Photo Essay: Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de GenèvePosted by IanS
Saturday night was the big night of the Swiss watch industry and despite heavy rain and being held on a Saturday night for the first time it was a huge success. In fact I thought it the best Grand Prix ever and it's heartening to see that people are slowly beginning to feel that the prizes are awarded on merit. This year saw the most closely fought battles in every category as there was not any area where at least 50% of the watches pre-selected could not be thought a deserving winner. And the Awards went to: Ladies’ Watch Prize: Piaget's Limelight Twice Men’s Watch Prize: Audemars Piguet's High frequency manual winding Jules Audemars wristwatch with AP escapement Design Watch Prize: Harry Winston's Opus 9 Jewellery Watch Prize: Hublot's One Million $ Black Caviar Bang Complicated Watch Prize: Greubel Forsey's Double Tourbillon Technique Sports Watch Prize: Richard Mille's RM 025 Diver's Watch Best Watchmaker Prize: M. Anthony Randall Public Prize: de Grisogono's Meccanico dG N03 Titane Special Jury Prize: Dr Ludwig Oechslin The Grand Prize of “L’Aiguille d’Or”: A. Lange & Söhne's Lange Zeitwerk The night went something like this . . .  Geneva Grand Théâtre  Invited guests on the red carpet  A few of the team from (my hosts) Greubel Forsey  Opening speech by Mr. Manuel Tornare, Executive Counsellor of the City of Geneva and co-president of the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie of Geneva  Geneva's seven State Councillors are flanked by a 'huissier' on official occasions in Geneva and the rest of Switzerland (but not abroad). (I prefer to think of huissers as unassuming Ninjas)  Richard Mille sitting in front of me. If you are in the front row then the chances of a prize are high   Laurent Picciotto provided an entertaining and informative air to the proceedings.  Sports Watch Prize: Richard Mille's RM 025 Diver's Watch   Men’s Watch Prize: Audemars Piguet's High frequency manual winding Jules Audemars wristwatch with AP escapement  Philippe C. Merk, CEO of Audemars Piguet  Ladies’ Watch Prize: Piaget's Limelight Twice   The richly decorated ceiling of the Grand Théâtre  Design Watch Prize: Harry Winston's Opus 9  Harry Winston CEO, Thomas O'Neill, invites Opus 9 designer and developer Eric Giroud and Jean-Marc Wiederrecht on stage  Complicated Watch Prize: Greubel Forsey's Double Tourbillon Technique   Jewellery Watch Prize: Hublot's One Million $ Black Caviar Bang   Public Prize: de Grisogono's Meccanico dG No.03 Titane  Best Watchmaker Prize: M. Anthony Randall  Mr Randall was told beforehand that he might have to give a short speech, but was not told the subject or that he had won a prize  Special Jury Prize: Dr Ludwig Oechslin   Fabrizio von Arx and Julien Quentin provide superb music during a short interlude  Lights, camera, . . .  François-Paul Journe, l’Aiguille d’Or winner 2008 gives a short speech and announces the winner of the 2009 Aiguille d’Or . . .  The Grand Prize of “L’Aiguille d’Or”: A. Lange & Söhne's Lange Zeitwerk  Walter Lange accepts the evening's highest prize   Closing speech (with the ever ready Ninja)  And although the guests are filing out of the main auditorium . . .  . . . the evening is really just beginning!  But while guests mingled with champagne, the laureates still had work to do . . .  The official photo for 2009 (this is not it)   L-R: Roland Iten, John Simonian (Westime) and Juan-Carlos Torres (Vacheron Constantin)  Herbert Gautschi, CEO of Vincent Bérard, waving hello  This group offered me a glass of champagne to take a photo - cheers!  To say the rooms are packed is an understatement. There is another area as large that is just as busy.   But as packed as it is, mingling and meeting people is the main attraction of the evening.  And if you are really lucky, you might be invited for dinner after champagne . . .  . . . at a reserved table.  The ceiling of the dining room. The Sistine Chapel has nothing on this  The Greubel Forsey table celebrates their prize for best Complicated Watch for the Double Tourbillon Technique  The prize for best Design for the Opus 9 gives Eric Giroud at the Harry Winston table plenty to yell about   Two good friends: Elizabeth Doerr (journalist) and Jean-Marc Wiederrecht (AGENHOR)  Serge Kriknoff and Max Büsser (MB&F), Vincent Perriard (Technomarine) and Yacine Sar (URWERK)  Denis Asch (L’Heure Asch) examines Stephen Forsey's Invention Piece 1 with Jean-Philippe Arm (founder of Watch Around magazine) looking on.  And that's all from me. Congratulations to the winners and best of luck next time to the runner's up. edited by marks for various typo issues Ian Skellern Greubel Forsey forum and URWERK forum moderator www.facebook.com/underthedial twitter.com/underthedial Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2009 06:10AM by IanS.
A great report you provided here. I guess getting a glass of champagne is a real challenge  Thank you for attending and bringing back all those pictures ! MarkS AHCI and Other Fine Independent Watchmakers Forum Moderator
What a Grand event and Congrats to the winners. Excellent post Ian Zach T Prime Time Forum Moderator Hublot Forum Moderator
ciao, thanks Ian for this report, a nice evening....But not so many watches around i'm afraid  bye, slide68 |   .jpg)     | ||||||||||
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