The new time lord: Wei Koh on his first year as GPHG jury president

What is incredible to me is that you know you've got all these tech oligarchs or AI oligarchs right the people who have essentially created this highly digitized world around us they've all become huge watch collectors as well and I think it's because it's the mechanical watches the reprieve. It is the oasis against everything that is ephemeral, because it's so permanent, it outlives you, right? And it enters into this extraordinary symbiotic relationship with you. It only takes the energy that you give it, right, by winding it or wearing it. There's something quite magical about it, and it seems that watchmaking has become more relevant than ever, and it is our mission at the GPHG to continue that. I've already been on the jury for quite a few years. I've learned a lot from my predecessor, the incredible Nick Falks. Nick has always believed in debate and dialogue, right? And that's something that I've always loved. Oh man, it was super passionate, you know, behind closed doors. And, you know, we're kind of on an honor system, so we don't really talk about that much about what happens. But there are also some extraordinary moments as well where you're like, wow, I've just had a revelation. This person's explained it so well. That it's completely changed my mind about a specific timepiece as well. So in terms of now moving into this role, I just hope to continue that important dimension that he created, which is this very open dialogue amongst the jury members. There's so much extraordinary creative richness in the watches that we have and our list that's come out. Remember the first time you listened to John Coltrane or Miles Davis or Tupac or, you know, Stevie Ray Vaughan, right? It was so incredibly unique. It was so mature, you know, even if that person was relatively young. And there was a fundamental contribution that it was making to music. It's the same thing in watches as well. We're looking for watches that have a contribution, that understand the continuing and evolving story of watchmaking, and are trying to add something to that in the most beautiful way possible.