GPHG 2019: The Watch World's Big Winners

Originally appeared on Euronews Living

“Be alive, be audacious, do beautiful things together”

The 19th edition of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) announced its winners last night during a glamorous awards ceremony in Geneva’s Théâtre du Léman. The main prize, the Aiguille d’Or Grand Prix, was won by Audemars Piguet and its groundbreaking and almost unfathomably-slender Royal Oak Self-winding Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin watch. Outspoken CEO François-Henry Bennahmias also picked up the Men’s Complication Watch and Iconic Watch Prizes for the brand, on what will be a memorable night for even as storied and respected a watchmaker as Audemars Piguet.

Arguably the most opulent category, the Jewellery Watch Prize, was won by Bulgari’s sumptuous Serpenti Misteriosi Romani. Jean-Christophe Babin, Bulgari CEO, commented on the timepiece’s ultra-lavish nature while addressing the crowd of watchmakers, collectors and journalists, but concluded on a defiant tone: “We all respect each other, but we all want to win. Be daring, audacious, break the rules. Break the mould.”

The small, the new and the brave were also rewarded. Kari Voutilainen’s eponymous brand went home with two prizes, his 28ti winning best men’s watch and the stunning Starry Night Vine winning the Artistic Crafts Watch Prize by bringing together the design traditions of the East and West in one unique timepiece. The Mechanical Watch Exception Prize was won by Genus with its GNS1.2, a coup for a home-grown company in its infancy, and one that is proof of Geneva’s continued importance in elite watchmaking.

A popular winner was Urwerk and the AMC, which snapped up the refreshingly-titled Audacity Prize. The AMC uses a 35kg atomic master clock to rewind the wristwatch, set it to the correct time and, if necessary, adjust its rate. The watch rests in a cradle within the atomic clock itself, a symbol of watchmaking’s dedication - bordering on obsession - to the pursuit of the new. The Urwerk team embodied this better than most with a speech-finishing rallying cry of “long live the insanity of the modern watchmaking world!”

During the ceremony, and on the eve of its 20th birthday, GPHG announced the upcoming creation of a watchmaking academy, set to open in Spring 2020. Supported by the City and Canton of Geneva, the academy will be made up of a wide network of ambassadors, each taking part in the various stages of watch selection in order to promote the art of watchmaking worldwide.

Read More | GPHG reaches Geneva for the main event

Finally, the night’s Special Jury Prize was awarded to Luc Pettavino, founder and organiser of Only Watch, a biennial auction of 50 one-off timepieces made by the finest manufacturers. Pattavino founded Only Watch in 2004, inspired by his son, Paul, who had been diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. In collaboration with Prince Albert II of Monaco, all proceeds from the auction (the eighth edition is this Saturday, 8th November) go towards researching and finding a cure for DMD - the charity has so far raised more than 40 million Swiss Francs. Pattavino ended his speech with the lessons he’d learned from his son, saying that Paul had “taught us to be alive, be audacious, and do beautiful things together”. Sitting in the Théâtre du Léman on the watch world’s most prestigious evening, it seemed no group of people could reflect this approach to life more perfectly than the one that celebrates the art, science and joy of creating beautiful watches.

FULL LIST OF WINNERS:

Aiguille d’Or Grand Prix: Audemars Piguet, Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin

Ladies’ Watch Prize: Chanel, J12 Calibre 12.1

Ladies’ Complication Watch Prize: MB&F, Legacy Machine FlyingT

Men’s Watch Prize: Voutilainen, 28ti

Men’s Complication Watch Prize: Audemars Piguet, Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet Minute Repeater Supersonnerie

Iconic Watch Prize: Audemars Piguet, Royal Oak "Jumbo" Extra-thin

Chronometry Watch Prize: Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud, Carburised steel regulator

Calendar and Astronomy Watch Prize: Hermès, Arceau L'heure de la lune

Mechanical Exception Watch Prize: Genus, GNS1.2

Chronograph Watch Prize: Bvlgari, Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic

Diver’s Watch Prize: Seiko, Prospex LX line diver's

Jewellery Watch Prize: Bvlgari, Serpenti Misteriosi Romani

Artistic Crafts Watch Prize: Voutilainen, Starry Night Vine

Petite Aiguille Prize: Kudoke, Kudoke 2

Challenge Watch Prize: Tudor, Black Bay P01

Innovation Prize: Vacheron Constantin, Traditionnelle Twin Beat perpetual calendar

