The GPHG roadshow brings all 84 nominated timepieces to the St. Regis Mumbai in Lower Parel, hosted by Ethos. Ethos has confirmed the public days as 30 September and 1 October 2026, after invitation-only days on 28 and 29 September, with guided tours and a watchmaking class on registration. Here is the full schedule, which watches are genuinely worth the trip, and what to know before you go.
Updated 26 September 2026: Ethos, which is hosting the exhibition, has now said the public days are 30 September and 1 October, with both 28 and 29 September by invitation. The GPHG's own schedule still lists the exhibition as running from 29 September. Until the two agree, treat the 29th as invitation-only and plan for the 30th. (Earlier update, 16 September: the GPHG published the venue — the St. Regis Mumbai — and the day-by-day schedule below.)
On 30 September and 1 October 2026, the 84 watches nominated for the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève will be on public display at the St. Regis Mumbai in Lower Parel. Blancpain's grande sonnerie, the Ulysse Nardin × Urwerk UR-FREAK, a Rexhep Rexhepi flyback chronograph, a Louis Vuitton automaton — in one room, in India, before anyone knows which of them wins.
It is worth being blunt about how unusual that is. Most of these watches exist in single-digit or low-double-digit quantities. Several belong to independent makers with no Indian retail presence and no plans for one. Outside of Geneva, Dubai Watch Week or a collector's safe, the realistic chance of seeing them in person is close to zero. The GPHG roadshow is how they travel, and this year it starts in Mumbai.
Here is what is confirmed, what is not, and — more usefully — which of the 84 are worth planning your visit around.
Key Takeaways
- Where: Hotel St. Regis Mumbai, 462 Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel. Hosted by Ethos.
- When: Ethos says the exhibition is open to the public on Wednesday 30 September and Thursday 1 October 2026, with 28 and 29 September by invitation (press preview, collectors preview, gala opening, private viewings). The GPHG's schedule page still lists the exhibition from 29 September — see the schedule below.
- On show: all 84 nominated timepieces across 14 categories, competing for 19 prizes. Guided tours and a watchmaking experience run on registration.
- Registration: Ethos says guided tours and the watchmaking class are bookable through its GPHG 2026 page. Exact timings still have not been published.
- This is the second GPHG exhibition in India since 2022 and the first in Mumbai. The 2026 roadshow begins here.
- No Indian watch is on show as a nominee — all six Indian entries were cut. One nominee, Favre Leuba, is Indian-controlled.
The schedule
The GPHG's travelling exhibition takes the nominated watches on tour between the shortlist announcement and the Geneva ceremony, and Mumbai is the first stop. The two organisers describe the Mumbai leg slightly differently, so here are both:
| Date | What | Access |
|---|---|---|
| Mon 28 Sep | Press preview, collectors preview, gala opening | By invitation |
| Tue 29 Sep | Exhibition and private viewings | By invitation, per Ethos — the GPHG lists this as the first exhibition day |
| Wed 30 Sep – Thu 1 Oct | Exhibition | Public |
| Wed 30 Sep – Thu 1 Oct | Guided tours and watchmaking experience | On registration via Ethos, timings to be announced |
About that 29 September discrepancy. The GPHG's schedule page lists the Mumbai exhibition as running "September 29th to October 1st 2026", with guided tours on the same three days. Ethos's own announcement, issued in late September, describes 28 and 29 September as invitation-only and says the exhibition opens to the public on 30 September and 1 October. Ethos controls the door, so its version is the one to plan around: if you can only make the 29th, confirm with Ethos before you travel.
Venue: Hotel St. Regis Mumbai, 462 Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai 400013. The organising partner is Ethos Limited. Ethos has said the exhibition will welcome collectors, enthusiasts, customers, media and the wider public. "The exhibition is much more than a showcase," Ethos MD and CEO Pranav Saboo has said. "It is an opportunity for people to understand fine watchmaking."
