News In Geneva, Montres Passion has awarded for the 17th time its famous Watch of the Year Prize.
The not-to-be-missed autumn gathering organised by the magazine Montres Passion was held this year on 14 October. During the course of the evening, more than 500 people congregated in the hushed lounges of the Hôtel Intercontinental de Genève. The jury, composed of watch industry professionals, made its choice from among a hundred or so timepieces launched on the Swiss market over the past twelve months, produced in quantities of at least 200 and priced for the retail market at not more than 50,000 francs. This number was whittled down to a shortlist of forty.
The Watch of the Year Prize was awarded to Bulgari for its Octo Bi-Retro model from the Gérald Genta collection. Sporty and contemporary, it has an octagonal case, a ceramic bezel with a “studded” satin finish and a crown set with an onyx cabochon. Mounted on a natural rubber strap, it includes a sophisticated mechanism that displays jumping hours in a large aperture at 12 o’clock, with minutes and retrograde date indicated by hands. Its self-winding GG7722 movement is manufactured in Le Sentier.
One vote behind came the Quantième Annuel by Patek Philippe (Ref. 5205), featuring a white gold case and a two-tone dial available in two versions: rhodium-plated/silver grey and matt black/slate grey. The day, date and month appear in three different openings arranged in an arc of a circle in the upper half of the dial.
The jury’s third-placed timepiece, also winner of the Ladies’ Watch prize, was the Miss Golden Bridge model by Corum. Its mechanical hand-wound baguette movement comprises 140 elements, a variable inertia balance, a barrel with slip-springs, a 40-hour power reserve, and hand-engraved solid gold bars and bottom plate. This distillation of expertise is housed in a new tonneau shaped case, at once slender, elegant and curved, in 18-carat red gold.
As is the case every year, shortlisted models were put to the public vote in an online contest. Internet users chose the Duomètre à Quantième Lunaire by Jaeger-LeCoultre, which displays on its dial the time, date and phase of the moon. Thanks to its jumping seconds-hand moving in increments of one sixth of a second, this model offers unprecedented accuracy.
The prize for best watch campaign of the year, awarded by a jury made up of media professionals, for its part went to Ebel for its new Les Architectes du temps visuals featuring the brand’s flagship models depicted in a world where time, art and materials create a stunning overall effect of savoir-faire and beauty.
October 25, 2010
