GPHG 2026 · Ceremony Night — 7 November
TL;DR
- Ceremony tonight: 18:30 CET (00:30 SGT Sat 8 Nov), Bâtiment des Forces Motrices, Geneva.
- Free live stream at gphg.org — no registration required.
- 84 watches across 14 categories; Rexhep Rexhepi leads the Aiguille d’Or field.
- The Chronograph category is the most contested: Rexhepi vs AP’s RD#5.
- GPHG wins consistently tighten AD availability within 60–90 days.
The 26th Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève rolls out the red carpet tonight. The ceremony at the historic Bâtiment des Forces Motrices in Geneva will crown winners across 14 categories from a field of 84 nominated timepieces and hand out the ultimate prize—the Aiguille d’Or—to the single watch the grand jury considers the most exceptional of the year. For buyers in Asia watching the secondary market, this is the night that tells you which references are about to get harder to find and more expensive. Here is the full run-down of what to watch for, category by category, and when to tune in.
When and How to Watch
The prize-giving starts at 18:30 CET (00:30 SGT Saturday 8 November). It streams free on gphg.org—no account, no paywall. The Geneva Watch Auction Week is running simultaneously at the Hotel President Wilson nearby (see our session guide), and several auction room estimates will be repriced overnight once category winners are announced.
The Aiguille d’Or Race
The Aiguille d’Or is not a category prize. It is chosen by the grand jury from among the 14 category winners after all categories are announced. That means Rexhep Rexhepi must first win the Chronograph category before he can be considered for the gold needle. His Chronograph Flyback (ref. RRCHF, CHF 150,000) is the consensus front-runner: an independent watchmaker’s first in-house flyback chronograph built in a 38.8 mm platinum case, hand-finished throughout. That combination—technical ambition, independent authorship, restrained proportion—is exactly what the grand jury has historically rewarded with the Aiguille d’Or.
Standing directly in his way in the Chronograph category is Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak “Jumbo” Flying Tourbillon Chronograph RD#5 “150th Anniversary” (CHF 289,500), which marries a flying tourbillon with a chronograph inside the iconic 39 mm Jumbo case—a feat requiring new movement architecture. The AP is technically extraordinary, but as a maison submission during its own anniversary year it represents the institutional argument versus Rexhepi’s craftsman argument. The industry consensus leans toward Rexhepi, though AP has claimed the Aiguille d’Or before. It is worth noting that the two finest Chronograph nominees are direct rivals for a single category slot: only the winner becomes eligible for the grand prize.
Category-by-Category: Six to Watch
Fourteen categories, 84 watches, one evening. Here are the six categories with the most direct implications for buyers.
| Category | Front-runner | Price (CHF, Nov 2026) | Closest rival |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chronograph | Rexhep Rexhepi Chronograph Flyback | 150,000 | AP Royal Oak “Jumbo” RD#5 (289,500) |
| Sports | Grand Seiko SLGB023 Ushio 300 | 12,500 | Hermès H08 Squelette (18,900) |
| Time Only | Naoya Hida NH Type8A | 18,000 | Bvlgari Octo Finissimo 37 Titanium (15,700) |
| Tourbillon | David Candaux DC6 Night Forest | 268,088 | Ferdinand Berthoud FB 2TV (325,000) |
| Mechanical Exception | Konstantin Chaykin Thinking Mystery | 400,000 | Blancpain Grande Double Sonnerie (1,700,000) |
| Challenge | King Seiko VANAC HKF001 | 3,760 | SPACEONE × Baltic Seconde Majeure (3,000) |
Sports: Grand Seiko’s highest-stakes night
The Grand Seiko SLGB023 “Ushio 300” is a 300 m Spring Drive diver with a hand-engraved dial representing Japan’s Ushio coastal waters, at CHF 12,500 the most accessible Sports nominee by some margin. A win here would be Grand Seiko’s most prominent GPHG result to date and would almost certainly tighten supply at authorised dealers in Singapore and Tokyo. We covered the nomination in depth when it was announced; our Grand Seiko brand hub has pricing and availability context. If you are on the fence about one, tonight’s result matters for the queue.
