The watches are in!

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The watches are in! - GPHG 2015
1 minute read
The first stage in the campaign for the coveted Aiguille d’Or starts today as the GPHG 2015 publishes the 193 candidate watches in this year’s competition.

It is an important milestone but at this stage in the proceedings it means relatively little. Today we know that 193 watches that have been submitted for consideration at this year’s Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix (GPHG 2015). As usual, there is a healthy mix of big names and small independent brands vying for the “Oscars of watchmaking”, which will be awarded on 29th October 2015 at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.

To be in with a chance of winning a prize in one of the 12 categories, the candidate watches have to pass a first round of selections, where the jury, which consists of the world’s most eminent watch journalists and collectors, will select six watches in each category. The choice will be easy in the “Striking” category, since there are only six watches competing, and the seven candidates in the “Calendar” category also have excellent chances of making the second round, where all 72 pre-selected watches will face another secret ballot.  A separate vote is cast for the overall winner, which will be awarded the Aiguille d’Or.

The year of the smartwatch or the year of the tourbillon?

The watches are in!

As our chart shows, however, the competition will be fierce in the “Men’s”, “Tourbillon”, “Ladies” and “Sports” categories, with these four groups accounting for nearly half of all the watches entered. The 23 tourbillons entered into the competition seems a staggering figure, especially when compared with only 14 chronographs and 18 reasonably priced watches in the “Petite Aiguille” category (for watches costing less than 5,000 Swiss francs retail). This is a reminder that it is the watch brands themselves who choose which watches to enter, without necessarily taking the business climate or market trends into account.

Nevertheless, the presence of the only two Swiss Made smartwatches currently in production (Frédérique Constant’s “Horological Smartwatch” in the Petite Aiguille category and Montblanc’s TimeWalker Urban Speed Chronograph with the e-Strap in the Sports category), is a welcome development, as is Chanel’s iconic J12 as the sole ladies’ challenger in the male-dominated Tourbillon category. Other notable entrants are Tiffany, on its return to watchmaking, with CT60 models entered in the Men’s, Ladies’ and Calendar categories, and the recently launched De Grisogono New Retro – the only rectangular watch among the 32 candidates in the Men’s category.

View all the watches entered into the GPHG 2015.

Or relive last year's awards ceremony.

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