Piaget - Supreme Horological Elegance
WORLDTEMPUS - 9 February 2012
For Piaget, the strategy in these last years has been to acquire the capacity to fully develop its products from the design stage to the production phase. This capability seems to have been fully acquired and, as the CEO Philippe Leopold-Metzger says, "Puts Piaget in a very good position." The idea that manufacture capability would be the founding cornerstone of the Piaget's pyramid was already present when Leopold-Metzger arrived at the company some twelve years ago. Frank Touzeau, director of watch marketing at Piaget, totally agrees and describes 2012 as the third exceptional year in a row for the brand. In 2010, Piaget launched the world's thinnest automatic movement in the Altiplano case, which was also the thinnest automatic movement on the market. In 2011, it introduced the thinnest automatic tourbillon case in the form of the Emperador Cushion. This year, three major new pieces have taken center stage: a brand new pillar in the Black Tie collection with the Gouverneur line, developments in the Altiplano segment and an exceptional collection of high jewelry pieces, all crafted internally by the manufacture.
Today, Piaget produces roughly 25,000 pieces a year and has about 500 of its 1,000 employees involved in developing, designing and producing the collections. This was one of the main reasons why Piaget put its specialist artisans to work at the entrance of the SIHH booth for the first time, a move Leopold-Metzger justified as "a credit to all the artisans that have been working for decades at Piaget." Some of them were working on metal watch bracelets, a field in which Piaget has traditionally been very b since the company is a very well known specialist in gold crafting. This has special meaning now, since this year Piaget celebrates the 50th anniversary of a watch called Tradition, which has a chain bracelet made from a single thread of gold. Other artisans at the booth were working on diamond setting, because as Leopold-Metzger revealed, "Today almost two-thirds of the watches sold by Piaget have diamonds on them." Still other artisans were active in the domain of the mechanical movement, working on the 1208 and 1200P movements, an automatic caliber Piaget introduced two years ago. Today, every movement that Piaget uses - be it automatic or hand wound - is completely made at Piaget, who Metzger say, "Does not buy any movements from other manufacturers."
Skeletonizing the Ultra-Thin
The new products for 2012 were bly based on ultra-thin movements and consequently also on the Altiplano, a line where one particular piece seems unquestionably very dear to Piaget. Not only is the new Piaget Altiplano Skeleton Ultra-Thin beautiful to look at, but it additionally breaks two world records in one blow as the world's thinnest skeleton automatic watch at 5.34 mm in height and as the thinnest automatic skeleton movement at only 2.40 mm. The result is a double brand heritage that combines the ultra-thin 1200P caliber with skill in skeletonization. At the beginning, Piaget's objective was to provide the maximum visibility of the mechanical elements of the gear train. But removing elements or material for aesthetic purposes could create a certain risk of fragility and instability. Knowing the extreme thinness of the 1200P movement at 2.35 mm, Touzeau explains that it was really difficult to find a solution. Piaget needed to find a compromise between technology and design, as an ultra-thin record of this magnitude requires challenging all the components of the movement. Some wheels, for example, have been developed to such a strict minimum that they now have a thickness of only 0.12 mm.
In the end, the most striking effect is the purity of the satin-brushed surfaces, allowing the polished angles to harmoniously reflect the light. Also for the first time, the case has been developed and crafted parallel to the movement so that it perfectly fits the new caliber. This is an important aspect since the result is a perfect match between the case and the caliber that, Piaget says, only a few haute horlogerie brands are able to achieve today. Furthermore, at the beginning, and as an additional objective, Piaget wanted to break with codes by revealing a more contemporary design for this new automatic skeleton movement, while keeping the traditional signature of haute horlogerie and skeleton movements. Touzeau summarizes the attractive look of this watch in saying, "Ultra-thin liberates its creativity on the case. When you work on these kinds of movements, you can in fact afford more creativity than with all the big watches that are sold in the market today." Leopold-Metzger also measures his words well when he adds that, "Ultra-thin is our religion at Piaget, it is truly a technology at the service of design."
The elegance of the Gouverneur
A completely new collection presented this year at the SIHH was the Gouverneur, a creation that is part of the Black Tie collection and with which the brand puts forward the elegance of Piaget. Six new references housed in pink and white gold cases decorated with diamonds inaugurate a set of automatic, tourbillon, astronomical moon phase (accurate for 122 years) and chronograph versions that exclusively use Piaget manufacture movements. It is actually the first time that Piaget elevates a chronograph to a more elegant design in a gold watch, since until now only the more sports oriented Polo line has been endowed with this popular complication.
Characteristic of the Black Tie collection, the new Gouverneur is the result of the association of two shapes, a challenge that the arts - and particularly architecture - have been chasing for centuries. Touzeau admits that the Gouverneur line will probably be the future icon of the Black Tie collection due to its intrinsic striving for harmony between a round bezel and an oval-shaped dial that is bound to produce a new equilibrium. The new collection is also intended to propose a more commercial product when compared to the Emperador round and cushion-shaped watches. Touzeau characterizes the new line as, "A completely masculine and elegant collection dedicated to haute horlogerie connoisseurs. The character of these new models relies on the design of the dial, which is reinforced by the guilloche pattern. The outcome is a rare play of shapes on the dial, the case, the bezel, and between round and oval."
A girl's best friends
And at the end of the day, diamonds are the girls' best friends and they are also, unquestionably, Piaget´s best friends. Reason enough for the brand to continue presenting new interpretations under the "Garden" theme. This year, the Limelight Garden Party collection was focused around the rose, an element that has been part of Piaget's universe since Yves Piaget introduced it many years ago. At the time, he even organized several championships around the world in order to discover the best roses, and eventually one was called the Yves Piaget Rose. Along this theme, extraordinary enameler Anita Porchet produced two remarkable Altiplano dials using demanding miniature painting and cloisonee enamel techniques. The high jewelry collection presented at the SIHH will be the cornerstone of a main launch Piaget will organize in the spring of this year and including a whole collection of roses in accessible, medium and high jewelry.
Also later in the year, a new collection will be unveiled at the 2012 Biennale in Paris, in what will certainly be another challenge in terms of creativity. Last but not least, Piaget continues to develop its network of stores and now has a new concept freshly developed that is much more modern and puts forward the intrinsic nature of Piaget as equal parts great watchmaker and great jeweler.
[Rating: 5 / 5 stars]
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