Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar took the top prize, or “Aiguille d’Or,” at the 2021 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) yesterday in Geneva.
Piaget, MB&F and Louis Vuitton took home two awards each, while a Special Jury prize was awarded to Dubai Watch Week.
The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar was the top prize winner at the GPHG 2021.The Louis Vuitton Tambour Carpe Diem won the GPHG Audacy Prize 2021.
Here is a full list of the 2021 winners:
Aiguille d’Or Grand Prize: Bulgari, Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar
Ladies’ Watch Prize: Piaget, Limelight Gala Precious Rainbow
Ladies’ Complication Watch Prize: Van Cleef & Arpels, Lady Féerie Watch
Chronograph Watch Prize: Zenith, Chronomaster Sport
Diver’s Watch Prize: Louis Vuitton, Tambour Street Diver Skyline Blue
Jewelry Watch Prize: Chopard, Flower Power
Artistic Crafts Watch Prize: MB&F, LM SE Eddy Jaquet ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’
“Petite Aiguille” Prize: Tudor, Black Bay Ceramic
Challenge Watch Prize: CIGA Design, Blue Planet
Innovation Prize: Bernhard Lederer, Central Impulse Chronometer
Audacity Prize: Louis Vuitton, Tambour Carpe Diem
Horological Revelation Prize: Furlan Marri, MR. Grey Ref. 1041-A
Special Jury Prize: Dubai Watch Week
You check out all the GPHG 2021 winning watches here.
The 2021 nominated watches, including the eighteen award-winners, are on display in Geneva until November 14. The winning watches will then be on display at Dubai Watch Week, from November 24 to 28, and then in Paris from December 2 to 5.
Patek Philippe this week introduces new versions of three existing chronographs, including one (Reference 5905) with an olive-green dial set into a steel case with an Aquanaut-inspired steel bracelet.
The other two debuts, new versions of Reference 5204 (a split-second chronograph with perpetual calendar) and Reference 5930 (a world time flyback chronograph) each feature new case metal and/or a new dial color.
The new Patek Philippe 5905/1A-001 is a flyback chronograph and annual calendar in a 42mm polished stainless steel case.
Reference 5905/1A-001 A
Patek Philippe first launched this self-winding flyback chronograph with annual calendar in platinum in 2015 and then in rose gold in 2019. Now, the watch enters the market as a sporty 42mm steel watch, complete with an integrated steel bracelet inspired by the brand’s all-sporty Aquanaut (Reference 5167/1A).
And combined with a trendy sunburst olive green dial, this debut will likely become the latest Patek Philippe watch with demand far exceeding production. Patek Philippe rarely cases its watches in steel, and the metal’s use here will only amplify the already strong demand for the brand’s pioneering and highly legible annual calendar, especially as combined with a flyback chronograph.
Specifically, the dial offers a central chronograph hand, a large 60-minute subdial at 6 o’clock and three day/date/month apertures helpfully arranged along the top of the dial. For setting purposes, Patek Philippe includes a day/night indicator at 6 o’clock.
As seen through the clear sapphire caseback, Caliber CH 28-520 QA 24H shows Patek Philippe’s technical and artisanal mettle, with a vertical disk clutch column wheel. This means the central chronograph seconds hand can also be used as a permanent (running) seconds display.
The new watch will join existing references in platinum with a blue dial and in rose gold with a brown dial. Price: $59,140.
Reference 5204R-011 A
Patek Philippe dresses up its classically styled split-seconds chronograph and perpetual calendar with a more contemporary sunburst slate grey dial and matching strap.
The new Patek Philippe 5204R-011 is a split-seconds chronograph and perpetual calendar in a 40mm rose gold case.
The 40mm watch’s highly desirable technical pairing, first offered in rose gold in 2016, is, like the annual calendar, notable for its legibility. It displays day and month in two apertures at 12 o’clock. Small seconds and the instantaneous 30-minute counter appear on two subdials at 9 and 3 o’clock, while two round apertures display the leap-year cycle between 4 and 5 o’clock. And helpfully, the date hand (at 6 o’clock) includes a moonphase display.
Through its clear sapphire caseback the Reference 5204R allows a view of the manual-wind Caliber CHR 29-535 PS Q, first introduced in 2012. This caliber, with two column wheels, a horizontal clutch and a split-seconds mechanism, is a recipient of seven patents.
The watch is available on a shiny slate gray calf leather strap with an embossed alligator pattern and a rose gold fold-over clasp. Available with interchangeable sapphire crystal and solid caseback, it is joining the two existing versions in rose gold. Price: $309,893.
Reference 5930P-001
This automatic World Time Flyback Chronograph is resplendent with its all-new 39.5mm platinum case, especially as it complements a sexy green dial and matching strap.
The new Patek Philippe 5930P-001 World Time Flyback Chronograph is set into a 39.5mm platinum case.
