Independent Geneva-based watchmaker Rexhep Rexhepi has won the top prize at the 2026 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG), taking the prestigious Aiguille d’Or Grand Prix for his Chronograph Flyback. The award was presented at the 26th edition of the ceremony in Geneva on 7 November.
The result places Rexhepi’s independent Swiss-Kosovan atelier among the leading names in contemporary haute horlogerie. His winning chronograph was selected from 84 competing watches and clocks entered across 14 award categories.
Rexhep Rexhepi takes the GPHG’s highest honour
The Aiguille d’Or is the GPHG’s best-in-show award and is open to eligible watches across the competition’s categories. Rexhepi’s Chronograph Flyback was recognised for its refined proportions, technical architecture and traditional decorative finish.
The watch features a storm-blue Grand Feu enamel dial inspired by vintage pocket-watch chronographs. Its movement required a fundamental rethink of the underlying architecture, according to the award description, with the design balancing a complex flyback function against a restrained and harmonious appearance.
Rexhep Rexhepi has built his reputation as an independent watchmaker working outside the largest luxury groups. The recognition is therefore significant not only for the model itself but also for the continuing influence of smaller specialist ateliers in high-end mechanical watchmaking.
What changed at the 2026 watchmaking awards?
This year’s Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève introduced a notable structural change. The organisers removed the traditional men’s and ladies’ categories and replaced them with technical classifications called Essential Watch and Complication Watch.
The change places greater emphasis on a timepiece’s construction, functions and horological approach rather than on gender-based marketing categories. Other categories continued to recognise specialist fields including tourbillons, chronographs, artistic crafts, jewellery and mechanical clocks.
Winners were selected by a jury made up of watch collectors, watchmakers, journalists and auctioneers. The competition featured both established Swiss brands and independent makers from different watchmaking traditions.
Full list of 2026 GPHG category winners
Alongside the Aiguille d’Or, the awards recognised a broad range of technical and artistic achievements:
- Time Only: Chopard L.U.C 1860 Chronometer
- Essential: Daniel Roth Extra Plat Rose Gold Skeleton
- Complication: CLEGUER Inspiration One
- Mechanical Exception: Blancpain Grande Double Sonnerie
- Gemset: Piaget Swinging Pebble
- Tourbillon: Ferdinand Berthoud Chronomètrie FB 2TV
- Chronograph: Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Chronographe Mystérieux
- Calendar and Astronomy: Audemars Piguet 150 Heritage
- Sports: Grand Seiko Spring Drive U.F.A. Ushio 300 Diver
- Jewellery: Chopard Mystery Nut
- Artistic Crafts: Louis Vuitton Tambour Taiko Arty Automata
- Petite Aiguille: OTSUKA LOTEC No.8
- Challenge: SpaceOne SpaceOne X Baltic -Seconde Majeure
- Mechanical Clock: La Vallée COSMO
Innovation and independent watchmaking in focus
The 2026 winners reflect the breadth of modern horology, from traditional handcraft and enamel work to unusual displays, acoustic complications and experimental mechanisms.
Blancpain’s Grande Double Sonnerie was recognised in the Mechanical Exception category for a striking mechanism that allows the wearer to choose between two melodies. Louis Vuitton’s winning artistic-crafts watch used 23 shades of champlevé enamel, while La Vallée’s COSMO presented a mechanically driven concept featuring a continuously rotating, magnetically suspended mechanism.
The awards also highlighted independent and emerging makers. Konstantin Chaykin won the Audacity Prize for the ThinKing Mystery, while Dominique Renaud received the Horological Revelation Prize for the Pulse60 Titanium Black. The latter uses a balance frequency of 1Hz, equivalent to 60 oscillations per minute.
Why the GPHG matters to the watch industry
The Geneva awards are among the most closely watched events in luxury watchmaking. Recognition can raise the profile of a brand, validate an independent maker’s technical direction and draw attention to craftsmanship that may otherwise be overshadowed by larger companies.
The 2026 edition also demonstrated that prestige in mechanical watchmaking is not limited to conventional complexity. Artistic techniques, precision, unusual materials, wearable jewellery and accessible price categories all received dedicated recognition.
For collectors, the results provide a snapshot of the directions shaping the sector: highly engineered movements, renewed interest in historic techniques, more distinctive independent design and a broader approach to how watches are classified.
Conclusion
Rexhep Rexhepi’s Chronograph Flyback has claimed the central honour at the 2026 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, confirming the strength of independent craftsmanship alongside the industry’s established maisons. The award ceremony also showed how contemporary watchmaking is expanding beyond traditional categories, with technical innovation, artistic skill and originality defining the year’s most celebrated timepieces.