Audacity Prize: Urwerk, AMC

“Horological Revelation” Prize: Ming, 17.06 Copper

Special Jury Prize: Luc Pettavino, Founder and Organiser of Only Watch

The new world of watchmaking at SIHH 2019

Originally appeared on Living by Euronews

High-end watchmaking is an industry steeped in tradition and proud heritage, which can prove to be a problem when the modern world comes knocking. However, at this year's Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, tradition met tech in a much-needed boost to the industry.

The 29th edition brought together the best watchmakers in the world for four days to show off their latest creations.

SIHH kicked off on Sunday night at the inauguration party, with all 35 brand CEOs gathering for the annual photo to talk shop and let their hair down for the evening. The show continued in kind, with evening cocktail parties at various stands and Champagne as a well-deserved treat for industry professionals - and writers - at the end of each day.

For the second year running, SIHH was also open to everyone on the final day, giving the public a chance to be among the first to see the latest in the enigmatic world of luxury timepieces. Here are the highlights from Geneva’s world of superwatches.

Call of the sea

A major new partnership was unveiled by Panerai, straight out of the traps on day one. In support of its homeland, the Italian brand has become the official sponsor of Luna Rossa, the Italian yacht and crew looking to compete in the 36th America’s Cup. Panerai joins Prada and Pirelli to create a trinity of P’s for the Italian team, and skipper Max Sirena doesn’t underestimate how important the new partnership could turn out to be: “This is the period where we are taking strategic and important decisions, which is going to give us a result in a few years’ time.”

In tribute to the agreement, Panerai has released the Submersible Luna Rossa 47mm. The case, like the boat’s hull, is made of carbon fibre, and sailcloth has been applied to the dials, adding the finishing touches to a professional diving watch water-resistant up to 300 metres.

L’heure de la lune

Hermès made an impression with its brooding entrance design. Conceived by London-based Hideki Yoshimoto, the imposing sphere was inspired by Hermès’ latest release, the Arceau L’heure de la Lune. The new watch displays the moon’s phases in both northern and southern hemispheres simultaneously, leading Yoshimoto to create his own interpretation of the double moon concept: “There aren’t two moons, but two moon faces.

“It’s about sharing. We have billions of viewpoints of the Earth in the history of humankind. We were all born here, all of us have spent our lives here, and everyone has looked at the same moon. That’s the beauty of the double moon concept. What we wanted to feature is not the moon but the Earth.”

Another in the new collection is also a contestant for best name at SIHH 2019 - the watch with a wolf howling at a crescent moon is aptly titled the Arceau Awooooo. Yes, that’s five o’s.

Tech with tradition

While haute horology doesn’t have the strongest record accepting the fast-paced world of technology, this year’s SIHH had a decidedly futuristic addition. The SIHH LAB, an ongoing research and development incubator, included innovations from the worlds of craft, augmented reality - and cocktail making - to showcase the tech at the forefront of watchmaking.

Fabienne Lupo, Managing Director of the Foundation de la Haute Horlogerie, sees the LAB as an important new development for the show: “We are a really innovative, contemporary, modern and dynamic industry. We wanted to show that, and also attract new talent.”

A highlight of the LAB (alongside the unarguably attractive cocktail-making installation) included Leap Motion gesture recognition. Simply place a special strap around your wrist, and through your phone not only see how any watch looks on you, but also interact with the timepiece.

Hey Lambo…

Lambo Italiano. Roger Dubuis has a reputation for the dramatic, which came as no surprise to anyone who took a look at the Lamborghini installed at the front of the Maison’s installation. Roger Dubuis’ creative team has designed a unique timepiece, the Excalibur One-Off, inspired by the recently unveiled Lamborghini SC18 Alston supercar. Like the watch, the SC18 Alston is Lamborghini’s first ever one-off hypercar.

Collaborating with the car manufacturer - and tyre godfather Pirelli for the strap - Roger Dubuis has packed as many technical novelties into the Excalibur as seems to be humanly possible, including a completely unnecessary but very fun function selector. Like a supercar mode selector, choose between ‘W' for watch winding and ’S’ for setting the time. Ridiculous and brilliant.

