The trophy was presented to Philippe Léopold-Metzger, Piaget’s CEO, at an award ceremony on 28 October last in Geneva attended by local officials as well as over 500 well known figures from the watchmaking sector.
The “Da Vinci Vintage Automatic” manufactured by IWC, won second place while third prize was awarded to “Instinct Basic 4851 Four Time Zone” by Rodolphe.
As far as concerns the Ladies’ Watch of the Year, this was won by Piaget’s model “Magic Hour”.
As far as concerns the Jury’s Special Prize, a “personal” prize awarded for an exceptional timepiece or to watch designers, the winner this year was the “Diane, minute repeater” and Sandrine de Laage, Deputy Head of Design at Harry Winston, received the award.
The jury, which comprised professionals from the watchmaking sector and was chaired by Kenan Tegin, chose the winner from a short-list of some forty finalists selected out of over a hundred new models launched on the Swiss market between September 2007 and December 2008.
Following the tradition, the short-listed models were presented to the public through a competition on a dedicated website, where they could vote for their favourites between 29 September and 19 October. The highest number of votes were won by “Diamond Flower” by Perrelet, which was consequently awarded the Swiss Public Prize.
For the first time, a second Watch of the Year ceremony will be organised, which will also take place in Paris, on Thursday 30 October, and will be attended by representatives of the French watch market. Another public prize, this time specific to France, will be awarded on this occasion.
The aim of the Watch of the Year Prize, which was presented in 2008 for the 15th consecutive year, is to reward the best horological creations of the year from both an aesthetic and a technical point of view. The prize was set up by the magazine Montres Passion, published by Ringier Romandie in Switzerland four times a year in French (90,000 copies) and German (100,000 copies). This specialised publication is an ambassador of high-quality watches and aims to help develop the watch and jewellery sector. Since June 2008, Ringier has also been distributing 100,000 copies in France.
