For me it was the first time to attend but it already was the 14^th edition of the GPHG and from what I know with record participation this time. There have been representations from all major watchmaking groups and not to forget a number of independent companies. Still there are some important brands missing!

It was held in the Grand Theatre de Genéve and with about 1.500 guests from all over the world – more or less. The jury is presented by a quite eclectic mix of experts (from different fields and not only from the watch industry) from almost each major market – 25 people in total.

I won´t go in too many details here, because those of you with in-depth interest will probably have seen the ceremony live on the internet. Still I thought it could be interesting for you to get some more personal impressions from the festivity and a brief overview about the winners. In addition I will share live pictures of the watches, when I had the pleasure to shoot them in advance.

Let´s start with some pictures from the exhibition which was travelling around the world.

In Geneva the exhibition was here and on display like shown – for the public:

The ambiance during the ceremony in general was more relaxed than I expected it to be and at least the moderators tried to be international. The latter was not always the case for all of the speeches, which is understandable but still not appropriate for such an international audience. Even when it is maybe “tricky” in some cases, English should probably be the common language for all attendees. It would be much more interesting for everybody if you have a chance to follow all the talking. I won´t be too fussy here as they had my full attention most of the time, but still it would have been nice.

The audience was quite interesting to say the least and not only in the first rows. Some of you will detect familiar faces, for sure.

As it probably would be too much to share all the pictures taken at the ceremony, only a few more to cover the spirit in general:

Not everybody seemed to be emotional affected (at least on the stage), but some have been deeply touched. To me it is always nice to see “human emotions” in the sometimes so serious or even arrogant industry as it shows it is more than just (BIG) business only.

Note : all pictures without dedicated picture credit shown are official ones from GPHG