At this year’s luxury watch awards, 84 timepieces and clocks were in competition across 14 categories, including sports, calendar and astronomy, jewellery and mechanical exception.
The Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) awards returned for the 26th edition this year, showcasing the crème de la crème of luxury watchmaking at a glittering ceremony on 7 November.
The top honour, known as the ‘Aiguille d’Or’ Grand Prix, was open to any watch across all categories. Last year, it was won by Breguet’s Classique Souscription 2025 – a watch which only has one hand. This year, it was awarded to an independent Swiss-Kosovan watchmaker making waves in horology.
“Aiguille d’Or” Grand Prix best-in-show award
The most distinguished award at the GPHG, the Aiguille d’Or, went to Geneva-based independent watchmaker Rexhep Rexhepi’s Chronograph Flyback.
Sleek and harmonious, the proportions of this watch required “a complete rethinking of the movement’s architecture”. The storm blue Grand Feu enamel dial draws inspiration from vintage pocket-watch chronographs.
The event once again highlighted the time-honoured mastery of the industry, as 84 watches and clocks vied for awards in 14 categories, including sports, calendar and astronomy, jewellery and mechanical exception.
In a first, the organisers scrapped the usual gender-based (Men’s and Ladies’) categories and replaced them with new technical categories: Essential Watch and Complication Watch.
The nominees this year included a Moscow workshop taking on the Swiss giants, a wearable solar system, and a 10-kilo clock that winds your watch while you sleep.
The winners were decided by a jury of experts including watch collectors, watchmakers, journalists and auctioneers.
Winners of the GPHG watchmaking awards
Here is the full list of winners of the night’s dazzling awards ceremony:
Time Only: Watches displaying only analogue time indications (hours, minutes, seconds) by means of two or three hands on a solid dial, devoid of any other type of indication, complications or gemsetting. One-of-a-kind models are not eligible for this category.
WINNER 2026: Chopard’s L.U.C 1860 Chronometer
This watch was created as a continuation model of the original, iconic L.U.C 1860 to honour the 30th anniversary of Chopard Manufacture in Fleurier.
Essential: Watches displaying one or several of the following indications: hours, minutes, seconds, date (day of the month), power-reserve indicator, classic moon phases, day/night indicator. They may feature a digital or retrograde display and they may not fall within the respective definitions of the Time Only, Complication and Gemset categories. One-of-a-kind models are not eligible for this category.
WINNER 2026: Daniel Roth’s Extra Plat Rose Gold Skeleton
A skeletonised reinterpretation of the Extra Plat, this watch is characterised by a less-is-more philosophy with a movement architecture defined by lightness and transparency.
Complication: Timepieces distinguished by their creativity and mechanical complexity, featuring all kinds of complications and classic and/or innovative indications (e.g. world time, dual time, etc.) and not falling within the definition of the Essential and Mechanical Exception categories. One-of-a-kind models are not eligible for this category.
WINNER 2026: CLEGUER’s Inspiration One
This watch features a grand feu champlevé enamel dial set off-centre at 2 o’clock, a snailed barrel highlighted by a 36-hour power reserve indicator, and an oversized balance wheel measuring 12.9 mm and beating at 18,000 vibrations per hour.
Mechanical Exception: Watches featuring a special mechanism, such as an innovative or sophisticated display, an automaton, a striking or any other acoustic function, a special escapement, a belt-driven movement or comprising another original and/or exceptional horological concept. One-of-a-kind models are not eligible for this category.
WINNER 2026: Blancpain’s Grande Double Sonnerie
This represents the most complicated watch by Blancpain, developed over eight years. It introduces a world first in the field of grande sonnerie wristwatches: the ability to select, at the push of a button, between two distinct melodies performed by a four-note, four-hammer striking mechanism.
Gemset: Watches set with a total of up to six carats of gemstones. They may provide only the following time indications – hours, minutes, seconds, date (day of the month), power-reserve indicator, classic moon phases – and they may feature a digital or retrograde display. One-of-a-kind models are not eligible for this category.
WINNER 2026: Piaget’s Swinging Pebble
This pocket watch is created from a carved and polished ornamental stone hanging from a twisted gold chain.
Tourbillon: Mechanical watches comprising one tourbillon. Additional indications and/or complications are admissible. One-of-a-kind models are not eligible for this category.
WINNER 2026: Ferdinand Berthoud’s Chronomètrie FB 2TV
The aim of this collection is to “reveal the mechanical beauty of the movement on the dial side”.
Chronograph: Mechanical watches comprising at least one chronograph indication. Additional indications and/or complications are admissible. One-of-a-kind models are not eligible for this category.
WINNER 2026: Parmigiani Fleurier’s Tonda PF Chronographe Mystérieux
This watch is defined by simplicity and discretion, with a mono-pusher that coordinates three synchronised phases.
