Rexhep Rexhepi’s Chronograph Flyback wins the Aiguille d’Or, while Blancpain, Chopard, Audemars Piguet, Dominique Renaud and Grand Seiko walk away with the prizes that defined watchmaking’s biggest night
Key takeaways
- The Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) held its 26th ceremony on 7 November 2026 at the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices in Geneva.
- 84 watches were nominated across 14 categories, and 20 prizes were awarded.
- The top honour, the “Aiguille d’Or” Grand Prix, went to Rexhep Rexhepi’s Chronograph Flyback (RRCHF).
Every November, Geneva hands out what the industry calls the Oscars of watchmaking, and this year the room got a surprise. The highest prize did not go to a household maison. It went to Rexhep Rexhepi, an independent Geneva watchmaker, for the first flyback chronograph he has ever made. Around him, a 24-member jury chaired for the first time by Revolution founder Wei Koh handed out prizes that ran from a chiming grand complication to a €12,500-class titanium diver. The Academy of more than 1,000 members contributed a third of the final vote. The format also changed, with the gender-based categories replaced by Essential, Complication and Gemset.
Here are the five winners we’d put on any collector’s radar, with the top prize at number two.
1. Blancpain Grande Double Sonnerie: Mechanical Exception Prize
Blancpain spent eight years on this one. The Grande Double Sonnerie packs 1,053 components into a 47mm red gold case. It combines a grande sonnerie, a petite sonnerie and a minute repeater with a retrograde perpetual calendar and a flying tourbillon. Four hammers strike four gongs, and the owner chooses between the classic Westminster chime and an original melody composed by Eric Singer. The project generated 1,200 technical drawings and 21 patents, 13 of which made it into the final watch. If the Mechanical Exception category exists for watches that break the rules, this is the one that wrote new ones.
2. Chronograph Flyback (RRCHF): “Aiguille d’Or” Grand Prix
The most interesting thing about the winner is how restrained it is. The RRCHF is a manually wound integrated flyback chronograph with a column wheel, a horizontal clutch and an instantaneous jumping-minute counter. It has 320 components and a 72-hour power reserve, all inside a 38.8mm case just 9.7mm thick. In platinum it carries a storm-blue Grand Feu enamel dial made in Rexhepi’s own workshop, with smoked sapphire counters and the black polishing and hand-finishing that his work is known for. It is his first fully in-house chronograph movement, and it took the biggest prize in the business. Notably, it did not win the Chronograph category itself. That went to Parmigiani Fleurier’s Tonda PF Chronographe Mystérieux. The jury judged the whole watch rather than a single complication.
3. Chopard L.U.C 1860: Time Only Watch Prize
Chopard celebrated 30 years of its Fleurier manufacture by returning to the watch that started it. The new L.U.C 1860 keeps its elegant 36.5mm diameter and adds a Lucent Steel case and a hand-guilloché blue dial. Inside is the L.U.C 96.40-L, an automatic movement with a 22k gold micro-rotor, twin barrels and about 65 hours of power reserve. It is COSC-certified and carries the Poinçon de Genève, a rare mark for a steel watch. Chopard also won the Jewellery Watch Prize this year for its walnut-shaped Mystery Nut.
4. Audemars Piguet Royal Oak “Jumbo” RD#5 “150th Anniversary”: Iconic Watch Prize
Fifty years on, the Royal Oak “Jumbo” is still the platform Audemars Piguet uses to test its boldest ideas. The RD#5 keeps the slim 39mm Jumbo proportions but builds a titanium case around a selfwinding flying tourbillon and chronograph. It is the most technically complex Jumbo yet, and it still reads as a Royal Oak at a glance. Audemars Piguet left Geneva with a second prize as well, the Calendar and Astronomy award for its 150 Heritage, a platinum pocket watch with 47 functions.
5. Dominique Renaud Pulse60 Titanium Black: Horological Revelation Prize
Dominique Renaud is hardly new to watchmaking, having co-founded Renaud & Papi, later acquired by Audemars Piguet. The “revelation” is his own namesake brand, launched in April 2026. The Pulse60 runs at just 1Hz, or 7,200 vibrations per hour, around a 20mm balance, which produces a slow, visible half-second beat. The challenge with a low frequency and a large balance is keeping the amplitude under control, and Renaud’s solution lets the balance swing further than conventional designs allow. It is a rare modern watch built around slowness.
6. Grand Seiko Spring Drive U.F.A. Ushio 300 Diver: Sports Watch Prize
This was the category’s value story. The Ushio 300 Diver is Grand Seiko’s smallest diver, at 40.8mm in titanium, with 300 metres of water resistance and a Caliber 9RB1 rated at ±20 seconds per year. A new clasp offers both micro-adjustment and diving extension. At roughly CHF 12,500, it competed against rivals priced up to CHF 130,000. A Japanese diver winning at Geneva’s most European of awards says plenty about where watchmaking quality is now being recognised.