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 describes the Men’s Complication watches as remarkable in terms of their mechanical creativity and complexity. But many of our panelists are scratching their heads as the perennial question “is a tourbillon a complication?” comes up yet again.
The Bovet Récital 27 is built around a triple time zone display that one might imagine could become busy, but Bovet is rather skilled at combining complications in a way that doesn’t seem forced in any respect. But for Joshua Munchow, the most dramatic element on this dial is the double moon phase display, which shows the current moon phase in both the southern and northern hemispheres. And there is one more element he loves here, can you guess which?
The flexibility of the beautiful Bovet Amadéo Fleurier 36 Miss Audrey makes it very appealing because in each configuration, the watches can be appreciated in a different way. The patented Amadéo case allows the watch to be used as a pendant, pocket, or wristwatch. And even as a small table clock! And those dials! And those beads! A must see.
Ian Skellern tried, but didn’t quite manage, to come up with a more diplomatic way of saying this, so he just came out with it: up to this point, he had not generally been a fan of Bovet 1822. So he was surprised by just how much he was impressed with the Ottantasei by Pininfarina and would be very happy to wear one daily. But there is one niggle that he just can’t shake off . . .
Martin Green reports on five green-themed watches he saw during the loose Geneva Watch Days fair, timepieces that made such impressions that they have stuck with him this past week.
In the aftermath of Geneva Watch Days, Elizabeth Doerr discovered some fun wristshots taken during the fair. As these mark a journey of sorts through the new watches – as well as models released throughout 2020 that our team hadn’t seen in real yet – she thought to share a few of them here.
Bovet Récital 26 Brainstorm Chapter Two: the story continues. Indications include hours, minutes, seconds, power reserve, moon phase, and a world time/second time zone display. All of which is powered by an entirely new double-sided flying tourbillon movement with totally new architecture. Warning: it may blow your mind!