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Piaget Technique & Aesthetic: Part 7: Bracelet (Watch-making)
Piaget Technique & Aesthetic: Part 7 – Bracelet (Watch-making)
Piaget has been one of the most important Swiss makers of movements and components for nearly 140 years. Their "silent" clients included nearly all of the famous brands in Swiss horology. Georges Édouard Piaget founded the movement workshop on his family farm, at the age of 19 years, and devoted himself to perfecting the lever escapement to new levels of thinness. His credo was "Always do more than is necessary" (Faire toujours mieux qu'il n'est nécessaire) and Piaget has been doing that since 1874.
Gold bracelets: a Piaget expertise
In the early 1960s, Piaget changed the horological landscape with creative inspiration, Technique and Aesthetic. Together with iconic ultra-thin movements and jewellery watches came gold bracelets with original and intriguing designs. Since then, Piaget has maintained and developed this expertise with ever increasing complexity and originality.
As for any Maison, there are recurring motifs from the Book of Piaget. Although no single such book exists, there is an archive of past designs including those that may not have seen production.
The sources of design inspiration for Piaget include:
1. Patrimony, historical references with specific know-how but also shape (heart, rose, cushion) and materials (hard stones) that are important for the brand.
2. Piaget has the good fortune to have a long creative history with an unlimited audacity since its beginning.
3. Piaget was the pioneer for ultra-thin movements in 1957 with the 9P caliber. This technical achievement opened a huge creative spectrum and Piaget quickly understood its aesthetic implications.
4. Piaget was the first company to unite fine watchmaking with fine jewellery and to dream up watches that were jewels and vice versa. They invented new and original ways of wearing watches.
5. Trends, fashion and culture, in general.
The older designs are also kept as cue-cards by the older artisans in their work folders.
Let us Begin
We start with gold bars; yellow, white, pink and rose coloured alloys are requisitioned.
Piaget has its own specialised workshops where each stage of development and production is mastered. Bracelet making must meet the brand’s own technical and aesthetic demands. The primary watchwords for these artisans are Creativity, Beauty, Elegance and Comfort.
Bracelet components are made by four main techniques – Moulding (lost wax method), Stamping, Machining, and Chainmaking
Creating a new model requires developing tools to make its gold components.
Here, a tool frame acts as a template for the assembly of gold links.
This first stage calls for in-house research by the company engineers to make the tools.
The material is stamped or machined using ultra-precise machine tools.
By means of milling, cutting or tapping, the various machining operations serve to hollow out the gold bar in order to give it a specific shape, while stamping gives the material its initial shape by striking it with dedicated swaging tools.
Depending on the complexity of the components, machining time ranges from 15 to 45 minutes, while the subsequent operations – representing the bulk of the work – are entirely performed by hand.
This process begins with cleaning or trimming to remove the tiny chips formed during the milling and tapping operations.
Everything is checked for quality, precision and accuracy against reference specifications.
The most delicate stage lies in the decoration and finishing, and this is the part that makes Piaget so truly unique thanks to its extreme flair for details.
It is indeed not unusual for two types of finishing to be applied to a single tiny component.
Polishing, satin-brushing, engraving and even gem-setting are thus part of the daily work of the goldsmiths and gem-setters.
PIAGET Polo Bracelet
The Piaget Polo bracelet is iconic as it started the popularity of Piaget with the jet-set; a watch that was a bracelet and a bracelet that was a watch.
It is amazing how many components are needed to construct each bracelet and this photograph shows only one half length of the bracelet.
Traditional watches, a deliberately elegant aesthetic
A must-have for devotees of vintage styling, the Traditional watch launched in 1962 enshrines the spirit of the 1960s.
Its pure, decidedly retro-chic aesthetic makes the traditional gold bracelet wristwatch a truly timeless classic.
It is also one of the oldest historical models in the Piaget range, with a design that has remained almost unchanged for over 60 years.
Its elegant ultra-thin case highlighting the emblematic gold bracelet has undoubtedly contributed to its steadily growing success.
The bracelet of such traditional watches single-handedly embodies the expertise of the Piaget jeweller-chainmakers.
While its profile is first machined into a figure-8 shape, all the subsequent operations are performed by hand.
The braided gold wire is welded to the profile, while the links are cut out and then mounted in a chequered pattern on pins, before being individually soldered to solidify the overall structure – which is then delicately adjusted.
Composed of more than 300 parts, the bracelet of a traditional watch can thus at last reveal the full extent of its amazing supple nature.
Seamlessly integrated with the case, the bracelet makes a perfect match with the bezel graced by claw-set diamonds and the silver-toned dial.
The model exclusively equipped with a mechanical calibre comes in ten different feminine and masculine versions.
We only show one model.
A fine example of what happens when the expertise of the jeweller-chainmakers meets one of the greatest watchmaking classics.
Dancer bracelet
The colour variants of this bracelet style also affords two textures of finishing and polishing.
Sand-blasting the central links for a satin finish
Masking tape is used to protect areas not to be polished.