Cartier Privé

Cartier had a huge presence at this year’s SIHH. One particularly special part, however, was the Cartier Privé collection, the latest in a line of capsules celebrating the evolution of watches throughout history’s fashions and technological developments. At SIHH, Cartier chose to release updated versions of the 1906 Tonneau. The original had an unusual shape, a mix between rectangle and oval. This was to fit better on the wrist and was a precursor to a more modern shape.

Cartier has released two new versions of this seminal timepiece. The hours and minutes model sticks close to the original, with slight contemporary changes. The second piece, a skeleton dual time zone model, has incorporated what was originally two separate mechanisms - one for each time zone - into one movement, retaining the Tonneau’s original aesthetic.

Lange-versary

It’s an important year for A. Lange & Söhne. The manufacture has developed 63 calibres since founder Walter Lange and his partner Günter Blümlein presented four new wristwatches on October 24th 1994, marking a renaissance for the company. A quarter of a century later, the most famous of these remains the LANGE 1.

As you’ve probably guessed, the manufacture is celebrating the milestone by releasing an update of the original LANGE 1. The white gold version is limited to 250 pieces and features a deep blue printed argenté dial and a hinged cuvette (the back of the watch) with an engraving of Lange’s headquarters in the town of Glashütte, the birthplace of German watchmaking.

Candy Land

Richard Mille has tried to sweeten the deal for its customers by releasing the Bonbon collection, a range of confectionary-related timepieces. Cécile Guenat, artistic director of the collection, based the ten pieces on three existing models, revisiting them with a palette of 60 colours. The attention to detail even comes down to the crowns of some pieces being shaped like cupcakes and ice cream. The RM 07-03 Marshmallow is incredibly realistic thanks to modern enamelwork, while 3,000 miniature sculptures are integrated into the three pieces in the Fruit line, which includes the see-it-from-across-the-room bright lemon and strawberry (RM 16-01 Citron et Fraise).

Naughty Nardin

There’s always one. Ulysse Nardin, known for its maritime watches, has teamed up with Italian erotic comic book artist Milo Manara to create a series of ten watches that stretch from mildly titillating to downright graphic. Illustrating a love story between ‘Ulyssa' the mermaid and ‘Nadia’ the human, Manara’s work takes us on a journey into what the brand calls “a timeless, nautical reverie”.

Manara’s collection of ten images has been transferred onto the watch face through a technique known as micropainting, meaning the reproduction is as intricate as the original. Ten pieces per drawing will be made, both in stainless steel and rose gold, limiting the series to 200. Manara says of the collection “I am sure that mermaids do exist”. If they’re anything like this, I’m going sailing more often.

Le Carré des Horlogers

Just off the show’s main thoroughfare is the Carré des Horlogers, a selection of 17 smaller brands dedicated to craftsmanship and bespoke projects. Armin Strom, for instance, specialises in skeletonisation - where the intricate inner workings of the timepiece are visible - while futurist brand Urwerk takes its name from the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur, where our entire system of measuring time originated.

It’s here that many horological advances find their home. Belgian brand Ressence recently released the Type 2, the first watch to have a smart crown. The light-powered e-Crown digitally registers the manually-set time and automatically checks and readjusts. Even after three months of inactivity, once the owner taps the crown, it will set the watch to the right time.

Also in the Carré des Horlogers was the Time Æon Foundation, which safeguards traditional watchmaking knowledge and skills while encouraging technological developments. Supporters include Greubel Forsey, Urwerk and Ferdinand Berthoud, modern brands that all have a reverence for tradition.

Sheffield: Why It's Time To Reconsider The Steel City

Originally appeared on Esquire UK

Sheffield doesn’t seem to get much national coverage. It’s that city in South Yorkshire, isn’t it? Used to make steel, two decent football teams, pretty hilly. Not much to see here.

For most Sheffielders, that’s fine with them. Sheffield is comfortable being itself, cheerfully under-hyped. From sport - it’s the home of modern football (the original rules were written here in 1858) and hosts snooker’s World Championship - to music (Arctic Monkeys, Pulp and The Human League, anyone?), Sheffield has plenty to brag about, yet gets on with life, letting other local cities vie for the limelight.

