The Breguet Classique Souscription 2025 Wins the GPHG 2025 Aiguille d’Or (And All Prize Winners)

The 2025 edition of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève has just unveiled the grand winner of this year’s awards ceremony, and the winner is a watch with a lot of sense. Often regarded as the Oscars of Watchmaking, the GPHG stands for a celebration of all things surrounding watchmaking. The jury has narrowed down all the entries into multiple categories with six watches each. Out of all the entries, only one has been selected as the grand winner, receiving the coveted “Aiguille d’Or” trophy for Best of Show. In addition to that, each category winner also received an award. Last year, the fantastically complex IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar, one of the rare secular calendar watches on the market, took the prize home. This year, the jury of the GPHG 2024 went against previous years’ choices (mostly highly complex watches) with a deceptively simple watch, but one that bears one of the most important names of the industry, and that, specifically this year, carries some importance. This is the Breguet Classique Souscription 2025, and it wins the GPHG 2025. And we also have the full list of winners at the 2025 edition of the GPHG, with all represented categories.

GPHG 2025 – Quick take

Following several years with ultra-thin watchmaking taking the lead at the GPHG, with the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin in 2019 (back then the thinnest QP) and the Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept in 2020 (the thinnest mechanical watch ever made), and Bulgari with the Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar in 2021. Then, in 2022, followed a supremely complex chronograph, the Legacy Machine Sequential EVO, this time celebrating an independent watchmaker. In 2023, with the Code 11.59 Ultra-Complication Universelle, it was all about high-complication and last year about astronomy. This year, in a certain way, the jury pays tribute to one of the founding fathers of modern watchmaking, a man who changed horology drastically, not only with his inventions, but also his business flair: Abraham-Louis Breguet. Indeed, the brand’s 250th anniversary celebrations gave us multiple watches but also reminded us about the importance of AL Breguet.

The watch that was selected by the jury is the first released by Breguet in the frame of its anniversary, the Breguet Classique Souscription 2025, possibly the simplest (on paper) of the lot, a watch that pays tribute to the all-important souscription pocket watch, which pioneered the concept of brading in watchmaking. Simple, ultra-focused, sharply conceived and yet extremely precise in its details, the Souscription 2025 is inspired by the past and yet modern. This single-hand watch, with a redesigned case and a historically correct enamel dial, is elegant, somehow new for Breguet and yet perfectly in line with what the brand stands for. And inside its beautifully proportioned case in Breguet gold is a movement that’s been developed to resemble those of the past, with a deep respect for the antique models. Look everywhere, and this watch, despite being a single-hand time-only piece with no complications, feels complex and full of tension.

It is thus a great way for the watchmaking industry to pay tribute to this important man, to this important brand that’s undergoing a second life, and to a deceptively simple watch, and a meaningful one on top of it. I’m pleased to see something simpler being awarded by the Aiguille d’Or, as watchmaking isn’t only about six-figure watches, paper-thin movements or how many complications you can encase. Sometimes, the simplest things are the most complex to achieve… You can read our review of the Breguet Classique Souscription 2025 here.

And now, here’s the complete list of the winning watches at the GPHG 2025:

Aiguille d’Or Grand Prix – Breguet Classique Souscription 2025

Chronometry Prize – Zenith G.F.J. Calibre 135

Horological Revelation Prize – Anton Suhanov St. Petersburg Easter Egg Tourbillon Clock

Audacity Prize – Fam Al Hut Mobius

Iconic Watch Prize – Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar

Mechanical Exception Watch Prize – Greubel Forsey Nano Foudroyante

Chronograph Watch Prize – Angelus Chronographe Télemetre Yellow Gold

Tourbillon Watch Prize – Bvlgari Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon

Sports Watch Prize – Chopard Alpine Eagle 41 SL Cadence 8HF

Men’s Complication Watch Prize – Bovet 1822 Recital 30

Men’s Watch Prize – Urban Jurgensen UJ-2 Double wheel natural escapement

Time Only Watch Prize – Daniel Roth Extra Plat Rose Gold

Jewellery Watch Prize – Dior Montres La D de Dior Buisson Couture

Artistic Crafts Watch Prize – Voutilainen 28GML SOUYOU

Ladies’ Complication Watch Prize – Chopard Imperiale Four Seasons

Ladies’ Watch Prize – Gerald Genta Gentissima Oursin Fire Opal

Petite Aiguille Watch Prize – M.A.D. Editions M.A.D.2 Green

Challenge Watch Prize – Dennison Natural Stone Tiger Eye In Gold

Mechanical Clock Prize – L’Epee 1839 Albatross L’Epee 1839 X MB&F

The jury also awarded Alain Dominique Perrin, ex-President of Cartier, ex-CEO of the Richemont Group, and founder of the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, with the Special Jury Prize. For more details, please visit www.gphg.org.