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Top watches from the Grand Prix D’Horlogerie De Genève, the Oscars of watchmaking

Check out these watch pieces from the Oscar of watches

By Nathan S.R Published November 15, 2024

IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar — IWC

The Grand Prix D’Horlogerie De Genève, which is also known as the Oscar of watchmaking, is an event that pays tribute to the most innovative and stylish watch models.

While the event focuses on watches with superb horological capabilities, it also features other stylish pieces that are quite appealing.

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The IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar was the overall winner. It’s a horological masterpiece that retails at $150,000 due to its superb capabilities. As a watch designed to be quite effective in tracking moon phases, the IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar can provide precise information for 45 million years.

“We are thrilled to win this award for the Portugieser Eternal Calendar. Building on the emblematic crown-controlled perpetual calendar that Kurt Klaus developed in the 1980s, we have pushed the limits for mechanical calendar complications once again. We have engineered more than just a concept,” said Grainger-Herr.

MING — MING / MING

Apart from that, the MING 37.09 was the winner of the sports watch category. And thanks to its stylish design, it is a suitable timepiece for day-to-day activities.

The MING 37.09MING has always been popular for its minimalistic features, and the 37.09 is the perfect example of a minimalistic and stylish timepiece. One of the most stylish features of this watch is the blue dial.

And since this timepiece is a diver’s watch, the dial is accentuated by Super-LumiNova-x1. Everything that’s fitted on the watch, from the dial to the strap, has a blue shade. It’s also worthwhile to note that elements on the watch have a different shade.

DB Kind of Grande Complication — DB Kind of Grande Complication Debethune / Debethune

When it comes to performance, the DB Kind Of Grande Complication was the winner of the men’s complication category.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Nathan has devoted his life to collecting watches, studying horology, reviewing watches, and writing about timepieces. As a…

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Watches

Fashion & Style

Swatch’s new gold MoonSwatch is priced like it’s 1969

The Mission to the Moon 1969 packs 11 grams of real 18K gold — priced at the 1969 gold rate.

Wristwatch, Arm, Body Part

Guess what? It's another MoonSwatch — but this isn't just another colorway. The new drop from the Switzerland-based watchmaker, the MoonSwatch Mission to the Moon 1969, is the first to use real gold across the dial, hands, crown, and pushers.

The watch marks the anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on July 21, 1969.

Fashion & Style

Breitling’s new Top Time is a wearable tribute to the Aston Martin DB5

The new watches rep the iconic Bond car right down to subdials shaped like its dashboard gauges.

Car, Watch, Man

Breitling just released a trio of heaters: the Top Time B01 Chronograph 41 Tribute to Aston Martin DB5, a three-edition collaboration with the British carmaker. The connection between the Swiss watchmaker and the British car company runs back to 1965, when a Top Time ref. 2002 appeared on Sean Connery's wrist in Thunderball, worn alongside the DB5 — the first Q-modified watch in the Bond series. It's a nice bit of trivia that the DB5 and that Top Time shared the screen in the same film, and both went on to outlive the movie by decades.

The car cues go deeper than the "squircle" gauge-shaped subdials: a wooden inner ring nods to the DB5's steering wheel, and each edition rides on a hand-colored gradient calfskin strap meant to read like automotive upholstery. All three run on Breitling's in-house Manufacture Caliber 01, a COSC-certified automatic chronograph with a 70-hour power reserve, visible through a sapphire caseback and finished with an Aston Martin-engraved rotor. The case measures 41mm. The editions are divvied up by material and rarity. Stainless steel with a silver dial is limited to 1,022 pieces and sticks closest to the original ref. 2002, while steel with a platinum bezel and black lacquered dial drops to 315 pieces.

Fashion & Style

Look to the sky for these space themed watches

These 5 space themed watches will have you seeing stars

Accessories, Strap, Wristwatch

It was the 1960s. We were in the middle of a Cold War with Russia, and instead of escalating to an actual war with bullets and bombs, we took the conflict to the sky. We created a war of economics, science, and morale in a race to the sky to be the first nation to reach the moon. While the race picked up throughout the decade, it came down to the wire before the USA won the race by landing on the moon (if you believe that sort of thing and don't believe Stanley Kubrick directed the greatest ruse of all time). In any case, no race can be run without a good timekeeper. And watches were a must-have for all involved. Ever since, chronophiles like me have been obsessed with space-themed watches and, in particular, moon mission watches.

That is why I happened to have this list in my head. Five watches that bring the space race and the great beyond to the forefront of thinking to build a collection that is out of this world.