It still has parochial elements, but Britain’s biggest village isn’t all greasy chip butties and old men supping a warm ale with their whippets (although we’ll hear nothing against that). The Steel City has another side that it would be remiss not to experience, a creative, independent and dynamic underbelly that locals and privileged outsiders know all about. For a weekend away, Sheffield should be near the top of the list. Just don’t tell too many people.

To stay: Brocco on the Park

This beautiful Edwardian boutique hotel overlooking Endcliffe Park is perfectly placed for wherever your mood takes you. From here it’s a ten minute walk into the city centre (and probably about twenty back, courtesy of one of Sheffield’s hills / that last Old Fashioned you had “for the road”). For a day surrounded by nature, grab one of Brocco’s Big Five super smoothies and head only ten minutes by car into the Peak District. You might think this is an exaggeration, but the city is deeply connected to the countryside, and has the most trees per person in Europe - it’s come some way since its industrial days.

Breakfast: Marmadukes

This independent café in the heart of Sheffield has been serving a greedy city from three floors of an old Georgian townhouse since 2012, its eccentric, winding layout lending it a conspiratorial atmosphere. Almost everything is made in-house each morning, the artisan bread coming from nearby Worksop and the milk from Our Cow Molly, only three miles away. If you’re feeling ambitious, go for the gut-busting Duke’s Breakfast. If this is too much for your morning sensitivities, don’t worry - their avocado toast is just as good.

Coffee: Take your pick

The people of Sheffield love coffee. Maybe it’s all the walking everyone seems to do, or maybe the nightlife is too tempting, but a morning pick-me-up is vital to the vast majority. Luckily, the city has its fair share of quality coffeehouses, especially around busy West Street.

Tamper Coffee is run by Kiwis and brings the best of New Zealand coffee culture to the city, while Steam Yard is in a great little courtyard that feels miles away from the centre. A few minutes down the road is Sheffield’s most design-led coffeeshop - Ink & Water serves premium coffee and local treats, but is also a graphic design and animation studio, with a real Bauhaus vibe throughout.

Dinner: Jöro

Shipping container restaurants are definitely a thing, at least at Krynkl, a collection of containers housing start-ups, a rooftop bar and Jöro, a restaurant offering “a meal built of many small plates”. It was awarded a Bib Gourmand in the Michelin Guide 2019, and head chef Luke French cooks his “New Nordic” dishes with hyper-seasonal and sustainable ingredients. The barbecued Moss Valley pork belly with Hoisin is a highlight. As are the other seven dishes you’ll invariably have.

Cocktails: Public

Public was recently awarded the best place to drink in the country by Observer Food Monthly, which is a far cry from the underground building’s original use as a public toilet. Underneath the Town Hall, the owners weren’t even allowed to install card machines at first due to the building’s protected status. Somehow they’ve sweet-talked the council, so no need to walk across the road to the cash machines.

The brass-and-leather-soaked bar serves cocktails from a menu split into four sections: Public Awareness (sustainable), Public Footpath (locally sourced), Public Liability (extra strength), and Public Health (alcohol free). Many focus on sustainability and locality, with regular forage sessions in the nearby Peak District and agreements with coffeeshops to take in their used grounds. Public also collaborates with other local businesses, such as vinyl store Bear Street Records and potter Grey Suit Clay. It’s small, it’s cool and it serves (probably) the best hedgerow negroni in the world.

Pub: Kelham Island Quarter

If you like beer, you might never leave. Sheffield has a huge range of pubs, but nowhere is the ale-to-person ratio more skewed to the amber liquid than Kelham Island. Formerly the industrial heartland of the city, the Quarter is regularly voted one of the coolest areas to live in the UK, and with good reason: plenty of start-ups have moved into the attractive Edwardian-era buildings, thirsty for emerging business and a good pint. There’s also the monthly Peddler Night Market, an open-plan food truck paradise with live music and a pop-up gin bar.

Art: Millennium Gallery

A visit to the central gallery offers an intriguing insight into Sheffield’s industrial and artistic pasts, and art, craft and design installations share the modernist space with permanent exhibitions detailing the city’s past - and current - expertise in steel. The gallery shares a wall with the Winter Garden, a huge temperate glasshouse and botanical garden open to the public that also serves as the BBC studio during the snooker World Championship.

