Wei Koh on his first year as GPHG jury president

With just a week to go before the prestigious awards at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, Euronews Culture caught up with one of watchmaking’s most charismatic figures, Wei Koh, founder of media company Revolution and, for the first time, jury president of GPHG, the “Oscars of watchmaking”.

White T-shirt, visible tattoos, large sunglasses, Wei Koh cuts through the crowd to greet us in the sweltering heat of the Geneva Watch Days pavilion, where dozens of fine watchmaking houses have gathered to show off their latest releases.

“Hey dude, what’s up?”, he asks. Behind the infinitely laid-back energy, he’s about to preside, for the first time, over the jury of the luxurious industry’s most prestigious competition, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG).

This year, 84 nominated timepieces are competing for 19 prizes, including the coveted Aiguille d’Or, awarded every year since 2001 to the single most remarkable watch of the year. The 2026 awards ceremony will be held on 7 November in Geneva.

“The creativity is extraordinary this year. You’ve got watches that are executed at such a level of finesse that, as a watch lover, it makes you want to weep,” promises the 54-year-old Singaporean.

What is the jury actually looking for?

The final list of 84 pieces in the running was published early September. Most are genuine feats of technical artistry, often produced in tiny numbers by confidential workshops most people outside the industry have never heard of.

So what makes a watch better than another? “I think singularity, right? Like a voice that’s really unique,” Koh says. “Remember the first time you listened to John Coltrane, or Miles Davis, or Tupac? Even if that person was relatively young, they were making a fundamental contribution to music. It’s the same with watches.”

He borrows a line from watchmaking legend François-Paul Journe, who once described the craft as one continuous wall. “If you want to enter this métier, your mission is to add at least one brick, a vital contribution,” Koh explains. “That’s what we’re looking for.”

Mechanical watchmaking know-how, sometimes billed as the 12th art, has been on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage since December 2020.

Among this year’s contenders, he quotes the first ever grand sonnerie able to play two different melodies for the quarter-hour chimes, a watch reviving a century-old balance-wheel technique thought lost to history, and a chronograph that reinvents how we physically interact with the complication altogether.

Behind closed doors

Choosing which timepiece deserves top honours is no small task. The 24-member jury will meet behind closed doors early November in Geneva, just days before the ceremony, to physically examine each of the 84 nominated pieces, to discuss and vote by secret ballot.

“We’re kind of on an honour system, so we don’t really talk much about what happens behind closed doors,” Koh says, though he’s quick to credit his predecessor, Nick Foulkes, for setting the tone: rigorous exchange, real disagreement, open dialogue.

“Nick has always believed in debate,” Koh, who has been a jury member during the previous editions, remembers. “There are extraordinary moments where you’re like, wow, I’ve just had a revelation. Someone explained it so well it completely changed my mind about a specific timepiece.”

Wei Koh built his reputation the hard way. Back in 2005, he was handing out magazines at Baselworld. Some 21-years and a thriving media company later, he’s one of the most recognisable names in the business, and the producer of Man of the Hour, one of the first documentary-style series dedicated to watchmaking.

“What I’ve learned over these years is that this industry is a meritocracy,” he says. “If you strive for excellence, if you’re consistent and honest in your efforts, you will succeed. But what this industry really rewards is when you try to contribute meaningfully to its survival, by protecting its principles.”

The luxury watch market has hit historic highs over the past decade. The result of a careful balancing act between honouring heritage and pushing technical innovation. In the exhibition room of the Geneva Watch Days, centuries-old complications sit alongside breakthrough materials.

An industry in motion

This edition of the GPHG comes with real changes: the old “men’s” and “women’s” watch categories have been scrapped in favour of new categories built around technical criteria. On 7 October, adieu French, the ceremony will be held in English for the first time. A shift that echoes something Koh has spent two decades pushing for.

“The whole idea with Revolution was to uplift the founding ethics and principles of watchmaking while connecting it with a much bigger audience,” he says. “For this craft, for this industry to survive, we have to keep growing the audience and bring in the next generation.”

The renewed obsession with mechanical watches might seem surprising in the age of artificial intelligence. Koh states that they are more relevant than ever, and points to what he calls “tech and AI oligarchs, the people who built the hyper-digitised world we now live in, who have become huge watch collectors.”

The most famous example is Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, who has been seen wearing high-end independent watchmakers such as Patek Philippe to F.P. Journe, H. Moser & Cie., and De Bethune.

“I think it’s because a mechanical watch is the opposite of everything ephemeral. It outlives you. It only takes the energy you give it, by winding it or wearing it. There’s something magical about that.”

Wei Koh saves his best line for last: “Watchmaking gave me everything: a job, and my friendships, which are incredibly international. Because watchmaking transcends where you’re from, your age, your religion, even your language. I find that to be this incredible force that binds us together.” In the world we live in today, he suggests, that might matter more than it ever has.

The winners of the 2026 GPHG will be announced at the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices in Geneva on Saturday, 7 November and live on Euronews Culture and gphg.org.

Source: www.euronews.com