The Oscars of Watchmaking Is Here. Here's Why These 8 Watches Should Win

The Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève, considered the "Oscars of Watchmaking," is the watch industry's most prominent award The movement inside is beautifully-finished hand-winder contained in a relatively slim 12.2mm-thick watch Chronometry: Zenith Defy Zero G.

The Chronometry category is reserved for watches with tourbillons or a unique escapement design, which is definitely what we have here in the Zenith Defy G At the heart of the movement is a gyroscopic escapement rotating on all axes, ostensibly to cancel out the effect gravity has on accuracy That's to say nothing of the fact that the watch is also running at 36,000 beats per hour, making it a full-fledged high-beat watch, to boot.

The Mechanical Exception category is reserved for the biggest horological heavy-hitters, and we can think of few watches as heavy-hitting than one that includes a triple-axial tourbillon and a minute repeater and movement finishing that looks simultaneously traditional and modern Who says you can't have a rugged dive watch build and mechanical innovation in one package? In 1968 - three years after it launched its first dive watch - Seiko unveiled the reference 6159-7001, the first dive watch with a high-beat movement Can you name any other watchmakers offering up an honest-to-god enamel-dialed watches for around $2,000? Seiko made quite a splash with its original run of enamel dial dress watches, but this year's release of the Shippo Dial Presage takes it a step further. Source