Theatre: The Crucible

The Crucible is much more than the home of snooker, putting on world class theatre, music and ballet year-round. Sir Ian McKellen has regularly performed there through the years, and recently said “I shall always be proud that, with Edward Petherbridge, I was in the first play ever at the Crucible in 1971. Chekov’s Swansong was part of the concert which opened the now iconic open stage.” He’s back this year with a solo show. If it’s good enough for Gandalf, it’s good enough for you.

Hockney - Van Gogh: The Joy of Nature

Originally on Living it

Art is a risky business at the best of times; curating an exhibition of a living artist can be difficult, making sure both the artist and the public are happy with the finished show. Imagine adding to the mix one of history’s most popular painters and linking the two through a common theme in their works. That’s exactly what Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum has done in its latest exhibition, Hockney — Van Gogh: The Joy of Nature. The ‘Dave and Vince Show’, as Hockney has been calling it the past few months, unites two artistic superstars through their common love of the natural world.

It’s obvious that Hockney has been deeply inspired by Van Gogh, taking the Dutch master’s swirling canvasses and adding ethereal colour to the natural setting. The exhibition focuses on a series of Van Gogh’s paintings from 1887-89, a productive time during which he travelled Provence, painting the countryside while struggling with his health. While Van Gogh’s paintings of nature could be seen as an escape from himself, Hockney’s are a reclaiming of a past self, a nostalgia for a homeland, once thought disappeared but remaining.

A carefully-selected collection of Hockney’s paintings from 1997 - when he first began returning to Yorkshire to paint - to the present day, adorns a huge expanse of the Van Gogh Museum, covering two floors and multiple rooms. For Hockney, it’s a return to simpler themes. His landscape paintings - in particular the magnificent The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) - show a clear link to many of Van Gogh’s landscapes, such as Field with Irises near Arles (1888) and The Garden of Saint Paul’s Hospital (‘Leaf-Fall’) (1889).

One major difference is Hockney’s use of colour. Van Gogh’s paintings are full of movement and vibrancy, but it’s Hockney’s combining of unexpected colours that transport us to the East Yorkshire countryside. Many of Hockney’s more recent works have centred around Woldgate, a Roman road on the way to the town of Bridlington. “I asked somebody once, ‘what colour is the road?’” says Hockney. “He looked for a moment and said ‘it’s not just grey, is it?’ I said, ‘no it’s not, if you really look.’ But you have to really look.

“With photography you’re not really looking, but when you’re drawing one blade of grass, you’re looking and then you see the other blades of grass, and you’re always seeing more. Well, that’s exciting to me, and it was exciting to Van Gogh. He saw very, very clearly.

“He was kind of a miserable man in a way, but when he was painting, he wasn’t.”

The similarities and contrasts are uncovered with intelligent placement of the artists’ works: a wall of Hockney here, a single Van Gogh on an adjacent pillar there, the lighting casting different perspectives as you move around the room, pillars blocking and revealing works simultaneously.

Interestingly, despite Hockney’s comments on photography, a highlight of the exhibition is his moving image piece The Four Seasons: Woldgate Woods. Shot over - you’ve guessed it - four seasons in his favourite spot, the collection of film is overlaid, spliced, and shot from almost imperceptibly different angles, so that the eye never rests. After all, when was the last time you looked straight ahead while walking in the countryside? Like with Van Gogh, movement is key.

As Van Gogh moved art from the 19th to 20th Century, so Hockney contributes to the evolution of art from 20th to 21st. Both artists escaped home for sunnier climes (Hockney still spends much of his time in California); both painted nature as they saw it. Whereas Van Gogh used nature as a cleansing sanctuary from himself and those around him, Hockney uses the gentle fields and woods of his native land as a reconnect to both the land and its people.

In Hockney’s own words: “The world is colourful. It is beautiful, I think. Nature is great. Van Gogh worshipped nature… He might have been miserable, but that doesn’t show in his work. There are always things that will try to pull you down. But we should be joyful in looking at the world”.

Hockney — Van Gogh: The Joy of Nature runs until May 26, vangoghmuseum.nl