Calendar and Astronomy: Mechanical watches comprising at least one calendar and/or astronomical complication (e.g. date, annual calendar, perpetual calendar, equation of time, complex moon phases display, etc.). Additional indications and/or complications are admissible. One-of-a-kind models are not eligible for this category.
WINNER 2026: Audemars Piguet’s 150 Heritage
This limited-edition pocket watch introduces the Universal Calendar for the first time: a mechanical calculator visible from the caseback, featuring the celestial cycles that have shaped cultural celebrations across the world.
Sports: Watches linked to the world of sport, whose functions, materials and design are suited to physical exercise. One-of-a-kind models are not eligible for this category.
WINNER 2026: Grand Seiko’s Spring Drive U.F.A. Ushio 300 Diver
This is the brand’s smallest diver’s watch ever, and its most accurate to be powered by a Spring Drive movement.
Jewellery: Watches demonstrating exceptional mastery of the art of jewellery and gemsetting, and also distinguished by the choice of stones. They may not be fall within the definition of the Gemset category.
WINNER 2026: Chopard’s Mystery Nut
This pendant is formed like a walnut with an 18-carat ethical rose gold case set with brown and cognac diamonds, which opens to reveal a moonphase watch powered by an in-house self-winding movement.
Artistic Crafts: Watches demonstrating exceptional mastery of one or several artistic techniques such as enamelling, lacquering, engraving, guilloché (engine-turning), marquetry, skeleton-working, etc. One-of-a-kind models are not eligible for this category.
WINNER 2026: Louis Vuitton’s Tambour Taiko Arty Automata
This watch is an explosion of colour and movement. The result of more than 250 hours of painstaking handwork, the dial is composed of 23 distinct shades of champlevé enamel.
“Petite Aiguille”: Watches with a retail price between CHF 4,500 and CHF 10,000. One-of-a-kind models are not eligible for this category.
WINNER 2026: OTSUKA LOTEC’s No.8
This timepiece’s module is composed of 62 components and uses one ultra-small 1.5 mm ball bearing manufactured by MinebeaMitsumi, currently the smallest in the world.
Challenge: Watches with a retail price equal to or under CHF 4,500. One-of-a-kind models are not eligible for this category.
WINNER 2026: SpaceOne’s SpaceOne X Baltic -Seconde Majeure
This watch is built around its signature complication, the jumping-hour module.
Mechanical Clock: mechanical instruments whose main function is time measurement, such as longcase clocks and table clocks. Wristwatches are not allowed in this category.
WINNER 2026: La Vallée’s COSMO
COSMO introduces a new horological concept: an entire mechanism magnetically suspended and rotating continuously on its own axis.
Audacity Prize: This prize rewards the best competing timepiece featuring a non-conformist, offbeat approach to watchmaking. It is intended to foster creative audacity.
WINNER 2026: Konstantin Chaykin’s ThinKing Mystery
The independent Moscow-based watchmaker’s timepiece is billed as the thinnest series-produced mechanical watch in the world.
Horological Revelation Prize: This prize rewards a competing timepiece created by a young brand (less than ten years of existence since its first model was commercialised).
WINNER 2026: Dominique Renaud’s Pulse60 Titanium Black
The Pulse60 features the lowest frequency found in contemporary mechanical watchmaking: 1Hz. Its balance wheel oscillates just 60 times per minute – the same frequency as a human heart at rest.
Chronometry Prize: This prize rewards the best competing timepiece that stands out for its remarkable precision timekeeping performance (special escapement or distinctive regulating device) and which is officially certified (ISO 3159 standards) by an inspection authority such as the COSC, TIMELAB, Besançon Observatory, etc.
WINNER 2026: Ferdinand Berthoud’s Naissance d’une Montre 3
Coinciding with the tenth anniversary of Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud, Naissance d’une Montre 3 is a horological heritage project. Each component has been individually crafted without digital assistance, entirely by hand or using traditional tools.
Iconic Watch Prize: This prize rewards a watch stemming from an emblematic collection or model that has been exercising a lasting influence on watchmaking history and the watch market for more than 20 years or offering a contemporary reinterpretation. It is open to all watches – whether or not they are officially entered in the competition – released between May 2025 and the end of October 2026.
WINNER 2026: Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak “Jumbo” Extra-Thin Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Chronograph RD#5 “150th Anniversary”
The RD#5 features a rare instant jump minute counter alongside an hour counter and, for the first time in the Royal Oak collection, combines a flyback chronograph with a flying tourbillon.
Special Jury Prize: This prize rewards a personality, institution or initiative that has played a fundamental role in promoting high-quality watchmaking. It may also honour a brand – whether or not it is entered in the competition – for a significant development opening up new avenues for the art of watchmaking (technical innovation, design, display, materials, etc.); or for an exemplary approach to ethics and/or sustainability. This prize may not under any circumstances be awarded to a timepiece.
WINNER 2026: Patek Philippe / Watch Art Grand Exhibition
Source: www.euronews.com
