Our Quill & Pad panelists discuss the virtual evening of the 2020 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève and what we thought of the big night’s winners. Plus we reveal how good (or poor) our predictions were.
The Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept took the Aiguille d’Or grand prize at the 2020 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, where there were many surprises and many well earned awards. Check out the complete list of laureates here and let us know what you think about the night’s winners and losers.
Watches in the Artistic Crafts category demonstrate exceptional mastery of one or several artistic techniques such as enameling, lacquering, engraving, guilloche (engine turning), skeletonizing, and more. Which make comparisons between the different crafts extremely difficult. But our five panelists accept the challenge and come up with three predicted winners.
The GPHG foundation’s rules for the Jewellery category state that the watches must demonstrate exceptional mastery of the art of jewelry and gem setting. This is an especially difficult category to judge from still photos as you really need to touch and manipulate the jewelry and see the gems reflecting from different angles. Our panelists settle on two favorites as top contenders despite the fact that they haven’t had a chance to handle these treasures.
The retrograde indication is one of Joshua Munchow’s favorite “Because We Can” (BWC) complications. Gears are an amazing invention and have allowed watchmakers to make incredible creations. Simple gear systems leave a multitude of openings for creativity. Look at some great retrogrades here.
Many of the great marques in the history of watchmaking were driven by prominent figures who ended up with a watch named after them. Such was the case for both Louis Cartier and Pierre Arpels. Both were born into jewelry and watch dynasties and both made prominent marks on the histories of their respective houses. How else are they intertwined? Martin Green explains here.
It was a cold, wet, and windy autumn day when Van Cleef & Arpels invited Y-Jean Mun-Delsalle and a few colleagues on a boat ride along the Seine river through central Paris. The occasion (and the boat ride) was just the start as the launch of the new and improved Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux, which has now been expanded into an entire collection gathered under the umbrella of “Love Stories,” was the main attraction.
Elizabeth takes a look at five of Van Cleef & Arpels’s artful SIHH 2018 introductions from the Le Jardin (“Garden”) collection and compares them to their namesake blooms.
The Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève’s Aiguille d’Or category is a prize rewarding the best overall watch among all categories. It is the most prestigious award in the entire competition. Here, the Quill & Pad panel discusses which watches it thinks has a good chance of winning this prize in the 2017 competition.
There is always something special about kicking off a new series of articles. It is like unwrapping a new notebook, sitting down with your favorite pen in hand, and beginning a new adventure. This particular adventure will take us to a very special part of the watch world: the so-called dandy watch, a word we will define right here.