The watchmaking world has its eyes on Geneva. On Tuesday, the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) unveiled the 84 timepieces competing for the industry's most coveted honours. Spread across 14 categories, the shortlist ranges from a Moscow workshop challenging the Swiss establishment to a wearable solar system and a 10-kilo clock that winds your watch while you sleep.
Nineteen prizes will be awarded, including the prestigious 'Aiguille d'Or' Grand Prix. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Geneva on 7 November, and the event will be streamed live. Here are eight contenders that stand out.
Mechanical Exception: ultra-thin and planetary wonders
Konstantin Chaykin's ThinKing Mystery is a marvel of miniaturisation. At just 1.65mm thick, it is billed as the thinnest series-produced mechanical watch in the world. The Moscow-based independent maker has outflanked the Swiss giants in the race for thinness. The case itself serves as the movement's mainplate, with two transparent sapphire discs displaying the time. Only 12 pieces will be made, priced at €426,000.
From the Netherlands, Christiaan van der Klaauw's CVDK Grand Planetarium Eccentric Silicium brings the solar system to your wrist. Eight hand-painted planets orbit a dial made of iridescent oxidised silicon, each moving at its true speed. Mercury completes a lap in three months; Neptune takes 165 years. The Dutch house won the Calendar and Astronomy category in 2021. Just six pieces are planned, at €157,000 each.
Complication and Artistic Crafts: radical collaborations
Ulysse Nardin and Urwerk have joined forces for the UR-FREAK, a watch with neither hands nor a crown. The Freak collection, launched in 2001 and already an Iconic category winner, features a movement that rotates as the minute hand. Urwerk adds its signature satellite hours, with cubes on rotating arms. The result is a fusion of two radical horological grammars. Limited to 100 pieces, it retails for €115,000.
French house L.Leroy, whose clients once included Napoleon and Marie-Antoinette, presents the Vox Temporis. A single hand remains fixed while the dial rotates beneath it. A minute repeater chimes the time, hence the name, "the voice of time." A flying tourbillon enhances accuracy, and the dial features a flinqué soleil decoration under dark blue varnish. Priced at €341,000.
Mechanical Clock: a 10-kilo masterpiece
The GPHG also honours mechanical clocks. Louis Vuitton and De Bethune have collaborated on the LVDB-03 Sympathique Louis Varius, a 30-centimetre-tall, 10-kilo clock that winds and resets your watch overnight, with no electronics. The titanium base is inlaid with meteorite, and three rose gold rings, hand-engraved after drawings by Belgian illustrator François Schuiten, rotate slowly around the structure. The set, including the clock and a matching watch, costs €4,717,000.
Sports and beyond
Grand Seiko's Spring Drive U.F.A. Ushio 300 Diver is a sports watch with extraordinary precision: it gains or loses no more than 20 seconds per year. The name "Ushio" refers to the tidal current, reflecting its marine inspiration.
Other notable nominees include a Moscow workshop's ultra-thin, a wearable solar system, and a 10-kilo clock. The full list is available on the GPHG website. The winners will be announced in Geneva on 7 November, and you can watch the ceremony live on Euronews Culture.
For more on Swiss innovation, see our coverage of Swiss judo's historic day and ESA's investment in PLD Space.
