has also set up a special jury prize to recognize outstanding contributions to the watch industry, which was awarded this year to Hind Seddiqi, the head of Dubai Watch Week.
GOLDEN POINTER AWARD: BULGARI OCTO FINISSIMO PERPETUAL CALENDAR TITANIUM ULTRA-THIN PERPETUAL CALENDAR TITANIUM
BULGARI OCTO FINISSIMO PERPETUAL CALENDAR TITANIUM IS A SLIM PERPETUAL CALENDAR TITANIUM VERSION
As the heaviest “Golden Hand” award every year, this year it was won by the Bulgari Octo Finissimo perpetual calendar watch, which broke the record for the brand’s ultra-thin watch for the seventh time. The BVL 305 self-winding calibre with a thickness of only 2.75 mm (the entire watch is only 5.80 mm thick) provides a power reserve of up to 60 hours for the hour and minute display and a perpetual calendar display including the date, week, month and leap year of the retrotrip. You know, the operation of complex functions can be achieved in such a thin thickness, looking at the entire watchmaking world, there are very few. The last three GPHG Gold Hands Awards have been awarded to ultra-thin watches.
Challenge Award: CIGA Design Blue Planet watch
CIGA Design Blue Planet watch
Shenzhen-based designer brand CIGA Design won the Challenge Award, achieving a big breakthrough for Chinese brands in GPHG. This watch does not have a hand design, but the time display is achieved by the central blue planet and the rotation of the minute scale ring, which rotates 30 degrees per hour, and the compass rose logo on it is equivalent to the hands, pointing to the minute and hour gauge circles on the outer bezel of the dial. The small hour of the outermost ring is fixed, and the minute scale rotates at an average speed of 360 degrees per hour to display the minutes.
Best Women’s Watch Award: Piaget Limelight Gala Precious Rainbow watch
Earl Limelight Gala Precious Rainbow watch
Piaget for the first time this year incorporated the design of the “rainbow bezel” into the Limelight Gala collection. Five brilliant-cut tsavorites in green (totalling approx. 0.91 carats) and 37 colored sapphires (totalling approx. 7.90 carats) are set in scales on the sides of the case and extend to the asymmetrical lugs of the bracelet. The bracelet of this watch is also a combination of craftsmanship, requiring craftsmen to leave a unique texture on the bracelet by hand engraving, giving it a texture woven with gold wire.
Best Men’s Watch Award: Grand Seiko Hi-Beat 36000 80 Hours Caliber 9SA5 watch
Grand Seiko Hi-Beat 36000 80 Hours Caliber 9SA5 watch
This watch, also known as the Birch Forest watch, has a dial inspired by the slender and beautiful birch tree, giving us a glimpse of Japan’s unique natural environment and unique watchmaking craftsmanship. This watch is equipped with the 9SA5 calibre with a high frequency of 5 Hz (36,000 beats per hour), giving time life and technology.
Best Chronograph Award: Zenith Chronomaster Sport
Zenith Chronomaster Sport
The new CHRONOMASTER flagship Sport watch features a sleek, durable 41mm stainless-steel case with pump pushers and a polished black ceramic bezel that is an iconic design. Powered by the El Primero 3600 calibre, Zenith increases the accuracy of timekeeping of movements with a frequency of 5 Hz (36,000 beats per hour) to 1/10th of a second and extends the power reserve to 60 hours.
Best diver’s watch award: LV Tambour Street Diver Skyline Blue
LV Tambour Street Diver Skyline Blue
Unlike traditional diver’s watches, the Tambour Street Diver has a distinctly modern urban style. The screw-down crown, the 100m water resistance to the dial and the Super-LumiNova luminescent coating on the internal rotating bezel guarantee the watch’s diving performance. Just as water has infinite shapes, the Louis Vuitton Tambour collection also accommodates all wrist sizes thanks to its narrow top and wide bottom case construction.
Little Pointer Award: Tudor Black Bay Ceramic
Tudor Black Bay Ceramic
Corresponding to the “Golden Pointer Award”, the “Little Pointer Award” is also very significant, mainly awarded to watches with excellent quality and excellent value for money in all aspects. This year’s award is still given to the new work in the Tudor Black Bay series, which has won the Little Pointer Award several times in the past few years. The winning model is the Black Bay Ceramic watch, with a unique matte black ceramic case, equipped with the original Tudor movement, also rendered in all-black.
This pure black Tudor calibre MT5602-1U features hours, minutes and seconds. The watch is certified by the Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology (METAS), which requires that the average daily time error of a watch should not exceed 5 seconds (0 +5) and that the watch maintain accurate timing in a high magnetic field environment of 15,000 gauss.
Other winners are as follows:
Best Complication Watch: Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Féerie & Best Innovative Mechanical Watch: Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Automatic
Best Complication Men’s Watch: MB&F LMX Titanium watch
Best Logo Award: AP Royal Oak “Jumbo” Extra-Thin watch
Best tourbillon watch: De Bethune DB Kind of Two Tourbillon watch
Best Calendar and Astronomical Watch: Christiaan Van der Klaauw CVDK Planetarium Eise Eisinga watch
Best Jewelry Watch Award: Chopard Flower Power Jewelry Watch
Best Craftsmanship Award: MB&F LM SE EDDY JAQUET Around the World in Eighty Days watch
Best Innovation Award Bernhard Lederer Central Impulse Chronometer watch
Fearless Award: LV Tambour Carpe Diem watch
Watch Inspiration Award: Furlan Marri MR. Grey Ref. 1041-A
Responsible editor: Chen Hua
Proofreader: Xu Yijia
