Presenting The 2025 Winners Of The Gaïa Prize
The jury of the 2025 Gaïa Prize has announced its decision, adding three new laureates to the prestigious roll of honor for this award, often hailed as the Nobel Prize of watchmaking.
By Sébastien Aeberli
Design, Content & Social Media
Established in 1993, this award honors exceptional careers in watchmaking, along with its art and culture. The public ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, 18 September 2025, at the Musée international d’horlogerie (MIH) in La Chaux-de-Fonds. On this occasion, the MIH will also present the Horizon Gaïa Fellowship, dedicated to supporting the next generation of researchers.
The prestigious Prix Gaïa celebrates excellence, honoring those who enhance the reputation of watchmaking, its history, technology, and industry. Awarded by the world-renowned Musée international d’horlogerie in La Chaux-de-Fonds—a city whose economic and social fabric is deeply rooted in watchmaking—this prize recognizes the spiritual heirs of a watchmaking culture reflected in both the museum’s collections and the city itself.
For 2025, the Prix Gaïa jury, composed of leading figures from the watchmaking world, has nominated:
Roger W. Smith - winner in the Craftsmanship - Creation category
The Prix Gaïa jury has recognised Roger W. Smith for his unwavering commitment to craftsmanship in watchmaking and for his role as an ambassador for the independent British watchmaking tradition.
Helmut Crott - winner in the History - Research category
The Prix Gaïa jury is paying tribute to Helmut Crott for his meticulous research combining archive sources and oral testimony with his encyclopaedic knowledge of watchmaking history to benefit the watch collectors’ market.
Jean-Jacques Paolini - winner in the Entrepreneurship category
The Prix Gaïa jury is recognising Jean-Jacques Paolini 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.
Horizon Gaïa grant
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.
Two scholarship recipients collaborating on a joint project are being recognised this year: Wandrille Bonnin and Hector Burel, students at Lycée Edgar Faure in Morteau. Through their project ‘Réhabilitation et augmentation d'une machine de contrôle’ they aim to promote a mutualistic and sustainable model of work by adapting an old SIP Mu-214b machine, combining productivity gains with respect for watchmaking heritage.
