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GPHG Names Its 24-Person Jury For The 2026 Awards
Wei Koh will preside over a 24-person panel drawn from watchmaking, collecting, retail, media, art and technical fields.
Hen & Mills Editorial · 3 min read · 27 August 2026
The Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève has named the 24-person jury that will meet and vote in the second round of its 2026 awards. Wei Koh, founder of Revolution and The Rake, will serve as president, leading a panel drawn from watchmaking, retail, collecting, media, art and technical fields.
The announcement identifies one part of the final voting process ahead of the awards ceremony on Saturday, 7 November 2026. The jury meets during the second round after the Academy has established the nominees. Academy members also vote in that round, with their average result contributing one third of the final score.
How the 24 seats are filled
Under the 2026 rules, the GPHG Foundation Board appoints the jury president. The president then selects 11 members in consultation with the Foundation, while another 11 are drawn by lot from among Academy members. The final place belongs to a representative of the brand that won the previous year's Aiguille d'Or.
That structure combines deliberate curation with a random element. It also ensures a direct connection to the most recent top-prize winner. For 2026, that seat is held by Gregory Kissling, chief executive of Breguet, the brand represented as the 2025 Aiguille d'Or winner.
Koh's panel includes working makers and technical specialists. Watchmaker Rémy Cools sits alongside automaton-maker François Junod and Nicolas Wiederrecht, chief executive and co-owner of Agenhor. Pierre Salanitro is listed as chief executive of Salanitro, while Raphaël Humard is director of HUMARD Automation.
The jury also reaches beyond watch production. Wes Lang joins as an artist, while Adel Al-Rahmani is listed as co-founder of Dubai Watch Club. Their inclusion broadens a panel that is not limited to watchmakers or executives from watch brands.
Collectors, retailers and media voices
Collectors on the panel include Australia's Firmin Li and the United States' Michael Hickcox. Nicolas de Picciotto is listed as a Swiss wealth manager and collector, while Nicholas Manousos joins as a horologist. Li provides an Australian presence on a global prize administered in Geneva.
Retail and market experience comes from Carla Chalouhi of Arije, Pranav Shankar Saboo of Ethos, Michael Tay of The Hour Glass and Tiffany To of Phillips. Hind Abdul Hamied Seddiqi joins as chief executive of Dubai Watch Week.
The media contingent includes Masayuki Hirota, editor-in-chief of Chronos Japan and webChronos; collector and journalist Justin Hast; Hodinkee senior editor Mark Kauzlarich; writer and watch reporter Naomi Maruyama; and Tim Mosso, media director and global SME at The 1916 Company.
Tim Lake is listed as an independent watch-industry analyst and consultant, and as founder of Pointless Complication. The published roles show the panel moving among collectors, editors, retailers, makers, company leaders and other participants in the watch trade.
Rounding out the published list are Firmin Li, Gregory Kissling, Tim Lake, Wes Lang, Nicholas Manousos, Naomi Maruyama, Pranav Shankar Saboo, Hind Abdul Hamied Seddiqi and Nicolas Wiederrecht. Publishing the complete panel before the second-round meeting gives participating brands and Academy members a clear view of who will be in the room.
What happens next
The GPHG competition covers 14 categories in 2026. The Academy's first round produces six nominees in each category before the jury meets for the second round. The awards culminate with the November ceremony, where the category prizes and the Aiguille d'Or are announced.
The rules state that the jury meets behind closed doors in Geneva a few days before the ceremony, with two public notaries present. Members physically evaluate the 84 nominated timepieces and six watches proposed for the Iconic Watch Prize. During category voting, each juror ranks all six nominees, assigning 10, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points respectively. The process gives the published panel responsibility for in-person assessment while the final result still incorporates the wider Academy ballot.
The newly named jury therefore arrives at a defined point in the process. Its members are not being asked to establish the entire field from scratch, but to assess a shortlist shaped by the Academy. The rules around selection are designed to make the panel broad without making it anonymous: each member's name and professional background are published by the Foundation.
For the industry, the announcement is an early guide to the perspectives that will be present when the second-round votes are cast. The published roles cover the making, selling, collecting and discussion of watches. The balance does not guarantee consensus, but it makes clear that the 2026 prizes will be considered from more than one part of the watch world.
