GPHG 2025: Breguet wins the Aiguille d’Or

Thursday, November 13 saw the 25th Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) awards ceremony. Celebrating creativity and innovation in watchmaking, this unmissable event for the industry awarded Breguet the coveted Grand Prix de l’Aiguille d’Or for its Classique Souscription 2025 watch.

Founded in 2001 and organized since 2011 by a recognized public interest foundation, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) has been pursuing its mission of celebrating and promoting the art of watchmaking internationally for more than twenty years.

During another memorable evening, elegantly hosted by presenter Antoine de Caunes, the Academy and the 2025 Jury, chaired by journalist, author, and historian Nick Foulkes, awarded prizes to nineteen exceptional creations.

Among them, Breguet lit up this year’s GPHG by winning the Grand Prix de l’Aiguille d’Or for its single-hand timepiece Classique Souscription 2025, the most prestigious award in the competition. A timeless model of understated elegance, combining heritage and innovation, it celebrates 250 years of creativity.

It should be noted that among the 18 other brands honored that evening, Audemars Piguet, Bovet 1822, Bvlgari, Chopard, Daniel Roth, Dior Montres, Gérald Genta, Greubel Forsey, L’Épée 1839, and Zenith stood out in the 2025 edition’s list of winners. All of these timepieces push the boundaries of design, technology, and mechanical poetry.

This year’s Special Jury Prize honors Alain Dominique Perrin, president of the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, for his visionary role in promoting quality watchmaking.

Model Souscription anniversary celebration

The big winner of the 2025 edition of the Swiss watchmaking competition, the Classique Souscription 2025 by Breguet is a historic and revolutionary timepiece made from a new gold alloy. This Breguet gold is a precious blond metal that combines gold, silver, copper, and palladium. Designed to mark the start of Breguet’s 250th anniversary celebrations, this single-hand watch pays tribute to the visionary spirit of Abraham-Louis Breguet, combining simplicity, precision, and timeless elegance.

The first watch with a simplified architecture, its design is characterized by the purity of its white enamel dial and the display of the time by a single hand. The latter, made of steel with an open tip, has been flame-blued and entirely curved by hand. First marketed in 1797 as a pocket watch, the Classique Souscription 2025 has been reissued this year as a wristwatch.

Its name, “Souscription,” referenced as early as 1796 in the Maison’s sales records, which are jealously preserved at the Breguet Museum on Place Vendôme, refers to a commercial method in use since the 18th century: if a customer wished to purchase a watch of this type, they had to confirm their order by paying a quarter of the price. This deposit enabled the workshop on the Quai de l’Horloge to acquire the supplies needed to manufacture the watches, thus marking the beginning of mass production. According to the Breguet website, around 700 timepieces were produced in this way over a period of more than 30 years.

While the model may appear simple at first glance, the back of the case reveals its watchmaking excellence. The mechanical construction of the new VS00 caliber in gilded brass, in the same shade as Breguet gold, is particularly noteworthy. It features a brand-new guilloché pattern. This design, called Quai de l’Horloge, pays vibrant homage to Paris, drawing inspiration from the unique curves of the Île de la Cité and the slender refinement of the Île Saint-Louis.

This movement beats at a frequency of 3 Hz (21,600 vibrations per hour) and offers an impressive four-day power reserve from a single barrel. At its center sits the imposing ratchet wheel, which bears an engraved inscription in the cursive letters of the founder, explaining the design of the Souscription movement and an excerpt from its advertising brochure.

The 90 preselected timepieces, including the 19 winners, are on display at the Geneva Museum of Art and History until November 16, 2025. The award-winning pieces will then be presented from November 19 to 23 as part of Dubai Watch Week.