The 2025 Gaïa Prize jury has delivered its verdict. Three new winners complete the impressive list of recipients of this prize often described as the Nobel Prize of the watchmaking world.
And this year, it includes the Isle of Man’s own, Bolton-born Roger W. Smith – the late genius Dr George Daniels’ one and only apprentice, and singlehanded custodian of the ‘Daniels Method’, having mastered all 30-odd crafts required to make a watch from the raw metal.
Since 1993, the Swiss firmament’s Gaia award has been presented in recognition of extraordinary careers in the field of watchmaking, as well as its art and culture. The public ceremony will take place at 6 pm on Thursday 18 September 2025 at the Musée international d’horlogerie (MIH) in La Chaux-de-Fonds. On this occasion, the MIH will once again award the Horizon Gaïa Fellowship, intended for the next generation of researchers.
The unique Prix Gaïa honours the very best: those contributing to the reputation of watchmaking, its history, its technology or its industry. An institution of global renown, the Musée international d’horlogerie in La Chaux-de-Fonds – a city whose economic and social history is closely linked to watchmaking, high in the Jura mountains – awards this prize in recognition of the spiritual heirs of watchmaking culture embodied in the museum’s collections, and in the city itself.
Which makes Mr Smith a particularly notable nomination, the Prix Gaïa jury, comprising figures active in the watchmaking field, recognising “his unwavering commitment to craftsmanship in watchmaking and for his role as an ambassador for the independent British watchmaking tradition.”
Helmut Crott is winner in the History – Research category for his meticulous research combining archive sources and oral testimony with his encyclopaedic knowledge of watchmaking history to benefit the watch collectors’ market. His past custodianship of Denmark’a recently revived Urban Jurgensen name and authorship of ‘Le Cadran’ book on 20th-century wristwatches have been singled out as Crott’s major contributions to preserving horology’s past.
Jean-Jacques Paolini is winner in the Entrepreneurship category for his exemplary career from a small family company to a major watch group, and as a visionary who adapted Lean manufacturing for the watchmaking world, enabling it to maintain competitiveness whilst upholding Swiss industrial excellence.
Alongside the three categories used to honour leading figures in the watchmaking world, Horizon Gaïa, an incentive grant made possible thanks to the generosity of the Watch Academy Foundation, is being awarded to encourage new talent in the fields recognised by the Prix Gaïa: Craftsmanship – Creation, History – Research, and Entrepreneurship. The grant will finance all or part of an individual project.