After Mumbai, the watches go to Bangkok (The Forum at Gaysorn Amarin, 16–18 October) and then to Geneva, where they are shown at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire from 30 October to 15 November, straddling the 7 November prize ceremony.
What is still to be announced
- Opening hours for the public days.
- Timings for the guided tours and watchmaking class. Ethos says both are bookable on its site; the slots themselves have not been published.
- Whether the exhibition itself needs registration. The GPHG schedule marks only the guided tours as "upon registration", and Ethos has not published a separate admission process for the general exhibition.
- Whether 29 September admits the public at all — the GPHG and Ethos still disagree, as above.
We will add these as soon as Ethos or the GPHG publishes them. Until then, the GPHG's 2026 schedule page and Ethos's own channels are the places to check.
What to actually look at
Eighty-four watches is more than anyone absorbs properly in one visit, and the famous names are not always the interesting ones. If you are going once, these are the pieces we would build a route around — chosen for how unlikely you are to see them again rather than how expensive they are.
The ones you will almost certainly never see again
Blancpain Grande Double Sonnerie and Chopard L.U.C Grand Strike (Mechanical Exception). Chiming watches are the summit of the craft and almost never leave Switzerland. Two of them in Mumbai at once is the single strongest reason to go. Ask whether they will be demonstrated — a sonnerie you cannot hear is half a watch.
Ferdinand Berthoud Naissance d'une Montre 3. Made in tiny numbers, built to a philosophy of hand-finishing that borders on the obsessive.
Rexhep Rexhepi Chronograph Flyback (Chronograph). Rexhepi is arguably the most sought-after independent watchmaker working today, with waiting lists measured in years. Seeing his chronograph in a display case in India is genuinely improbable.
Miki Eleta Frog Queen and the Louis Vuitton × De Bethune LVDB-03 Sympathique (Mechanical Clock). Clocks are the category most visitors walk past and the one that rewards attention most — they are where makers put the ideas that will not fit on a wrist.
The mechanically strange
Ulysse Nardin × Urwerk UR-FREAK (Complication). Two of the industry's most aggressively unconventional houses collaborating; the Freak's carousel movement has no dial, hands or crown in the conventional sense.
Konstantin Chaykin Thinking Mystery. Chaykin is the maker behind the Joker; his mystery watches hide the mechanism that drives the display.
Vianney Halter × Behrens KWH and Dominique Renaud Pulse60. Both are attempts to rethink how a mechanical watch regulates time — the deep end of the field, and the reason the Complication category is more interesting than Gemset.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak "Jumbo" Extra-thin Flying Tourbillon Chronograph RD#5. The 150th-anniversary piece and a genuine engineering flex; worth seeing next to the AP Établisseurs Nomade in Artistic Crafts to understand how wide one brand's range now is.
The independents worth the detour
Ming × J.N. Shapiro 37.06 Lightning and Otsuka Lotec No.8 (Petite Aiguille). Ming is Malaysian-founded, Shapiro is one of very few Americans doing engine-turning at this level, and Otsuka Lotec is a near-one-man Japanese operation whose watches are allocated by lottery. None of the three has meaningful Indian distribution.
Naoya Hida NH Type8A (Time Only). Japanese, hand-finished, made in double-digit annual volumes, and a masterclass in dial typography.
Beda'a Angles Guichets (Challenge). A young Gulf brand doing a jumping-hours display at an accessible price — evidence that the map of watchmaking is redrawing beyond Switzerland and Japan, which is the same argument Indian brands are making.
SpaceOne × Baltic Seconde Majeure (Challenge). Genuinely inventive seconds mechanism at a price that will surprise you. If you want proof that the affordable end can still be original, this is the exhibit.
The one with an Indian connection
Favre Leuba Chief Skeleton (Challenge). No Indian brand made the shortlist, but this one is Indian-controlled: Favre Leuba sits under Silvercity Brands AG, 93.07% held by Chandigarh's KDDL, the parent of Ethos — the company hosting the exhibition. We map that whole structure in how KDDL and Ethos are put together. Titan owned this brand until 2023 and never got it nominated; it reached the shortlist within a few years of changing hands.
