BEST OF THE BEST

from Haute Montres 05

by Aspire Lifestyle

EVERYBODY’S TALKING about sustainability

BEST

OF THE BEST

WATCHMAKING MASTERPIECES

The annual Oscars of watchmaking recognise the work of artists and artisans in the industry who demonstrate the ultimate in innovation and savoire-faire.

BY DEBBIE HATHWAY

The long-awaited Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) – the watchmaking Oscars – revealed 21 winners from 90 entries at the awards ceremony in Geneva’s Théâtre du Léman on Thursday, 10 November 2022.

The GPHG shortlist is selected by an international academy composed of more than 650 esteemed stakeholders from the various sectors of the watch industry who pursue their mission of celebrating and promoting the watchmaking art. A secret ballot determines the winners under notarial supervision.

Both MB&F creations shortlisted won prizes at the 22nd annual event, taking its total to nine GPHG awards in 17 years. MB&F is a kinetic creator of sculptures for the wrist at very high price points that reflect their haute horlogerie composition. In the Challenge category, the M.A.D.1 RED is an accessible timepiece created under a di erent brand, M.A.D.Editions. It is not an MB&F Machine, but another label with the crazy MB&F touch; innovative case structure, lateral time display, inverted movement, and a triple-blade winding rotor that is the showpiece (especially when the SuperLumiNova kicks in). The LM Sequential EVO – an MB&F Machine nominated in the Chronograph category – won the prestigious Aiguille d’Or Grand Prix (Best in Show). Featuring the independent brand’s 20th calibre to date, the double chronograph allows multiple timing settings, including split-second, independent and lap timer modes – a combination that has never been seen before in any existing chronograph.

Maximilian Busser, owner and creative director of MB&F, accepted both awards crediting Stephen McDonnell for his genius in creating the LM Sequential EVO in a post-event interview. “How do I feel? There is nothing to describe this. I never dreamt of this when you look at who is primed for the Aiguille d’Or. But this is 100 percent for Stephen McDonnell, who thinks like no one else. He’s reinvented the chronograph, and it’s of incredible beauty. It’s unique because it’s extraordinary in technology and thinking.”

“On the M.A.D.1 RED, we took an industrial movement, put it upside down, and created this crazy rotor that turns on top of it and cylinders underneath, giving the time. The case construction is nuts and we reserved it for a happy few. It’s not supposed to be a business. It’s an act of love,” he says.

Akrivia, Bvlgari, Grand Seiko, Ferdinand Berthoud, Grönefeld, H. Moser & Cie, Hermès, Krayon, Parmigiani Fleurier, Sylvain Pinaud, TAG Heuer, Trilobe, Tudor, Van Cleef & Arpels and Voutilainen brands were also winners.

Bvlgari took the Jewellery Watch Prize for its Serpenti Misteriosi High Jewellery piece and the Audacity Prize for the Octo Finissimo Ultra 10th Anniversary piece, adding yet another accolade to the Octo Finissimo series. Jean-Christophe Babin, CEO of Bvlgari, notes the latter is the thinnest mechanical watch ever created at 1.8mm (thinner than a two Swiss franc coin). “The movement is integrated with the case and accurately gives time. But perhaps the breakthrough is the connection with the metaverse thanks to the QR code, which is engraved on the barrel and which, with your mobile, takes you into the blockchain, where you will find everything about the watch, more importantly, a unique NFT collectable piece of digital contemporary art. So,

Maximilian Büsser, owner and creative director of MB&F. The brand won the Aiguille d’Or Grand Prix and the Challenge Watch Prize. ©Miguel Bueno/GPHG

it’s a new era, combining 19th century excellence with the 21st century digital world and getting Bvlgari closer than ever to art,” he says.

Hermès came out on top in the Ladies’ Complication and Men’s Complication categories for the Arceau Le temps voyageur. Combining a sophisticated measuring tool with a representation of terrestrial space, the Arceau Le temps voyageur watch is part of a longstanding tradition of craftsmanship, technology and the art of time. Envisioned as a beautiful escape, it seems to fulfi l our dream of ubiquity; being everywhere at once, travelling the world in a few steps.

Van Cleef & Arpels is the third brand to win double awards for the Fontaine Aux Oiseaux automaton in the Mechanical Clock category and the Lady Arpels Heures Florales Cerisier watch in the Innovation category. The Fontaine Aux Oiseaux is a spectacle like no other, displaying an artistic masterpiece that features 25 000 hours of craftsmanship. A delicate feather moves progressively along the time scale on the side of the base to indicate the hours. On the other hand, reading the time on the Lady Arpels Heures Florales Cerisier involves counting the number of fl owers that pop open between fl uttering butterfl ies. For example, three fl owers indicate three o’clock. The dial’s scenery is renewed automatically every 60 minutes. The blooms contrast with the white mother-of-pearl dial, and ethereal blue butterfl ies fl utter between the pink and red corollas, accentuating the dial’s relief.

Meanwhile, the Pioneer Cylindrical Tourbillon Skeleton by the independent family-owned H. Moser & Cie won the Tourbillon Watch Prize. “Reminiscent of the marine chronometer made hundreds of years ago, the team reinvented the way tourbillons are made. It’s very di cult to create such dimensions – cylindrical hairsprings – and we have a division called Precision Engineering where we have masters, engineers who specialise in that. That’s why at H. Moser, we’re able to develop such amazing watches,” says CEO Edouard Meylan.

The winning ladies’ watch, the Tonda PF Automatic by Parmigiani Fleurier, was created in response to last year’s unveiling of the Tonda PF Micro-Rotor 40mm. CEO Guido Terreni says, “We had many ladies who would love to have that watch, just slightly smaller. I was surprised when they asked us not to add decorative elements but to remain pure. Being feminine doesn’t necessarily mean being baroque or decorative. It can also be very elegant and essential with a lot of character and purity.”

TUDOR won the Diver’s Watch Prize. The brand has been creating watches for professional divers since 1954, and the Pelagos FXD reconnects with that glorious past. “It’s a very robust watch, developed with professional divers from the French Navy, and we’re able to make it available commercially, which is great news for all diving watch enthusiasts, of which I am one,” says CEO Eric Pirson.