Three new Altiplano timepieces, three core Piaget watchmaking strengths.
Piaget as a watchmaker has long prided itself in three pillars of watchmaking – ultra-thin watchmaking, exceptional gem-setting and its exquisite use of quality hard stones.
This SIHH, it is bringing the focus back to these with three new models of Altiplano timepieces that embody these strengths of Piaget.
Gemsetting: Altiplano High Jewellery
As one of the few watch manufactures with an equally strong focus on jewellery, Piaget prides itself in the ability to blend the precision of watchmaking with the artistry of precious stones. Thus is birthed the 36mm Altiplano High Jewellery, an essential model in the elegant collection of Piaget that speaks with femininity while holding its own with classic proportions.
For the first time, it comes set with baguette diamonds on the bezel and dial. What really steals the show is the a sunray-brushed dial in Piaget Blue, limited to only 88 pieces.
The baguette diamonds not only frame the watch – it marks out the dial quarters while also bringing out the intensity of the dial blue, which falls somewhere between a mystifying cobalt and midnight blue. The sunray finish tricks the eye into seeing different levels of illumination, a hypnotic play of light and shade that winks like the sky itself.
Exquisite hard stones and ultra thin watchmaking: Altiplano Tourbillon
A literally out of this world material marks the new Altiplano Tourbillion that features a dial made of blue meteorite, and for a touch of glam, encircled by diamonds. Hours and minutes are indicated with the hallmark Piaget Altiplano baton hands and indices at 8 o’clock.
For an added celestial feel, a flying tourbillon does a whirling dance at the 2 o’clock, bringing to mind the rotation of the planetary bodies in a dark blue firmament.
The dial itself is decorated with distinctive lines on the surface known as the Widmanstätten patterns, commonly found within iron meteorites, a result of crystallised mickel-iron structures. This type of meteorite is speculated to date from the very beginnings of the cataclysmic events that result in the creation of solar systems. Just as diamonds are crystallised records of conditions deep within the earth, meteorites are crystallised records of the birth of galaxies.
The 41mm Altiplano Tourbillon, limited to 28 pieces, represents the height of Piaget’s prowess in gem-setting, decorative stone dials and ultra-thin high watchmaking.
Completing the trio of Piaget’s pre-SIHH creations is, fittingly, a watch that embodies the purest expressions of essential Piaget — the pink-gold 40mm Altiplano with grey meteorite dial and a simple distillation of time told in hours and minutes, with a date window at three o’clock.
The combination of pink gold with the grey meteorite and pink-gold indices is a step removed from the high-contrast beauty of the 36mm and 41mm models, but more fully showcases the subtle nuances of the meteorite as a material. The 40mm Piaget Altiplano in pink gold with grey meteorite dial is limited to an edition of 300 pieces.
Learn more at the official website here.
(Photos: Piaget)