The annual Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) watch awards give a fascinating insight into the playground of horology. This Oscars of the watch world brings together a jury of globally renown experts and asks them to pick what they believe are the best timepieces of the year.
The 2024 GPHG, which was marked with an awards ceremony hosted by French actress Carole Bouquet in Geneva on November 13, was split into 15 categories. Each has a shortlist of watches nominated by the GPHG Academy (a group of 280 watch enthusiasts that determine which timepieces make the list), with one winner chosen by a smaller select jury.
It will come as little surprise to you that the categories commanding our attention were the Jewellery Watch Prize, the Ladies’ Watch Prize, and the Ladies’ Complication Watch Prize. Within these shortlists, we discovered some fantastic high jewellery watches. Not all of these timepieces were crowned on the night, but each feels like a winner to us.
Arnold & Son Perpetual Moon 38 Night Tide
Nominated: GPHG Ladies’ Watch Prize 2024
Why we like it: The marquetry work on the dial of this Arnold & Son watch is truly spectacular. Waves of blue mother of pearl and sparkling ruthenium (a silvery-white metal from the platinum family of metals) create a scene of moonlit oceanic calm on the dial.
Bulgari Fenice High-Jewelry Secret Watch
Nominated: GPHG Jewellery Watch Prize 2024
Why we like it: This bold jewellery watch, with a tiny dial hidden beneath a Paraiba tourmaline, is true Bulgari excess and was one of the highlights of this year’s Aeterna high jewellery collection. The watch depicts a phoenix in flight, with more than 60 carats of gemstones, including sapphires, amethysts, rubies, garnets, tanzanites, iolites, aquamarines and diamonds. The gradient effect achieved in the stone setting is truly impressive, and it is little wonder that Bulgari’s craftspeople spent 3,000 hours on this masterpiece.
Chaumet Swing
Nominated: GPHG Ladies’ Complication Watch Prize 2024
Why we like it: The swirling rhythm of the metalwork in this Chaumet creation is inspired by the swish of dancers’ skirts. While this is perhaps one of the more low-key watches in our selection, the clever setting of diamonds, lilac sapphires and oblong cuts of onyx will set any jewellery lover’s heart a flutter.
Chopard Laguna High-Jewellery Secret Watch
Winner: GPHG Jewellery Watch Prize 2024
Why we like it: This playful high jewellery watch from Chopard won the GPHG judges over, and it is easy to see why. The joyful cluster of seashells creates an irresistible underwater scene. Lift a single natural pearl to flip open the largest of the shells and a tiny watch face, decorated with pink and blue sapphires, is revealed. Elsewhere, colour has been introduced through titanium elements and coloured gemstones including demantoid garnets, emeralds and topaz. This watch required 1,000 hours of craftsmanship.
Damiani Margherita Desert Garden Secret Watch
Nominated: GPHG Jewellery Watch Prize 2024
Why we like it: Why have one dial when you can have two? Slide open the right daisy, crafted in gold with colourless and fancy yellow diamonds, and you will unveil the time… twice, with each dial set separately to allow you to keep track of two time zones. The watch was made to mark 100 years of Damiani, with its master craftspeople dedicating more than 300 hours in the jeweller’s Valenza workshops to create it.
Dior Montres Grand Soir Reine des Abeilles
Nominated: GPHG Jewellery Watch Prize 2024
Why we like it: Fashion designer Christian Dior had an affectionate nickname for his Parisian couture seamstresses… his little busy bees. And this watch pays homage to that history, with a vibrant Queen Bee crafted with rubies, sapphires, and brightly coloured lacquer, set on a blanket of diamonds. With a watch so spectacular, it hardly needs to do anything but amaze, but should you also wish for it to tell you the time, simply lift your gaze above the bee to 12 o’clock.
Fabergé Colours of Love Rose Gold Rainbow Gemstone Watch
Nominated: GPHG Ladies’ Watch Prize 2024
Why we like it: A celebration of colour for the gemstone lover. A kaleidoscope of coloured gems has been set into a bezel around the oval dial, which pays homage to the shape of Fabergé eggs. We also love the playfully original take on the numerals fixed to the guilloché dial.
