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In the automotive world, high-end cars have gone head-to-head since the early 1920s. Judges didn’t evaluate them based on their speed, though—in a Concours d’Élégance, the prize goes to the best-looking vehicles. The tradition continues today in picturesque sites around the world where collectors submit their often very high-end vintage, classic cars. Surprisingly, there has never been an event for vintage timepieces.
Aurel Bacs, the famous auctioneer whose longstanding association with Phillips has shaped the watch collecting world, endeavored to change that. “It began with a meeting where I said, ‘I have a dream,’” he said in a press release. For the very first iteration of this competition, Bacs and Phillips partnered with Swiss heavyweight Vacheron Constantin. They expected to receive maybe 100 to 200 submissions, but the jury was forced to whittle down 550 of them to 34 finalist watches, whose owners were flown out from across the world for the Concours held at the Hôtel Président in Geneva.
“It was the most beautiful evening in the field ever,” Bacs said. At the Hôtel Président, around 200 attendees gathered, along with a jury of 14 watch-industry experts including Bacs himself, Ben Clymer of Hodinkee, writer and historian Nick Foulkes, longtime watch journalist Roberta Naas, and others. Watches could only be submitted for consideration in one category (Chronographs, Métiers d’Art, Chronomètre Royal, Astronomical Complications, Multiple Complications, Design, and Chiming Mechanisms) and were judged based on nine criteria: authenticity, elegance, rarity, impact on the history of Vacheron Constantin and/or on watchmaking in general, provenance, technicality, métiers d’art (artistic crafts), state of preservation, and emotional dimension.
The jurors deliberated over several hours until the winners of the seven categories and a Best of Show were finally selected. Following a cocktail reception, everyone gathered on the lower floor of the Hôtel Président to see the results from the watch world’s first Concours d’Élégance.
