Geneva handed out its golden hand on Saturday night, and it went to a watchmaker who makes around fifty watches a year. At the 26th Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève, Rexhep Rexhepi won the Aiguille d'Or Grand Prix for his Chronograph Flyback.
Few results have felt this earned. Born in Kosovo and working from his atelier in Geneva's old town, Rexhepi presented his first watch, the AK-01, under the Akrivia name in 2012. Six years later his Chronomètre Contemporain won the Men's Watch Prize. Now he takes the whole evening.
The Watch
Unveiled in April, the RRCHF is Rexhepi's first flyback chronograph, and the first chronograph from his eponymous house. Thinness guided everything, and getting there meant rethinking the movement's architecture from scratch: the chronograph is integrated into a new calibre rather than added as a module. The case measures 38.8mm across and only 9.7mm high, placing it among the slimmest chronographs made today.
Inside, a hand-wound calibre with a flyback function and an instantaneous minute counter runs for 72 hours. A column wheel and lateral clutch govern the chronograph, all of it on show through the caseback. The plates and bridges are German silver, finished entirely by hand to Geneva tradition: anglage, black polishing, perlage, Côtes de Genève and hand engraving.
Vintage pocket-watch chronographs inspired the dial. In platinum it wears an in-house "storm blue" grand feu enamel with smoked sapphire counters, while the rose gold version pairs with black enamel. Even the hands do structural work: their tips step downward, which helps legibility and lets the crystal sit lower. On the chronograph hands, sections are tempered to a straw-yellow hue, a quiet flash of warmth against the enamel. A double-stepped bezel, angled lugs and angled pushers complete the case.
"For me, a watch is a performance," Rexhepi said at launch. Saturday was the standing ovation.
Why It Had to Be Rexhepi
Among many great options, the jury got this one right. Rexhepi learned the trade as a teenage apprentice at Patek Philippe, ran a workshop at the complications specialist BNB Concept, then assembled complicated watches for F.P. Journe, who once asked him why he didn't make his own. What he has built since is a house that treats the watch as one object rather than a movement with parts around it. His cases are made in his own workshop, the lugs of the RRCHF individually soldered on, and the grand feu dials now come from the enamel atelier he opened in 2024.
The movements follow the same discipline. On the Chronomètre Contemporain II, two barrels and two gear trains also let him keep the calibre visually symmetrical, and he is clear that "you can't just draw in the symmetry onto the watch": it has to come from the mechanics. These days he even works in reverse, designing the dial, hands and case first and building the movement around them. That is why the RRCHF feels so resolved. Nothing on it reads as an afterthought.
The Night
Rexhepi takes the golden hand from Breguet, whose Classique Souscription won last year. Three houses took two prizes each: Audemars Piguet with the 150 Heritage and the Royal Oak "Jumbo" RD#5, Chopard with the L.U.C 1860 and the Mystery Nut, and Ferdinand Berthoud with both the Tourbillon and Chronometry prizes.
Independents carried much of the evening. Cleguer won Complication with the Inspiration One, the very first watch from the brand. Dominique Renaud took the Horological Revelation Prize with the Pulse60, built around ultra-amplitude. Konstantin Chaykin collected the Audacity Prize for the ThinKing Mystery, which the GPHG describes as the culmination of his many years of work. And Otsuka Lotec, the Japanese brand founded by independent watchmaker Jiro Katayama, won the Petite Aiguille with the No.8, a watch inspired by mixing consoles.
A small atelier, one new watch in three years, and the biggest prize of the night. Sometimes patience is the complication.
GPHG 2026: The Full Prize List
Aiguille d'Or Grand Prix: Rexhep Rexhepi, Chronograph Flyback. His first flyback chronograph, integrated into a new calibre and housed in a case just 9.7mm high.
Time Only Watch Prize: Chopard, L.U.C 1860. A tribute to 30 years of the Chopard Manufacture in Fleurier.
Essential Watch Prize: Daniel Roth, Extra Plat Rose Gold Skeleton. The Extra Plat reworked through skeletonisation, conceived in the spirit of La Montre Objet d'Art.
Complication Watch Prize: Cleguer, Inspiration One. The watch that launches the brand, with serious technical complexity behind a simple face.
Mechanical Exception Watch Prize: Blancpain, Grande Double Sonnerie. Described by the house as its most ambitious project to date, powered by a fully integrated movement.
Gemset Watch Prize: Piaget, Swinging Pebble. It draws on Piaget's 1972 "Kimono" pocket watches and their play of asymmetric shapes and ornamental stone colours.
Tourbillon Watch Prize: Ferdinand Berthoud, Chronomètre FB 2TV. Part of the Mesure du Temps 1787 collection, unveiled ten years after the brand's first movement.
Chronograph Watch Prize: Parmigiani Fleurier, Tonda PF Chronographe Mystérieux. At rest it reads as a three-hand Tonda PF, with the chronograph hidden in the dial.
Calendar and Astronomy Watch Prize: Audemars Piguet, 150 Heritage. A pocket watch marking a century and a half of the house.
Sports Watch Prize: Grand Seiko, Spring Drive U.F.A. Ushio 300 Diver. The brand's first diver's watch with a U.F.A. movement.
Jewellery Watch Prize: Chopard, Mystery Nut. It takes the form of a pendant watch.
Artistic Crafts Watch Prize: Louis Vuitton, Tambour Taiko Arty Automata. Automata and grand feu enamel taken to a new level.
Petite Aiguille Prize: Otsuka Lotec, No.8. From independent watchmaker Jiro Katayama, inspired by mixing consoles.
Challenge Watch Prize: SpaceOne, SpaceOne X Baltic Seconde Majeure. A jumping hour developed by Théo Auffret, with a dial machined from a single piece of German silver that doubles as the module's main plate. Limited to 3,000 pieces.
Mechanical Clock Prize: La Vallée, Cosmo. Its entire mechanism is magnetically suspended and spins continuously.
Audacity Prize: Konstantin Chaykin, ThinKing Mystery. The culmination of years of work in one of independent watchmaking's most demanding niches.
Horological Revelation Prize: Dominique Renaud, Pulse60 Titanium Black. Built around ultra-amplitude, from a watchmaker who has already pushed the regulating organ under extreme conditions.
Chronometry Prize: Ferdinand Berthoud, Naissance d'une Montre 3. A heritage project with a strong human dimension, six years in the making.
Iconic Watch Prize: Audemars Piguet, Royal Oak "Jumbo" Extra-thin Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Chronograph RD#5 "150th Anniversary". The latest innovation from AP's Research & Development department, made for the 150th anniversary.
Special Jury Prize: Patek Philippe, Watch Art Grand Exhibition.
