And L'Aiguille d'Or goes to.............. The De Bethune DB28

The Grand Théâtre de Genève was the setting on Saturday night for the lavish Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) ceremonies - the watchmaking world's more refined and infinitely less vulgar answer to the Oscars.

The great and the good (and industry personality extraordinaire, Laurent Picciotto) descended on the sumptuous setting in their finery in anticipation of learning the identity of the 2011 winner of the gala evening's most cherished award - L'Aiguille d'Or - presented to the creators of the Best Watch of the Year as determined by the international jury panel, comprising of watch industry professionals.

On hand to open the black envelope and reveal the winner of the prestigious Golden Hand were recipients of the 2010 award, Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey and with minimal fuss came the announcement that the presence of Monsieurs David Zanetta and Denis Flageollet would be required onstage to take the acclaim of the 1,500-strong audience for their wonderful and deserving De Bethune DB28.

The Aiguille d'Or winning De Bethune DB28

The most impressionable aspects of the DB28 at first glance are the beautiful platinum and blued steel 3D spherical moon at the six o'clock position opposed by the crown atop the 12, the novel 'floating lugs' system upon which the highly polished round titanium case is suspended by mid-mounted sprung pivots ensuring a comfortable snug fit, but also displaying the versatile thinking of it's creators, and of course the minimalist open dial featuring only the silvered minutes circle and five-minute markers revealing, in all it's splendour, the Côtes De Bethune decoration of the DB2115 hand-wound movement.

It is an immaculate execution of the métiers art and we heartily congratulate all at De Bethune for the recognition of their fantastic achievement in Geneva.