Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Geneve 2010... & The Case of The Missing Contenders...

"i coulda been a contender! i coulda been somebody" brando in 'on the waterfront'

the GPHG is upon us again and while there are a number of excellent watches in the pre-selection list, there are a lot of no shows as well and brands that are not in the running. so why pray tell, are the likes of rolex, patek, swatch group brands, not vying for any of the prizes?

if the GPHG is touted as the oscars for the watch world then this year is like the 1994 Oscars where forrest gump, shawshank redemption, pulp fiction were in the running for best movie and shawshank redemption and pulp fiction weren't submitted for academy contention for any of the awards they did get nominated for. so why?

tim robbins clearly also wanting to know why... also why in the world shawshank didn't win in any of the categories it was nominated for... WWWHHHHYYYYYY!!???! :)

i don't have the answers but i can make some guesses which may be totally wrong :)

1: they don't want to lose

2: they don't believe the result matters

3: they believe the game could be rigged in some way so why bother. eg submission for consideration to pre-selection

4: being in contention is really not free?

just guesses and like i said i could be wrong on all counts or it could be a combination of these and other factors.

whatever the case, its a shame. the watch that could have won either 1 of these 2 categories, the sports watch and "La Petite Aiguille" (the Small Hand) for watches below chf5000, imho is the tudor monte carlo and for best men's watch, a 5970P would have blown most of the competition away no? (qualifies for participation as it is commercialized after March 2009) but no pateks no rolexes in the running.

how about breguet with its tradition tourbys or glashutte original with their panoinverses which appeal to some? hmmm

ok last words. the watches i like in the pre-selected group are: both MB&Fs, Urwerk Black Shark, Greubel Forsey, UN Freak Diavolo, RM27(but not at that price ;), AP ROO Diver... and thats about it...

do check out the complicated watch category too LINK... i wonder how they whittled from this list to the pre-selected list though... (eg Chanel chosen over the AP, two Journes in the list when the complication for the resonance has been with us for a while... a Vulcain GMT watch in the running in the complicated category? honestly?) and i do have some question marks for some of the other categories too...

looking at them all though, my possible fave watch out of all that have been pre-selected for the 2010 GPHG is this one...

kudos to Max and his team for their creativity and realisation of it... ribbit... ribbit. i hope those watches i like win of course :)

last note... The watches preselected by the jury can be seen at the following locations on the dates noted:
- Singapore : 23rd to 26th September, Timeless Gallery, Ion Orchard Mall
- Zürich : 2nd to 9th October, Les Ambassadeurs, Bahnhofstrasse 64
- Geneva : 15th October to 17th November, UBS Genève, rue des Noirettes 35, Carouge
- Paris : the three finalist watches in each of the seven categories as well as the laureates of the Grand Prix and of the Public Prize will be presented in Paris, at the Salon International de l’Horlogerie de Prestige, Belles Montres, from 26th to 28th November 2010.

so do check em out if u're abouts those locations on those dates.