Fabergé Compliquée Butterfly Blooms Sincere Platinum Jubilee Edition
Nominated: GPHG Ladies’ Complication Watch Prize 2024
Why we like it: Another watch from Fabergé that offers a unique twist on dial design. You will note that there are no hands to help you tell the time. Instead, the mother of pearl outer ring moves to show the correct hour at the crown, and the butterfly moves its wings to indicate the minutes on a scale from 0 to 60. The orchids on the dial are also worthy of note – each has been engraved onto mother-of-pearl dial and painted by hand.
Gucci G-Timeless Planetarium
Nominated: GPHG Jewellery Watch Prize 2024
Why we like it: You might not be able to spin around a dancefloor as much as you would like, but you can certainly capture the feeling at any moment with this Gucci wristwatch. On the dial are 12 large cuts of gemstones (opal, garnet, beryl, peridot, tourmaline, topaz, tanzanite, amethyst, rubellite) graduated in colour. At the touch of a button you can set them spinning, with a choice of fast mode for a fiery reel, or a softer speed for a slow dance.
Piaget Aura High Jewellery watch
Nominated: GPHG Jewellery Watch Prize 2024
Why we like it: The design is simple, but the materials are out of this world. This Piaget jewellery watch has been set with more than 63 carats of rubies and diamonds. Each calibrated gemstone’s cut has been created just for this design to ensure a perfect fit. Take a moment to appreciate the marquetry of the radiating ruby dial and the fully set diamond strap… and let’s all give the cutters and setters a round of applause.
Piaget Glowing Weave watch
Nominated: GPHG Jewellery Watch Prize 2024
Why we like it: Another excellent example of precise gemstone setting from Piaget. This watch offers lively shades of green in its tartan or tweed-like composition of malachite, chrysoprase, engraved gold and diamonds. A small dial sits next to a flying tourbillon, guaranteeing that you will never get bored of looking at this watch.
Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Jour Nuit
Winner: GPHG Ladies’ Watch Prize 2024
Why we like it: The first of two winning watches for Van Cleef & Arpels, this timepiece scooped the coveted Ladies’ Watch Prize for its rotating celestial skyscape of aventurine and diamonds. What Van Cleef & Arpels does so well with its watches is to transport the wearer to a magical scene, and this is no exception. The upper half of the dial completes a full rotation over 24 hours, with a gold sun appearing in the day to replace the evening’s diamond pavé moon.
Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Brise d'Été
Winner: GPHG Ladies’ Complication Watch Prize 2024
Why we like it: Van Cleef & Arpels’ second prize winner is more grounded than the first, taking us into the garden with a beautiful summery scene of butterflies and flowers. The painterly colours on the dial have been achieved using three types of enamel: plique-à-jour, vallonné, and champlevé. Bright green tsavorite garnet leaves and spessartite garnet pistils bring sparkle to the flowerbed. Movement has a role to play here, too, with the butterflies fluttering around the dial, and the flower stems waving as if in the wind.
Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté
Nominated: GPHG Jewellery Watch Prize 2024
Why we like it: Our final Van Cleef & Arpels watch is another truly enchanting scene, one which took two years of research and development to create. There is so much to take in with this dial, but we would pick out the plump façonné enamel blooms (created using a totally new technique invented by Van Cleef & Arpels for this watch design), the translucent plique-à-jour enamel leaves with diamonds set into them, and the bright sun of spessartite garnets, sapphires, and diamonds.
So, the only question remaining is simple… which one of these incredible feats of watchmaking would be on your fantasy shopping list! Personally, there’s something about the autumnal hues in the Fabergé Compliquée Butterfly Blooms timepiece that captures my attention, although I am told that Katerina is head over heels for the Paraiba tourmalines in the Bulgari Fenice High-Jewelry Secret Watch. No matter your preferences, these are timepieces that will never loose their lustre.
