Welcome to this Watch LIVE. Hi, I'm Lydia Winters.
And I'm Boo booie. And today we're talking about
awards. The GHG nominees have come out
yesterday. Which are they?
Nominations. The way they listed on the site
is kind of. It's unclear if these are
specific nominations that have been whittled down or if these
are just everyone who submitted. It's very unclear.
I actually tried to figure that out and I couldn't.
So we'll start by I have been on a, a judge on different,
different juries before for these type of things.
And one of the things that I didn't realize, I mean, even
like the Academy Awards, the Emmys, is like, you need to
submit yourself. Yes, yes.
And so many basically what's happening is brands are deciding
whether it is worth it to them or not because there's always
like an entry fee in the case of these awards, the GPHG, it's I
think 700 it's. €800. €800 Sorry, but if you're nominated
by someone in the jury, then it's actually 7000.
Yeah, it's Swiss. It's Swiss Francs actually, not
your. Old Swiss francs.
My bad. Yeah, Swiss francs, which is
very funny. It's like 800 to be considered
but it costs way more to be nominated.
Well, I think the nomination fee is higher because it's more
likely that something will happen with your watch because
obviously like people can you know what, what we call in
photography is like spray and pray, which is where you just
like take as many photos as you can.
So you could imagine some brand, you know, because OK, The thing
is with any award type shows is what it does is bring a big
spotlight onto your brand. So I first of all want to say I
am not at all like I'm not complaining about any any of it
because I understand both on the side of creating a place where
where watchmaking is celebrated. So the actual foundation, I
think that's awesome. And I also think it's awesome
for brands to submit. It's just I feel it's important
to kind of know because when you do see that like a lot of brands
that maybe you think should be there or not, it's because they
didn't apply. Exactly.
And so it's, it doesn't make the awards like meaningless or
anything like that. There's still meaning, there is
still competition. There are still real people who
judge these and debate them. And as you said, you've been on
this type of jury, not not for watches, but you've been on this
type of thing before. And I, I've heard you talk about
it like you take it super seriously and so did everyone
else that you've worked with. But you have to just understand
that this is not an award for every watch that could exist
within that category. It's an award for competing
against the watches that were submitted for that category.
And so it's just that that's the only lens.
And that's that doesn't make anything bad, but it just means,
you know, like the pool is not every watch that could possibly
be during that, you know, because each of these different
categories, it does say on the page for this that this is the
2024 edition competing watches. It doesn't say nominees, it
doesn't say submissions. I don't know what that means,
but. Maybe that means it's the
combination of submissions and nominees.
I'm not sure if it's been culled down because many times you do
cull to a shortlist so it's it's just unclear if this is the
shortlist of what's being judged or if this is all of them.
So are there any trends that you saw looking through because I I
noticed a couple things I thought were interesting.
Yeah. Before we go to that, I just
wanted to say one more thing about the process because
they've actually taken an approach that I think is
interesting because they actually have like more of the
Academy Awards where you have like members of the Academy
voting. So that's like there are so many
people who are part of. GPHG.
GPHG like incredible people, many people we know head
shoulders, Masaharu pulse on the wrist, like just yeah, the list
goes on and on of people, amazing people we know.
So they are kind of voting down to some sort of list and then
there's a jury that actually goes on site and meets together,
gets hands on with all the watches, which I was like, get
me on that jury. I'm a wonderful jury member.
I've also been a jury president. Like I'm ready for this, call me
in. But I just wanted to tell that
part too because it is like that's people across the
spectrum of watch, like watch both influencers, industry
people, brands. So then you really get a wealth
of knowledge. OK, I want to hear your trends
first. I'm very excited about this.
Actually, OK, well maybe I've oversold it because the the
biggest thing for me is like it's so many watches and I have
trouble parsing so many things all at once.
And each category like their, each category is like totally
different sizes. Like some of the categories have
so many watches and some have less.
One thing I did notice is Parmigiani Fleurier is in like
half the categories. So when you talked about the
spray and pray method, obviously they're proud of what they did.
We saw those watches in person and everyone I've heard talk
about them, including us, have said that they're amazing.
I just found it a little interesting that they were
submitted for so many different categories, but I did like.
Only submit. One thing I did like is you can
only submit a single watch model for a single category because in
other award shows that I've been judging, then you're seeing the
same entry over and over and over in like multiple
categories. So I do really like that.
That they yeah, actually that is true.
In the different categories, they are different watches.
So let's go through some of the categories and we can talk about
a few watches that at least were interesting to us or stood out
to us in some way. Like first up ladies category.
You know, besides the fact that I don't even like that there are
ladies in men's categories. It's kind of one of those things
that I think we're still in a place with the industry that if
there wasn't a ladies category, then no ladies watches would win
ever. I.
Agree like that's the problem is that if you go on the default
method then the default is male. Exactly.
So for now it totally makes sense to have the ladies
category. Hopefully in the future watches
won't be judged in the same way. I did also look through the
ladies category and it was interesting to see that out of
the 17 watches in there, only six had no diamonds.
Oh. Yeah, yeah.
So still only. I thought it was the opposite.
One. No, no, no, no, no.
Only six. So 11 had diamonds, six had no
diamonds. It is very.
Much that very because I read it as the opposite.
But one that I really liked was the Breitling Chronomat
Automatic 36 Victoria Beckham. We've gone and seen this watch.
This is the gold one though. But we didn't.
Get to We haven't seen the gold. Yeah, the yellow gold.
It looks amazing. The second hand says VB, which
makes me realize that the watch was made for me.
