Piaget

tony p
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Piaget at SIHH 2010

Piaget stand a little outside the mainstream of haute horlogerie brands. With a foot in both the serious-watchmaking and bespoke-joaillerie camps, Piaget's overall brand persona tends a little more to the decorative than the horological. And yet they have always been, and remain, a fully-fledged manufacture with considerable expertise in the fields of ultra-thin and complicated watchmaking.

In recent years Piaget seem to have been making efforts to redress this reputational imbalance, by releasing in each season at least one or two serious aficionado's watches, unadorned with facets or frippery. 2010 therefore sees them bringing to the forefront one of their core skills - ultra-thin movement design - with a breathtaking new automatic mechanism measuring only 2.35mm in thickness, available in a regular or limited-edition Altiplano case.




The new LE Altiplano "Anniversary" is an edition of 235 pieces each in rose and white gold, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Piaget's seminal ultra-thin 12P movement. It eschews the usual small-seconds subregister in favour of a simple two-hand dial design -





This is a very stylish watch, its three-level dial mixing subtle hand-guillochage with unadorned flat surfaces, simple baton hands, and deep blue dial colour. What a shame that Piaget's designers had to go and spoil such audacious minimalism with some utterly superfluous writing on the thin exterior chapter ring.








However, this is a minor quibble, as said circumferential inscription is fairly discreet.

The all-new Piaget cal. 1200P movement has been lavished with an exceptional finishing in circular Côtes de Genève, perlage, anglage and satin-brushed steel parts, and further bestowed with a beautifully inscribed platinum microrotor - all of which serves to elevate the visual qualities of this movement to a level more commonly associated with the likes of Patek Philippe, Chopard LUC, Vacheron Constantin or Lange.





Piaget's coat of arms inscribed on the platinum rotor is especially magnificent -





Here is the LE version next to its regular-production cousin in white gold, the latter retaining its small-second register at four-thirty on the dial.





I actually prefer this version, although both watches are extremely appealing; the LE has perhaps a slightly more spectacular rear aspect, due to the platinum rotor's gold highlights and the startling contrast of silvery calibre with lush rose-gold surround -





Now to a far less successful release - only in my humble opinion of course. I have never been a big fan of Piaget's Polo case with its horizontal bezel stripes, and last year's Polo FortyFive Chronograph really left me cold. Too effete to cut the mustard as a proper luxury sports chrono, yet too technical to be a dress watch, the Polo FortyFive Chrono was further compromised by some ugly and wholly unnecessary writing on its subdials in an undistinguished italic font.

This year's iteration is even worse, with said writing drawing even more attention to itself in red, an exposed date ring in lazy imitation of any number of lesser brands, and various other bits of visual clutter which are wholly at odds with the watch's case design -








Long before Andrew D's brilliant "verbosity" thread on HoMe, I'd decided I thoroughly abhor watches with labels all over them trumpeting their various whizz-bang features. What's next? A "Two Big Hands to Tell the Time" announcement around the bezel? Gimme a break.





The other new release in this style, Piaget's  Polo FortyFive Automatic, fares little or no better in the aesthetics department.





In fact, this dial, while more than a wee bit indebted to Stepan Sarpaneva's Corona dial, manages to be far less coherent than that truly original visual concept from the Finnish design master.





Now let's have a quick look at some unabashedly fashion-oriented releases. First, the Limelight watch in white gold, with its dual interleaved ellipses of diamonds spinning freely around a pavéd central dial element -





What you see here is what you get: an appealing fashion watch with plenty of movement and sparkle. I like this model, and so, I suspect, will a lot of affluent ladies -





Less original was the Lady Polo FortyFive in rose or white gold case, on one of those segmented white straps with which every other women's timepiece seems to have been equipped this past couple of years -





Why on earth do Piaget feel the need to be aping Chanel with these god-awful straps? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Mammon triumphs over aesthetics yet again. Oh, the shame.








I still have a couple of nice Piaget watches up my sleeve (metaphorically speaking, of course). But first I thought I might share with you a bit of the atmosphere at Piaget's press conference. This was an absolute hoot, featuring a parade of nine-foot-tall models dripping with baubles, accompanied by a cookin' jazz saxophonist -

















The intent behind this little entertainment was, of course, to introduce the "Limelight Jazz Party" theme which inflects Piaget's fashion releases for this year. Alas, with limited time at my disposal to finish my photoshoot, I found myself unable to snap any of those pieces (with the exception of the aformentioned Limelight watch), so I thought you might like to see a bit of the show instead.








It would be unfair, both on the brand and on its many fans, not to wrap up my report with a glittering finalé. So here are a pair of very special sparklers. First, the Piaget Altiplano Gem-Set Skeleton, with 40mm white gold case set with 72 brilliant-cut diamonds, another 144 on the flange, and no less than 174 further stones on the movement itself -





I would rather pull my own head off than be caught wearing such a watch, but it is nevertheless an extraordinary piece, combining horological refinement and the gem-setter's art in a spectacular flourish -





Never have I seen so many diamonds on such a thin watch -





Turning it over, we can remove our welding glasses for a moment to admire the superb layout and finish of Piaget's cal 838P manual-wind movement, beating at 21,600vph with an impressive 62-hour power reserve -








This extraordinary timepiece will be available only from Piaget boutiques.


Last of all is a new diamond-set Emperador Coussin Moonphase with aventurine dial. The pictures say it all -














So there you are - successfully straddling the twin worlds of horological innovation and gem-setting prowess, Piaget continue to defy categorisation as one or the other, while perpetuating their mastery of both.

My personal pick of the bunch is without question the new Altiplano Ultra-Thin. But if you forced me at the point of a bauble-encrusted scabbard to strap a diamond-embellished watch to my own scrawny wrist, out of all the brands and all such models I beheld at SIHH, I would unhesitatingly pick the Altiplano Gem-Set Skeleton. And then immediately set about launching my own hip-hop label.


Cheers
Tony P