Baselworld/SIHH

SIHH 2011: Piaget

 

Please find below my report about Piaget. I had the chance to spend more than one hour with the Piaget team and I believe I could shoot almost all the novelties. So it is a report as comprehensive as it can be...

This SIHH 2011 was very active for Piaget as you will be able to judge it below: from mechanical watches to high jewellery timepieces, Piaget unveiled a wide range of novelties during the Salon.

I propose you to start with the most impressive one, horology speaking: the Ultra-Thin Tourbillon. This watch is not only a novelty. It is a sort of summary of all the savoir-faire from the Manufacture. It symbolizes a new style, a new design and it features a movement which can be considered as a gathering of two famous ones: the 600P with its airy Tourbillon and the 1208P with its micro-rotor which allows it to be the thinnest self-winding movement of the current market.













The cushion shape case works quite well in this context and I really like the sunrays decorations on the dial and the transparency. But I'm less convinced by the rotor dial side. It spoils a bit the beauty of this timepiece. Anyway, this Ultra-Thin Tourbillon is a great watch. The 46,5mm case is at the end not too large (I had the same feeling with the Emperador Moonphase). Maybe I would have prefered to get the power reserve indicator dial side in place of the rotor...




Two new Polo with a Titanium & PG case enter the collection. It is not a surprise to see the Chronograph in this context but I was very happy to discover a new complication inside the collection: the Perpetual Calendar. We are very used to see such complication in classic watches but thanks to the very original dial layout, this Perpetual Calendar becomes my fav Polo watch so far. The chronograph keeps its usual layout with a text which is a bit useless IMHO. Having said that, these new two-tones cases are very beautiful and these two Polo were my fav Piaget 2011 novelties.

The Chronograph:

The Automatic Chronograph caliber from Piaget is one of the most underrated of the industry. It is a pity, it also combines a date, a second time zone display and a flyback with a very sober architecture:.

The Perpetual Calendar: I love this dial, especially the leap year indicator !

Let's browse the jewelled watches now.

I start with this duet of Altiplano: as you can imagine, it is not an easy job to set the gems with these patterns:

The watch on the left has a 34mm diameter case while the watch on the right has a 38mm one.

A impressive version of the skeletonized Altiplano (look at the work on the movement bridges!) even if I'm not a big fan of the contrast between the diamonds and the mainspring:

The same watch but with a work on the bezel only:

Without any doubt, the Polo case is the star of this year !

Various watches with semi-precious stone dials join the collection as an homage to this case created at the end of the 70's.

 

With the date window:

Two more Polo with flying Tourbillons: you wil notice the very different styles of gem setting and of course, the beauty of the black diamonds of the first version:









The Altiplano collection was not forgotten of course ! Even the latest one, the Altiplano automatic 43mm has been selected to join the family of jewelled watches. You saw herebefore a pictures of two Altiplano which were fully set with gems. The impressive point with Piaget is that they are able to offer different levels of gems setting: from a discrete diamond to a full-set, it is impossible to not find what you look for.

A 40mm Altiplano:

These small and delicate watches are specially dedicated to the Asian market:

I like the way the small second subdial is highlighted by the diamonds on this 34mm Altiplano:

We leave the Altiplano collection with this secret watch.

It is my fav jewelled watch: it is like a flower in springtime, ready to blossom... discrete, elegant, fun, a true beauty.

These two watches feature an interesting moving part on the dial which works like a weeble ! I much prefer the version which is not full set: it enhances much better the way the part moves on the dial. The full set version is not suitable for this watch I think while with the other one, the diamonds seem to dance on the dial.

These two birds also rotate on the dial, that's another fine example of the Limelight Dancing Light collection:

I would like to finish the report with the last fireworks. These two following watches are maybe the best way to make you understand the wide range of gems setting techniques available at Piaget. Of course, they are not the type of watches I would wear but I was really impressed by the quality of the craftsmanship. Kudos to Piaget for these pieces of art !

I would like to thank a lot the Piaget team for the warm welcome and for the time they spent with me.

Fr.Xavier