News For its 10th edition, the prize awarded by the magazines Montres Passion and Uhrenwelt has gone for the first time to a quartz watch: Déclaration from Cartier.
A bastion of the men's mechanical watch since its creation in 1994, the Watch of the Year Prize this year took a slight detour by crowning a ladies' quartz model. Chaired as in the past by Philippe Dufour, the panel of judges voted for the Déclaration model from Cartier, praising its considerable technical and aesthetic qualities. Essentially a jewel rather than a timepiece, this watch blends imperceptibly into its bracelet. Based on an Art Deco design, it is set with a solitaire, which appears or disappears like the time according to the loose arrangement of a dozen decorative rings (see photo). The trophy was awarded on 12 November in Lausanne to Horst Edenhofer, the Managing Director of Cartier Suisse.
Second and third places went to two of the 40 shortlisted watches that also captured the judges' full attention: the original Magellan from the Le Locle based company of the same name, in homage to the Portuguese explorer, featuring a half-sphere under a bell cover, and the Toledo 1952 from Vacheron Constantin, immediately recognizable by dint of its elegant case.
As usual, readers of L'Hebdo and Cash were also invited to give their opinions. After the 10,000 or so votes were counted, the undisputed winner of the 2003 Jury Prize emerged as the Classique from Breguet (see photo), an automatic with retrograde small seconds, a power reserve of 65 hours and a hand-crafted engine-turned dial. The Internet Prize meanwhile went to the Royal Oak Offshore T3 from Audemars Piguet, developed with Arnold Schwarzenegger for the film Terminator 3, which gave the model its name.
It should be pointed out that in order to be eligible, watches needed to display the Swiss made label, to be on sale in the Swiss market between 1st September 2002 and 31 August 2003 with a retail price of less than 30,000 francs, and to have been produced in editions of at least 200 pieces.
Published twice yearly with a print run of 90,000, the magazine Montres Passion, which aims to contribute to the development of watchmaking culture, will soon be extending its activities to the small screen. In collaboration with Ringier Romandie, six local French-speaking television stations have decided to produce 20 fortnightly programmes in 2004 under this name, each lasting six minutes, devoted to the measurement of time, under the expert direction as ever of Jean-Philippe Arm. A development that certainly merits an entry in all our diaries!
November 20, 2003