The Indian context, honestly
It would be easy to sell this exhibition as a celebration of Indian horology's arrival. It is not that, and the more interesting reading is less flattering.
Six Indian watches competed at the GPHG 2026 and none was nominated — the third consecutive edition India has entered without advancing. What India does have this year is a seat on the 24-member jury, held by Pranav Shankar Saboo, and the exhibition itself, hosted by his company. Both are real markers of India's weight as a market. Neither is a watchmaking achievement.
That gap is precisely what makes the exhibition worth attending rather than merely worth reporting. Walking the room is the fastest way to understand what separates a nominated watch from a competing one — not budget, but a mechanical idea executed to a standard. Look at the Challenge category especially, since that is where four of India's six entries competed and lost. The six that beat them are all there to be compared directly.
Practical advice for a first visit
- Go on the Wednesday if you can. Both public days fall midweek, so there is no quiet weekend to save it for. The first morning is likely to be the least crowded, and these are small objects that reward standing still.
- Register for a guided tour on the Ethos GPHG 2026 page. With only two public days, those slots are likely to be the first thing to fill.
- Bring a loupe if you own one. Much of what is being judged — finishing, bevelling, engine-turning — is invisible at arm's length through glass.
- Read the categories before you go. Knowing that Challenge means the affordable end and Mechanical Exception means the summit turns a wall of watches into an argument you can follow. Our guide to what watch complications actually are is a useful primer.
- Book the watchmaking experience. If it runs as described, a working watchmaker explaining a movement in front of you is worth more than another hour of looking at cases.
- Take the train. The St. Regis is in Lower Parel, a short walk from Lower Parel station on the Western line. Parking and traffic around the Phoenix complex are rarely easy.
- Do not expect to buy anything. This is a judged exhibition, not a fair.
Frequently asked questions
When is the GPHG exhibition in Mumbai? Ethos says the exhibition is open to the public on 30 September and 1 October 2026, after invitation-only days on 28 and 29 September (press preview, collectors preview, gala opening and private viewings). The GPHG's own schedule page still lists the exhibition as running from 29 September, so confirm with Ethos if you are planning to go on the 29th. It is the opening leg of the GPHG's 2026 roadshow and the first time the exhibition has come to Mumbai.
Where is the GPHG Mumbai exhibition being held? At the Hotel St. Regis Mumbai, 462 Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai 400013, hosted by Ethos Limited.
Is the GPHG exhibition free and open to the public? Ethos has said the exhibition welcomes collectors, enthusiasts, customers, media and the wider public, on 30 September and 1 October. The 28 and 29 September previews, gala and private viewings are by invitation. Guided tours and the watchmaking class require registration through the Ethos website. No admission fee has been published.
What will be on display? All 84 timepieces nominated for the GPHG 2026, across 14 categories, plus guided tours and a watchmaking experience on registration.
Will any Indian watches be on display? Not as nominees — no Indian brand made the 2026 shortlist. Favre Leuba, nominated in the Challenge category, is Indian-controlled through KDDL but is a Swiss brand.
When are the GPHG 2026 winners announced? At the ceremony in Geneva on 7 November 2026, several weeks after the Mumbai exhibition closes.
The bottom line
Four days, 84 watches, and a set of objects that mostly do not come to India. Whatever you make of the fact that no Indian watch is among them, the exhibition is the single best opportunity this country has had to look closely at what the top of the craft currently produces — including the chiming watches and independent pieces that no Indian boutique will ever stock.
Go with a plan, because 84 watches will otherwise blur. And register for a guided tour as soon as timings are out. We will add them here the moment Ethos publishes them. In the meantime, read what the 2026 nominations revealed about Indian watchmaking — it is the argument the exhibition will make in physical form.
