Highlights: Winners at 2020 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève
Having just taken place in Geneva and broadcast live, the 2020 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) ceremony anointed most of the year’s best watches. Whittled down from a large selection to candidates that were evaluated by an all-Swiss jury instead of the usual cosmopolitan mix due to travel restrictions, eighteen watches (and one watchmaker) received prizes. A handful of them are worth a look as worthy winners – albeit winning by default in some of the less competitive categories – as well as a notable watch that did not win but should have. Awarded to the best watch of the contest, the Aiguille d’Or Grand Prix, went to the Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept. The thinnest mechanical watch on the market, the Altiplano Ultimate Concept (AUC) is the culmination of all the progress in ultra-thin watchmaking over the last several decades. At an unreal 2 mm high, the AUC pushes engineering to the cutting edge, albeit at an extremely high price. While there were other watches in the competition that could reasonably be candidates for the Aiguille d’Or, the AUC has earned it. The Piaget AUC Complications and revelations Another prestigious award is the Horological Revelation Prize, which is awarded at the discretion of the jury to watch made by a nascent brand. It went to the Petermann Bédat 1967, unquestionably one of the highlights of independent watchmaking this year. Well deserving of the prize, the 1967 is simply marvellous (we explain why here). Thoug...