EDITORIAL BY RAYMOND LORETAN & CARINE MAILLARD

EDITORIAL BY RAYMOND LORETAN & CARINE MAILLARD President and director of the GPHG Foundation

Capturing the order governing the universe and testifying to the moment in hand. Pushing technical and artistic frontiers. Combining precision with unbridled creativity. This tricky high-wire act is the golden thread of the watchmaking art, as well as the source of all the emotions and wonderment it procures.

How can one best pay tribute to this art-centred industry ? How can one celebrate the watchmaking sector in a truly independent manner, in all its diversity as expressed around the world ? Rewarding a chosen few so as to enhance the renown of all, in a spirit intended to be both unifying and competitive: such is the challenge facing our Foundation.

As you leaf through these pages, you will discover the new features of this 18th edition. The 72 watches pre-selected by our jury are presented by category. Detailed technical descriptions are available on our official gphg.org website to help you grasp the secrets behind their mechanisms.

According to our annual custom, these contemporary horological works are exceptionally assembled for a unique roadshow enabling an international audience to admire the year’s most beautiful creations from more than 40 different brands.

In order to judge the combination of expertise and poetry characterising these timepieces, the jury comprising over 30 expert and passionately dedicated men and women is partially renewed each year. Members of the 2018 jury reveal their outlook on life in the following pages.

In order to keep step with the market, two unprecedented prizes are joining the roster in 2018 : the Audacity Prize, which rewards creative freedom ; and the Challenge Watch Prize, which honours excellence at modest prices.
Adapting to an ever more connected world, a digital platform has been set up to provide almost real-time access to pictures, interviews and information (mediacenter-gphg.org).

See you on November 9th 2018 at the 18th prize-giving ceremony, for which the watchmaking profession will congregate in Geneva’s Théâtre du Léman. Attended by Swiss Federal Councillor and Economic Affairs Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann and hosted by French actor, director and producer Edouard Baer, the event will be broadcast live on Euronews, gphg.org as well as on our media partners’ websites.