I know Victoria Beckham is also another famous VB, but who's to
say? Who's to say it wasn't also for
me? My favorite is definitely the
Irma's cut which I thought was just such a cool release.
It is also, you know, they are marketing as unisex but it was
unisex with ladies wrist first, which I like that because again,
usually unisex means made for a guy.
But and they submit it to the ladies category, right?
Yeah, so that. Chose something.
I would love, I mean, if this one in this category, something
that is actually like 36mm, totally unisex, I think that
would be making a huge statement.
If I was in that judging room, I would be like, hey, let's make a
bold statement. OK, next category, ladies
complications. So still within ladies watches,
mostly complicated or actually all complicated watches of
different types of complications, there was one
watch that really stood out to me and for multiple different
reasons. So it's coming from all angles.
So it's called the Sazyu snowflake.
I think it looks amazing. It's an entire faceted geometric
fully sapphire case. It has a torbion movement but I
cannot find this watch anywhere else.
Like like the the Internet doesn't know this exists except
on the GPHG website. Not just the model but the brand
itself. I have not been able to find it.
So an interesting thing is in many judging scenarios and
you're getting all these entries in, sometimes there are more
like prototype concepts being submitted with the feeling that
if they. If they win, they'll make it.
If they win that, they will make it because the notoriety is so
big. I could understand.
I mean, in many of the shows I've been part of, that's a no.
It has to actually have come out like you.
Need to have sense to me. Seen like it needs to be out in
the market and market means it's not a prototype.
So I'll be interested to see like hear more like what happens
with. That it's also so it's a torbion
with a fully sapphire case, a faceted sapphire case like a
complex design. You can, you can see from the
photos and it's listed for 3500 Swiss francs.
It just doesn't add up to me. I don't get it.
And so I'd like to find out more
about this one. This one is a weird one.
Definitely a mystery. Okay then time only category.
Not a surprise that Chapec Goodo that we saw at Watches and
Wonder. I call it drop of water.
Yeah, where it has the ripples coming out and then the Kudoke
Infinity is in there and that has a Goldstone dial, which is a
venturing glass, but blue, and it has little copper flakes, so
they look like little gold flakes inside of it.
I think that thing is beautiful. Then the Parmigiani Flurrier,
the Tonda PF micro micro rotor, no date.
We checked that one out at Watches and Wonders and we got
to try them on. Amazing.
Beautiful. Watch Yeah.
But I was excited in the men's category to see my precious.
Well, I don't own it yet, but my precious Grand Seiko SLGW Double
O3, the white Birch bark is in there in the men's category.
Which was? We both have new coming watches
that are that are in nominated categories.
That could be. I'd like to wear it on my wrist
while it wins the. Award while it wins the award,
so yours is in the iconic category.
Yes, the Creedor locomotive, which I'll get sometime in
September, very excited about it, it yeah, in the iconic
award, which is the perfect place for it.
They're also, so is the the kith Formula One tag collaboration is
in the iconic award. And I honestly could see that I
get it going pretty far because you're you're saying like the
icon, which then I mean, with all of these judging categories,
they're pretty subjective. So you are trying to figure out
how to parse them as the jury. Yeah.
So I think that could be a place where you're like, well, they
actually took multiple icons and put it together.
Yeah. Or people hate it, who knows?
It's very exciting to see. And then you have sports
category. Now we're getting into watches
that like we know a lot of the watches in there.
Like it was nice to see that the Sherpa X, the real time show.
So the collaboration, the OPS was in there.
That's really cool to see. Shout out to Robin Alon.
Yeah. Unsurprisingly, the Tudor
Palagos FXD Chrono Cycling edition, which I recently tried
on and absolutely loved is in there.
The new Auris Aqua state Caliber 400 that we saw at Watches and
Wonders was in there. I I mean, there's some great
watches in there, but then you get into the two categories
where it's like, you know, almost every single watch
because the petite ugly category is watches only from 2000 to
8000 Swiss francs. And then the challenge category
is 2000 and under. And that's just where like I, I
mean, you know, every single watch like it and, and there's
such good watches in. There but also those two
categories are where like in a in a way like the awards, there
are certain categories where the awards will mean the most.
To you. And and what especially when you
get in the challenge category, a win could make such a huge.
Difference if. You think about like the
Christopher Ward Belkanto I think was awarded last year and
like how much notoriety that gained.
Like it really is a big deal you have because you don't only it's
not just, it's like the whole industry talking about you and
your watch. It's it's huge.
And at those in these two categories, there are more
accessible price points. So there it's like if this wins,
like it can drive people to notice a watch that they may
maybe can afford. And so, like I was excited to
see my Otsuka low tech number six is in the challenge
category, the Nomos Tangente 38 date.
The sport boon specifically is in there.
And I don't know if you knew that that this watch had even
come out yet, but Lorca the a watch that you've been super
interested in their GMT number one, they are nominated or
they're they're in here as the model number 2.
What I didn't see that that's so tiny.
And also Enoma's in there too with a really cool Pebble pebbly
shaped watch. Yeah, I'm really excited.
I think. I mean, we'll definitely have
more episodes on this as we get closer to it, but it just felt
really fun. Like I definitely, this is the
first year I feel like I want to follow it more closely and kind
of, you know, see, see what's happening.
I would say in previous years we didn't even look until the
winners were announced. That's true.
So this year, it's fun, yeah. We were starting early, so.
I would love to know more to who you think some of the winners
will be or should. Be Yeah Yeah.
Vote bye. Bye.