Following a very successful inaugural year, the Eve’s Watch Awards heads into its sophomore season. Eve’s Watch Awards, the first exclusively female-focused award ceremony, is dedicated to celebrating and acknowledging women’s watches.

The jury comprises an all-female judging panel of influential, informed, and authoritative female watch specialists, journalists, fashion editors, and collectors, including extraordinary watchmaker and the first PhD scholar in horological history, Dr. Rebecca Struthers; Revolution UK’s editor-in-chief Tracey Llewellyn; freelance watch, jewelry, and fashion specialist Avril Groom; fashion writer Gaia Geddes; Laura McCreddie and Jane Trew of Eve’s Watch; Condé Nast Traveller’s UK watch and jewelry editor Jessica Diamond; collector Alice Jonsdottir Ferrier; and myself.

And now Sara Sandmeier too.

New jury member Sara Sandmeier examining a contender for the 2017 Eve’s Watch Awards (photo courtesy Eve’s Watch Awards)

Sandmeier is an important addition to this the jury as, along with Struthers, that makes two women in this illustrious group with hands-on experience in actually creating timepieces.

And while Struthers has knowledge of the technical and historical sides of watchmaking that never fails to impress me, I was also bowled over by Sandmeier’s on-point analyses of materials, angles, lines, and more.

And I found her enthusiasm absolutely infectious.

Larissa Trew (standing) leading the jury in discussion and voting for the 2017 Eve’s Watch Awards (photo courtesy Eve’s Watch Awards)

Gender distinctions in watches: are they really necessary?

Many people in the watch world may be aware of Sandmeier because she spent 16 years at Baume & Mercier, ten as a designer and conceptor and another six as senior designer, during which time the trilingual creative head also gave interviews to the international press.

Elizabeth Doerr (left) and Sara Sandmeier in London for the first round of voting for the 2017 Eve’s Watch Awards (photo courtesy Eve’s Watch Awards)

Sandmeier, whose design degree in jewelry comes from Geneva’s specialist design university HEAD, where she won a cantonal (state) prize for visual art, has had a long and varied career in the watch and jewelry industry, including working at Rolex in the bracelet division and owning her own independent jewelry workshop for three years.

Sara Sandmeier at the first round of voting for the 2017 Eve’s Watch Awards in London (photo courtesy Eve’s Watch Awards)

Sandmeier left Baume & Mercier in 2016 to found her own workshop for design, fashion, and styling. Her Instagram account reveals something about some of her new clients in this arena.

I love Sandmeier’s opinion that gender distinctions in watches are not really necessary; what is necessary is good design, good materials, and a good fit.

The 2017 Eve’s Watch Awards jury: (from top) Jane Trew, Laura McCreddie, Avril Groom, Tracey Llewellyn, Gaia Geddes, Dr. Rebecca Struthers, Jessica Diamond, Sara Sandmeier, Elizabeth Doerr, and Larissa Trew (photo courtesy Eve’s Watch Awards)

I look forward to the rest of the voting sessions with this group for the 2017 Eve’s Watch Awards. Watch this space for more news as things continue to unfold for the 2017 edition, which will take place in London in October.

For more information, please visit www.eveswatch.com.