Tue, Sep 1, 2015
Connoisseurs of fine watches from the Arab world are invited to vote for their favourite watch for the 2105 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG), the watch industry’s equivalent of the Oscars.
The 72 watches in contention for an array of awards at the 2015 edition are also set to dazzle visitors at the upcoming Dubai Watch Week, organised by eminent local retailer Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, next month in Dubai, UAE.
The list of watches pre-selected by the 2015 jury is now available on the website of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, gphg.org.
These 72 timepieces will be competing to win the prestigious “Aiguille d’Or” Grand Prix or one of the 16 prizes awarded for contemporary creative talent and watchmaking expertise.
By consulting this list, watchmaking enthusiasts from all over the world are invited to vote for their favourite watch. They will thus take part in electing a model to be awarded the ‘public prize’ and automatically participate in the draw to win a DeWitt watch worth nearly $18,000.
Watches will be judged under 12 categories – Ladies’, Ladies’ High Mechanical, Men’s, Chronograph, Tourbillon, Calendar, Striking, Mechanical Exception, Petite Aguille, Sports, Jewellery and Artistic Crafts - in addition to the Innovation, Revival, Special Jury, and Public prizes, and of course the top ‘Aiguille d’Or’ honour.
The 2015 awards will be revealed on October 29 at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in Geneva, Switzerland.
Presented jointly by French writer and Frédéric Beigbeder and actor Gaspard Proust, the prize-giving ceremony will be attended by Swiss Federal Councillor Alain Berset, and will see representatives from the international watchmaking community congregate in Geneva to recognise the dynamic buoyancy of their sector.
The event will be broadcast live on gphg.org, on partner sites euronews.com, hodinkee.com, worldtempus.com, as well as on the Léman Bleu TV channel.
Over the past 15 years, the GPHG has been annually celebrating the “12th art” - the art of measuring time - and providing an international audience with the opportunity to follow trends and innovations, notably through a roadshow that presents the pre-selected watches in various capitals each year.
This year’s roadshow takes in Hong Kong, Seoul (South Korea), Dubai, Geneva and London (UK).
On October 2 and 3, the Liang Yi Museum in Hong Kong will host the first leg of the 2015 travelling exhibition.
For the first time this year, the 72 pre-selected watches will then move to Seoul, from October 6 to 8, at the Hyundai Card Music Library + Understage, a city-centre venue in the vanguard of design and culture.
In Dubai, the GPHG exhibition will be the focus of the first Dubai Watch Week, a platform for cultural and educational exploration devoted to watchmaking that will take place from October 18 to 22 at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
In addition to the GPHG exhibition, this Dubai-based event, created and organised by Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons in partnership with the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, will also notably offer a forum for discussion and reflection gathering together the major players in this industry.
Once back in Geneva the timepieces will be presented from October 27 to November 4 at the Cité du Temps, the showcase for the official pre-selection for the past four years.
The roadshow’s final stop for the 17 winning watches will be an exhibition in London from November 12 to 14, as part of the SalonQP event.
Chaired by seasoned collector, auctioneer, and watch expert Aurel Bacs, 26 personalities known for their watchmaking expertise make up the multidisciplinary, international GPHG 2015 jury joined this year by artists and musicians Dieter Meier (Yello) and Eric Singer (Kiss).
Created in 2001 and overseen since 2011 by a foundation recognised as a public interest organisation, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève aims to highlight and annually reward the most remarkable creations in order to promote the watchmaking art around the world.