Challenge: the most buyer-relevant category
The Challenge category is capped at the accessible end of the market and is specifically designed to highlight what good watchmaking looks like under CHF 5,000. King Seiko’s VANAC HKF001 (CHF 3,760) is a hand-wound piece from Seiko’s revived sub-brand that pushes dial finishing and movement decoration well beyond its price point. A win would validate the King Seiko revival and position the VANAC as the benchmark affordable collector’s watch of 2026. The rule that no brand can claim more than two awards in a single year does not disadvantage King Seiko here—it has no other nominated piece.
Mechanical Exception: the big-complication wildcard
This category consistently fields the most extreme complications. Blancpain’s Grande Double Sonnerie (CHF 1,700,000) is technically the most elaborate nominee—a full grande and petite sonnerie with minute repeater—but as a Swatch Group maison submission it faces historical headwinds in this category, where the jury has shown a preference for independents. Konstantin Chaykin’s Thinking Mystery (CHF 400,000) and Ferdinand Berthoud’s Naissance d’une Montre 3 (CHF 850,000) are both credible alternatives. If Ferdinand Berthoud wins here, it also strengthens its lot in any post-ceremony secondary market repricing at this week’s Geneva auctions—there are Berthoud lots at Phillips and Sotheby’s.
What a Win Means for Buyers
GPHG category wins consistently tighten authorised dealer availability within 60–90 days of the ceremony. The Aiguille d’Or effect is sharper: Breguët’s 2025 Aiguille d’Or win was followed by a marked uptick in grey market premiums on the winning reference within six weeks. For the Sports category, where the winning watch is typically orderable, a win can mean a two-to-three month wait-time extension at ADs across the region. Our analysis of Grand Seiko’s secondary market and cost-to-own breakdown are worth reading alongside tonight’s result if the Ushio 300 wins. For the Chronograph category, Rexhepi’s pieces are made in limited numbers and already carry a waiting list—a win would not change short-term availability but would meaningfully move secondary prices.
We will publish a full results dispatch tomorrow morning once the Aiguille d’Or and all 14 category winners are confirmed. Keep our nominees and front-runners guide open for reference as the results come in tonight.
The 26th GPHG ceremony begins at 18:30 CET on Saturday 7 November 2026 at the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices, Geneva. That is 00:30 SGT on Sunday 8 November for viewers in Singapore and Hong Kong.
The ceremony streams free on gphg.org starting from around 18:30 CET. No registration is required. The stream is in English and French.
Rexhep Rexhepi’s Chronograph Flyback (CHF 150,000) is the consensus front-runner. However, it must first win the Chronograph category—where it faces Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak “Jumbo” Flying Tourbillon Chronograph RD#5—before the grand jury can consider it for the Aiguille d’Or.
The Aiguille d’Or (Golden Hand) is the GPHG’s grand prize. It is awarded by the full grand jury to the single watch they consider the most outstanding across all categories. It is chosen after all 14 category prizes are announced and is widely regarded as the highest honour in watchmaking’s annual calendar.
In practice, yes. Category wins tighten authorised dealer availability within 60–90 days. Aiguille d’Or wins have historically lifted grey market premiums on the winning reference within six weeks. The effect is most pronounced for independents in limited production and for accessible nominees in the Challenge and Sports categories.
The 2026 edition features 84 nominated timepieces across 14 categories. All nominated pieces are on display at the GPHG Exhibition at the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices, Geneva, during the week of the ceremony.
Sources: Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève official website; Haute Time, GPHG 2026 Aiguille d’Or predictions, 17 Oct 2026; The Watch Info, complete GPHG 2026 nominees by category. All prices in CHF as listed on gphg.org, November 2026.
