In the News · 2026
The Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève brought its 2026 nominees to India for four days — and where the GPHG chooses to show the world’s finest watches is never an accident. This year, the signal points at India.
Every detail we report is checked against the GPHG and its host before we publish — sources checked, never bought.
On 28 September 2026, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève — the prize the watch world treats as its Oscars — opened its 2026 exhibition not in Geneva, Paris or London, but in Mumbai. For four days, at The St. Regis, the nominees for watchmaking’s highest honour sat under glass in India, hosted by Ethos, the country’s largest luxury-watch retailer. We’re covering an exhibition rather than a watch because the venue is the story: where the GPHG chooses to show its nominees is a statement about where the watch world is looking next.
Opening day of the GPHG 2026 exhibition in Mumbai, shown by Ethos (@officiallyethos) — the exhibition’s host — on its official Instagram.
A travelling exhibition of the year’s most exceptional watches, on Indian soil.
Each year the GPHG shortlists the finest watchmaking on earth — this cycle, 84 timepieces across 14 categories, drawn from 320 watches entered by 194 brands (the full field is in our GPHG 2026 nominees guide). Before the winners are named, the nominees tour the world so collectors can see them up close, and from 28 September to 1 October that tour came to The St. Regis Mumbai, hosted by Ethos with hands-on viewings, workshops and expert-led tours (The Hour Markers).
It is not the first time the GPHG exhibition has reached India, but the 2026 edition arrives at a different moment — with India no longer a courtesy stop on the calendar, but one of the markets the industry is actively courting (WatchTime India). For the Indian enthusiast, it meant something rare: the chance to stand in front of a tourbillon, an astronomical complication or an artistic-crafts dial that most people only ever see on a screen.
A quiet signal, worth reading closely.
The GPHG could hold its exhibition anywhere. That it brought the nominees to Mumbai says the obvious thing out loud: India is now one of the fastest-growing luxury-watch markets in the world, and the industry’s most prestigious body wants to be seen courting it. GPHG Foundation president Raymond Loretan pointed to the country’s “increasingly significant role” in the watch world — diplomatic language for a real shift in where the next generation of collectors is being made (ANI / ThePrint).
You can see the same current everywhere this year: global maisons signing Indian ambassadors, Jacob & Co. building a watch around Lord Shiva for the Indian market, and Titan designing its own in-house mechanical movement. A GPHG exhibition in Mumbai is the high end of that same story — the recognition, from Geneva itself, that India isn’t just buying watches now; it’s being taken seriously as a watch culture.
From a record-thin mechanical watch to a planetarium for the wrist.
| Watch | Maker | Why it stops you |
|---|---|---|
| ThinKing Mystery | Konstantin Chaykin | Billed as the world’s thinnest series-produced mechanical watch, at 1.65mm |
| Grand Planetarium | Christiaan van der Klaauw | Tracks all eight planets orbiting the sun in real time, on the dial |
| Across 14 categories | 194 brands entered | Time Only, Chronograph, Tourbillon, Calendar & Astronomy, Artistic Crafts and more |
The GPHG’s 2026 shortlist runs to 84 watches across 14 categories, competing for 19 prizes crowned by the “Aiguille d’Or” Grand Prix. Full list and categories in our GPHG 2026 nominees guide.
A nation doesn’t arrive in the watch world when it starts buying grails. It arrives when the people who crown the grails come to show them to it.
Admiring a watch under glass is the easy part. Owning the right one is where we come in.
Most GPHG nominees are rare, independent and priced far beyond the everyday — part of the pleasure is simply seeing them exist. But an exhibition like this does something to a collector: it turns an abstract wishlist into a specific want. You walk out no longer wondering whether you’d buy a serious watch, but which one — and what it really costs.
That’s the moment we’re built for. When a piece gets under your skin, we give you the honest read before you spend: what the reference actually trades at today, whether it’s realistically gettable, and the smartest route to it — retail, pre-owned, grey market or auction. If you’re buying from India, start with our guide to where luxury watches are cheaper in 2026 and the dealers in our Watch Finder. The GPHG winners are crowned in Geneva on 7 November 2026 — and a name on that list tends to move a watch’s desirability (and its price) for years.
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