30 September

The day in brief

The Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) has opened its 2026 world tour in Mumbai, with the 78 nominated watches on show until 1 October, just over a month before the awards ceremony in Geneva.

Among the releases, Konstantin Chaykin turns the robot ballerinas of the video game Atomic Heart into two limited-edition watches with disc-displayed time and a large moon phase. Nomos Glashütte introduces a dark version of the Club Sport neomatik Worldtimer, and Oris teams up again with Cervo Volante on a burgundy-dial Big Crown Pointer Date.

The GPHG opens its 2026 tour in Mumbai

On 28 September, at the St. Regis hotel in Mumbai, the GPHG opened the travelling exhibition of this year's nominated watches. The local host is Ethos Limited, one of India's largest luxury watch retailers. According to the foundation's press release issued yesterday, the show presents the 78 watches nominated by the GPHG Academy, from more than 50 brands, alongside hands-on workshops and expert-led tours.

The choice has a market logic. India has become one of the fastest-growing markets for mechanical watchmaking, and the GPHG tour also serves to bring fine watchmaking closer to new collectors. Raymond Loretan, President of the GPHG Foundation, stressed in the release the country's "increasingly significant role" on the global watchmaking scene.

After Mumbai, the exhibition moves to Bangkok from 15 to 18 October with PMT The Hour Glass, then to Geneva's Musée d'Art et d'Histoire from 29 October to 15 November. The 19 prizes, including the "Aiguille d'Or" Grand Prix, will be awarded on 7 November in Geneva at the 26th ceremony. The winning watches then go to London, from 18 to 23 November, at the Watches of Switzerland boutique in Knightsbridge.

Find out more on the organisation's website.

Konstantin Chaykin puts Atomic Heart's twins on the wrist

Russian watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin, known for watches whose dials become faces, yesterday unveiled two models inspired by the twin robot ballerinas of the video game Atomic Heart. The Left Twin has a red dial and the Right Twin a graphite dial; each is limited to 69 pieces. The watches first appeared inside the game itself, in the Blood on Crystal content, before going into production.

Time is not read with hands. Hours and minutes are shown by rotating discs in the lower part of the dial, with synthetic ruby markers built into the figure. In the upper part, a large moon phase acts as the face and completes one revolution every 29.5 days.

The movement is the automatic calibre K.18-25, built on a La Joux-Perret G200 base, running at 28,800 vibrations per hour with a 68-hour power reserve. Chaykin adds his own 68-component display module. It is the approach he has taken in his more accessible series: a proven industrial base handles regulation and reliability, while the house's work focuses on how time is shown. The trade-off is energy. Discs and a large moon have more inertia than slender hands, and a module of this kind has to be designed so as not to weigh on the balance amplitude.

The titanium case measures 40 mm in diameter and 12.9 mm in thickness, with a sapphire caseback.

Find out more on the brand's website.

Nomos Club Sport neomatik Worldtimer dark

Nomos Glashütte yesterday added a dark version to the Club Sport neomatik Worldtimer. The dial is enamel black and the Super-LumiNova has been extended: beyond the indices and main hands, it now covers the city ring and the home-time display. The aim is to keep world time legible in the dark as well.

The mechanism is unchanged. The in-house automatic calibre DUW 3202, 4.8 mm high, integrates the world-time function. A pusher at 2 o'clock advances the local hour hand in one-hour steps and, at the same time, advances the city ring, which then shows the corresponding time zone. Home time remains visible on a 24-hour display that distinguishes day from night.

The practical advantage is that changing time zone does not disturb the minutes or seconds, so the watch keeps its setting when travelling. The steel case is 40 mm in diameter and 9.9 mm thick, water-resistant to 10 atm, and the power reserve reaches 42 hours. It is not a limited edition.

Find out more on the brand's website.

Oris and Cervo Volante: a burgundy Big Crown Pointer Date

Oris yesterday presented a new collaboration with Cervo Volante, the Swiss leather house that works red-deer hide from Switzerland's regulated annual cull, vegetable-tanned. It is the third partnership between the two brands. The result is a Big Crown Pointer Date with a burgundy dial, inspired, according to Oris, by the autumn colours of the forests around its Hölstein factory.

The technical interest lies in the pointer date. Instead of a window, a red-tipped central hand travels around a 1 to 31 scale at the edge of the dial. This solution, a long-standing Oris signature, keeps the dial symmetrical and avoids a date cut-out. The automatic Oris 754 calibre is based on the Sellita SW 200-1.

The steel case measures 40 mm and keeps the large crown that gives the collection its name. It is not a limited edition.

Find out more on the brand's website.

What deserves attention

The GPHG tour is now as much a market operation as an exhibition. The stops in Mumbai and Bangkok follow Asia's growing weight in demand, and entrusting local organisation to retailers shows how important distribution has become in promoting fine watchmaking. On 7 November, the results will show which of the 78 nominations win over the jury.

Among the releases, Chaykin's video-game partnership confirms independent watchmaking's move into licensing worlds that until recently belonged mostly to fashion brands. Nomos and Oris show that, in mature collections, a well-argued change of colour or material remains the most common form of renewal. With the Nomos, it remains to be seen in real use whether the extended lume makes the city ring legible in low light.