Exceptional Bracelets combining the art of gold mesh and gem-setting
Entirely crafted within the Manufacture, exceptional bracelets combine the art of gold mesh with the art of gem-setting.
This exercise is rendered more complex by the presence of precious stones.
The jeweller patiently seeks the perfect formula to ensure the perfect flow of the bracelet, its mesh pattern and its extension links.
The sophistication of the various mesh motifs is compounded by the imperative need for suppleness and a perfect fit on the wrist.
Piaget is one of the very few Maisons that still cultivate the art of Parisian mesh – or Haute Couture mesh.
This High Jewellery technique enables the bracelet to mould the curve of the wrist to absolute perfection, while minimising any gaps between the stones.
Starting with a gold wire that holds the elements together, the bracelet gradually comes to life in a process involving at least 400 hours of work – and up to 1,000 hours depending on the model.
Piaget also uses other jewellery techniques that very few watch companies currently master, such as mesh work on hinges in which several tubes are assembled to join the links, while mesh work on rings serves to articulate the various gem sockets or settings (chatons).
Whichever method is used, an integrated clasp equipped with a spring and safety system sets the finishing touch to the gold bracelet.
Mesh manchette, embodying historical in-house expertise
My 'Oscar' nomination............
One of the iconic Piaget models from the 1970s, manchettes (cuff bracelets) with mesh-knit links highlight a historical skill cultivated by Piaget.
Gold is woven and enmeshed by hand to produce a new version for 2013.
Starting with a gold wire or thread, oval links known as “studs” are fashioned and then twisted, turned and inserted into extremely thin pins.
Just when you thought everything that could be made has already been made, the Jeweller-chainmaker at Piaget surprises with an innovation that transforms the practicality of the modern manchettes.
One drawback of vintage design manchettes is that size adjustments required the piece to be returned to the Geneva workshop for serious reformation.
The innovation for 2013 is an ingenious system that allows local Piaget-authorised jewellers to add a row of links without all the additional twisting and soldering.
If they handed out 'Oscars' for jewellery, this innovation would get my nomination!
Couture Précieuse 2013 collection
Gold chain manchette in 18K pink gold set with 69 brilliant-cut diamonds
Piaget 56P quartz movement
Jeweller-chainmaker, a rare profession that sublimates hand craftsmanship
The awe-inspiring and unique essence of Piaget bracelets is a result of the Manufacture retaining several traditional and exceptional professions.
Old design prototypes are kept on hand for all to learn and records are still on cardboard index cards.
No fancy CAD drawings here in the workshop!
Modern pieces are made to a modern CAD drawing but personal records are a different matter.....it is still a tactile Art.
Chains, woven gold and mesh-type links interpreted in cuff or sautoir styles have made Piaget the acknowledged worldwide specialist of gold wristwatches.
Piaget’s passion for braided or mesh bracelets is as consuming as ever.
This skill is no longer taught formally but thanks to a fierce determination to perpetuate an Art at risk of extinction, Piaget kept it alive by focusing on passing on this expertise within the Manufacture.
The current Head of the Workshop – whose father worked at Piaget for 40 years – actively trains the next generation in picking up the 'gestures' of the jeweller-chainmaker. These 'gestures' are the essence of the craft.
To a lay-person, these are simple hand and finger movements but to a trained eye, they are the tactile memory patterns that deftly create beauty out of cold metal – where technique meets with aesthetic.
As an illustration of the deep family roots within Piaget, the Head of the Workshop has a son who is also a Piaget master watchmaker; he trains new watchmakers – three generations of Piaget employees from the same family.
It is this commitment to hand craftsmanship that sets Piaget apart in an era of standardised luxury when many brands outsource such artisan-style production. It is indeed one of the last Manufactures to have an in-house workshop dedicated to bracelet making.
Piaget Technique & Aesthetic series:
Piaget Technique & Aesthetic: Part 1 – Design: CLICK the following link
piaget.watchprosite.com
Piaget Technique & Aesthetic: Part 2 – Enamel: CLICK the following link
piaget.watchprosite.com
Piaget Technique & Aesthetic: Part 3 – Gem-setting (Watch Making): CLICK the following link
piaget.watchprosite.com
Piaget Technique & Aesthetic: Part 4 – Gold Thread Embroidery: CLICK the following link
piaget.watchprosite.com
Piaget Technique & Aesthetic: Part 5 – Hard Stone Dials: CLICK the following link
piaget.watchprosite.com
Piaget Technique & Aesthetic: Part 6 - Engineering: CLICK the following link
piaget.watchprosite.com
Piaget Technique & Aesthetic: Part 7 – Bracelet (Watch-making): CLICK the following link
piaget.watchprosite.com
Dr M. Teillol-Foo, PuristSPro (2013)
Piaget Technique & Aesthetic: Part 7: Bracelet (Watch-making)
This is for me one of the most impressive skills from Piaget
Piaget watch bracelets are superlative
