Exclusively Luxurious
Latest collection of jewellery timepieces shows how to create synergy between tradition and modernity, writesPin Lee
Philippe Léopold-Metzger, CEO of ultrathin pioneer Piaget, sees Watches&Wonders as a showcase to promote the extraordinary work of high watchmaking.
"For Piaget, it is a great way to promote our know-how in high watchmaking and high-jewellery watches," he says. "We have brought exceptional pieces from our newest collections, as well as some of the craftsmen from our manufacture to show in-situ some of the best-kept secrets of movement and watchmaking. The event itself shows the importance of Asia and Asian consumers for Piaget."
Léopold-Metzger sums up Piaget's world market position as "a niche brand selling very exclusive products to an ever more sophisticated clientele of high-net-worth individuals". The brand is bullish about the future and increasing its production capacity to meet an ever-growing demand, "while keeping its exclusivity of the untouched", Léopold-Metzger says. "We also put more emphasis on knowing our customers well and improving their buying experience, whichever distribution channel they wish to use."
The Piaget watchword (no pun intended) is "always do better than necessary". It is a commitment that has worked well for the maison since 1874, and especially since the late 1950s and early 1960s, when it sensationally launched the hand-wound Calibre 9P, measuring just 2mm thick, followed by the Calibre 12P, at just 2.3mm, the world's thinnest automatic movement.
It replicated this triumph in 2010 with the thinnest automatic movement and watch in the world. This year, the brand again claimed title to master of ultrathin Grande Complication watchmaking by creating an exceptional minute repeater, establishing a new double record for the slenderness of its case and movement.
Piaget has developed 23 ultrathin calibres that have earned 12 records. The resulting watches are collected as much for the skills they represent in base movements, in major complications such as tourbillon, perpetual calendar, chronograph, minute repeater and skeleton movements. And, of course, the ultrathins are supremely elegant.
Ultrathin movements are a brand signature, most identified with the iconic Altiplano line. The collection includes the world's thinnest automatic gem-set skeleton watch.