Not only are the green city names right on trend, they do so in a retro style particular to Patek Philippe: In 1940 the Geneva watchmaker actually placed a similar green dial on a one-off model of its famed world timer. Furthermore, the case features the wing-type lugs often seen on Patek Philippe world timers in the 1940s-1950s.
If the design here looks familiar from more a recent era, it’s because Patek Philippe debuted the 5930 in 2016 in a white gold version with a blue dial and matching strap. Here, the green dial center has been guillochéd by hand in a circular pattern while the hands and applied hour markers are coated with a generous application of luminescent coating.
Inside, Patek Philippe’s caliber CH 28-520 HU is equipped with a column wheel and a disk-type vertical clutch. This allows the central chronograph hand to be used as a permanent (running) seconds display without affecting accuracy or power reserve.
Patek Philippe offers the new Reference 5930P-001 on a shiny green alligator strap with a platinum fold-over clasp. It joins the collection alongside a white gold 5930G-010 version with blue dial and strap. Price: $100,538.
Franck Muller now offers metal bracelet options for the first time for its top-selling Vanguard collection.
The tonneau-shaped Vanguard collection, which includes a wide range of the Geneva watchmaker’s primarily sporty models on leather or textile straps, can now be attached to the wrist with a bracelet composed and finished with either brushed steel, polished steel, brushed titanium and black brushed titanium.
Franck Muller will make the polished and brushed link bracelets to fit into the two different Vanguard case sizes, 41 mm and 45mm.
The firm’s technicians have also developed a fine adjustment system that allow the bracelet to be sized to fit proportionally and ‘perfectly’ on the wrist, according to Franck Muller. Links can be quickly removed or added to lengthen or shorten the bracelet.
UFC Champ Conor McGregor recently raised the profile of the Jacob & Co. Astronomia Casino by posting a video of the roulette-wheel watch to his much-viewed Instagram account. In just one day, McGregor’s August 29 post on his “thenotoriousmma” Instagram platform received more than 1.2 million likes, and counting.
The Astronomia Casino features a fully operational roulette wheel. In the short video, McGregor is sitting by a pool. He pressed the watch’s pusher to spin the roulette wheel, calling for “Black 11.” The white ceramic ball instead falls on Red 14.
His caption accompanying the video was directed at the rapper Drake, who also owns an Astronomia.
Jacob & Co’s Astronomia Casino is one of the many iterations of the Astronomia timepiece, with a four-arm vertical movement. The watch’s roulette wheel, made in green, red, and black enamel with mahogany inlays, operates on demand and replicates the action of a roulette wheel. The white ceramic ball is separated from the movement by a near invisible sapphire crystal.
Above the roulette wheel Jacob & Co places a double-axis tourbillon, a rotating spherical diamond with the exclusive Jacob Cut, a rotating magnesium and lacquered globe, and a titanium subdial time display. The entire display revolves around the watch every ten minutes. (Source: Jacob & Co.)
This year more than fifty watchmakers have created timepieces for the Only Watch charity auction, which commences Saturday, November 6, in Geneva. Christie’s will auction these incredible watches to raise funds that benefit research in the battle against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
While you may have seen a few of the watches set for auction earlier this year when Only Watch announced them, we thought you’d enjoy seeing many of these inspired designed again just ahead of the event.
The watches will tour the globe starting September 22 in Monaco, and can then be seen in exhibitions in Dubai (September 30 to October 3), Tokyo (October 8 to 10), Singapore (October 15 to 20), Hong Kong (October 25 to 27), Macau (October 28) and finally back in Geneva on November 4-6. Click here for details about the Only Watch world tour.
Today, we highlight the offering from F.P. Journe. The independent watchmaker’s entry into the auction is a stunning central-dial automaton inspired by a mechanical hand created by Ambroise Paré (1509-1590), the father of modern surgery, this unusual 42mm tantalum-cased watch displays time via hand-signs. The hand will rotate to the hour marker (indicated by the pointer) and will show a specific number of fingers to indicate the hours. At 1 o’clock, for example, only one finger will appear while the others remain clenched (see below).
The automaton is powered solely by the Octa movement’s mainspring.
F.P. Journe devised the movement from his Octa Caliber 1300, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2021.
Journe explains: “This watch was born in 2012 while having dinner at Francis Ford Coppola’s house in the Napa Valley. He asked me if it could be possible to tell time with a hand in a watch. I replied that the idea was interesting and required thinking about it. But how to display 12 hours with 5 fingers? It was not an easy matter and this complex challenge inspired and motivated me. Once I figured it out, Francis immediately sent the sketches for the fingers positions. After more than 2 years, I could finally focus on “Fecit”. After 7 years of development, I am proud to present the FFC prototype”.
We expect the final sale price for this watch to exceed its auction estimate.
