The One Shots
The One-Shots - they came, they saw, they conquered, they left
They are the watchmaking world’s version of the school swot, scoring top marks seemingly without trying. These are the brands that have rocked up to the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève just once and walked away with a prize.
This is ironic, given that one of the main predictors of a brand’s success at the GPHG, according to our GPHG Index model, is a brand’s “pedigree” (more specifically its record over the 25-year history of the GPHG). But a brand that’s taking part for the first time, has no pedigree, so that’s already one of the six main features we use in the prediction model being completely ignored.
Maybe the brand brings its own sway, a bit like David Beckham rocking up to a football award ceremony that he’s never been to before. Should the legend not win simply because he’s never entered or been put forward? Of course not!
This is arguably the case for the Vianney Halter, who had won the watchmaker prize at a previous edition of the GPHG. But Maison Alcée, Rémy Cools and Fam Al Hut?
| Brand | Year | Category | Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vianney Halter | 2013 | Innovation watch | Deep Space Tourbillon |
| Maison Alcée | 2023 | Audacity | Persée Azur |
| Rémy Cools | 2024 | Horological revelation | Tourbillon Atelier |
| Fam Al Hut | 2025 | Audacity | Möbius |
Rémy Cools came out of nowhere to win the Horological revelation category in 2024 with a tourbillon. A revelation more for the independent watchmaker than the tourbillon, which has been around for some time.
Maison Alcée and Fam Al Hut both won the Audacity category (first awarded in 2018), the former for selling you a desk clock for 5,800 Swiss francs that you have to build yourself, the latter for a bi-axial tourbillon. Our model gave both of these watches low prediction scores of below 20, not surprising given that brand pedigree is one of its strongest indicators of success. Interestingly, while Maison Alcée leans heavily on the GPHG on its website, Fam Al Hut makes no mention of it, focusing instead on the watch.
What specific characteristic links these three winners? None of them are Swiss. Maison Alcée and Rémy Cools are based in France, whereas Fam Al Hut produce their watches in the much more exotic location of "La Vallée de Chongqing", China. Maybe we should add geography as a new feature in the model.