On November 7, 2026, the GPHG 2026 handed its highest honour not to a heritage maison, but to a watchmaker who began as a 15-year-old apprentice. Rexhep Rexhepi's Chronograph Flyback took the Aiguille d'Or in Geneva, ahead of Chopard, Audemars Piguet and Louis Vuitton. What does it take for a single atelier to outshine the industry's biggest names?
Rexhep Rexhepi Wins the GPHG 2026 Aiguille d'Or
On November 7, 2026, the GPHG 2026 handed its highest honour not to a heritage maison, but to a watchmaker who began as a 15-year-old apprentice. Rexhep Rexhepi's Chronograph Flyback took the Aiguille d'Or in Geneva, ahead of Chopard, Audemars Piguet and Louis Vuitton. What does it take for a single atelier to outshine the industry's biggest names?
November 7, 2026
The 26th Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève closed on a quietly historic note. Among 84 watches and clocks competing across 14 categories, the jury, presided over by Wei Koh, awarded the Aiguille d'Or to Swiss-Kosovan independent Rexhep Rexhepi. The GPHG 2026 trophy was presented by Breguet, last year's winner, in a symbolic passing of the torch from one of watchmaking's oldest houses to one of its most closely followed young ateliers.
Why Rexhep Rexhepi's GPHG 2026 Win Matters
Rexhep Rexhepi won the GPHG 2026 Aiguille d'Or, the competition's top prize, for his Chronograph Flyback. It is his third GPHG distinction, after Men's Watch prizes in 2018 and 2022 for the Chronomètre Contemporain I and II, and it places an independent atelier above the season's most established brands.
The winning piece looks to vintage pocket-watch chronographs, framing its sub-dials within a storm blue Grand Feu enamel dial. Rexhepi explained that achieving its proportions required "a complete rethinking of the movement's architecture", a telling choice at a time when many brands adapt existing calibres rather than rebuild them. It is the kind of patient, almost old-fashioned ambition that has drawn collectors to his work since he founded Akrivia in 2012, at the age of 25, and it explains why his name now carries such weight among serious collectors.
Independent Watchmakers Shine at GPHG 2026
Rexhepi was not alone. Independent ateliers left a clear mark on the GPHG 2026 results: Cleguer took the Complication prize with its Inspiration One, Konstantin Chaykin won the Audacity Prize for the ThinKing Mystery, Dominique Renaud claimed the Horological Revelation Prize and Otsuka Lotec's No.8 earned the "Petite Aiguille", reserved for watches priced between CHF 4,500 and 10,000. Even the Mechanical Clock prize went to an independent name, La Vallée, for its Cosmo. For a competition long associated with the great maisons, the list reads like a map of where creative risk is being taken today.
Established names still shone. Chopard's L.U.C 1860 Chronometer won Time Only, Audemars Piguet's 150 Heritage took Calendar and Astronomy, and the brand's Royal Oak "Jumbo" RD#5 received the Iconic Watch Prize. This edition also retired the Men's and Ladies' categories for the first time, replacing them with Essential and Complication, a quiet acknowledgement that fine watchmaking is judged by craft rather than wrist. The balance between heritage houses and small workshops is precisely what made this year's ceremony feel like a turning point for the industry.
The GPHG 2026 results leave a clear message. In an industry often defined by scale, the most coveted prize went to a watch made at a human scale, by a craftsman who learned his trade at the bench. For collectors, it confirms what many already sensed: the future of haute horlogerie may be written in small workshops as much as in great maisons.
