Re-envisioned as a "Maison of Extraleganza", Piaget has elevated its watches and jewellery to typify elegance and extravaganza.
The new Piaget Polo with a complex complication is hailed a perpetual "extraleganza" and high-jewellery timepieces are aesthetically in the same league.
Associated with the jet-set sport, the Piaget Polo released in 1979 was originally fashioned in gold with a more casual aesthetic or relaxed elegance.
Celebrated owners included Ursula Andress, Roger Moore, Andy Warhol and Bjorn Borg. As a matter of fact, Warhol became a friend of the brand and collaborated on designing the luxury watch.
Evolving with the times, the Piaget Polo became an instantly recognisable men's watch.
A cushion-shaped dial is embraced by a round case and its bracelet shines through alternating polished and satin finishes of hand-assembled links.
In 2023, the extraleganza episode opens with two versions of Piaget Polo Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin featuring the sophisticated complication, which precisely functions until 2100 while taking into account leap years.
The dial is adorned with the signature Palace Décor.
A moonphase display occupies the 6 o'clock position, while three subdials for the date, day and month along with leap-year indication are located at 3, 9, and 12 o'clock. Several finishes add visual richness as the light plays across the subdials with Super-LumiNova indexes.
The 42mm stainless steel model boasts a dark emerald-green dial with the signature gadroon pattern, which also appears on the rubber strap and bracelet with a new interchangeable SingleTouch system.
The dial of the white gold rendition is in iridescent obsidian while the bezel shimmers with deep blue sapphires set in dark claws.
Igneous rock is one of the ornamental stones used to dress dials in a vibrant colour.
Following its launch in 1963, Piaget's timepieces adorned with these stones became a style statement for the likes of Jackie Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren.
In the previous decade, third-generation Valentin Piaget began developing ultra-thin movements and introduced the hand-wound 9P caliber in 1957. Three years later, 12P was the world's thinnest automatic movement equipped with an ingenious micro-rotor.
Its direct descendent, the 1200P was born in 2010. Based on this slim caliber, the new self-winding 1255P with a thickness of merely 4mm provides the Piaget Polo Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin a power reserve of 42 hours.
Gem-setting of diamonds and emeralds.
The caseback's sapphire crystal reveals the decorated mechanical movement and oscillating weight engraved with the Piaget coat-of-arms.
Ultra-thin calibers are made at the historical home in La Côte-aux-Fées, where Georges-Édouard Piaget founded the company in 1874.
Artisanal skills are harnessed to transform gold, precious gems and ornamental stones into works of art at Les Ateliers de l'Extraordinaire, inaugurated in 2001 at the second site in Plan-les-Ouates, on the edge of Geneva.
Piaget's jewellery originated in Geneva where the first collection was unveiled along with the opening of the Salon Piaget in 1959.
The avant-garde 21st century series from 1969 was inspired by Paris runway shows attended by Piaget designers, who came back to Switzerland and sketched flamboyant gold cuff watches and sautoirs.
Gold was moulded, sculpted, woven and braided into supple, silk-like fabrics in making their designs come to life.
Based on twisted rose gold chains, unique-piece swinging sautoirs express the extraleganza concept in 2023.
Stainless steel Piaget Polo Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin.
One tassel-style sautoir is embellished with emerald beads and a Zambian emerald cut into an oval cabochon, which matches the shape of the dial of the watch. The malachite dial is framed by alternating brilliant-cut diamonds and round-cut emeralds.
The other swinging sautoir is centred by a dainty watch with twisted rose gold encircling the diamond-set bezel and a dial hand-engraved with the Palace Décor.
Developed in the 1960s and inspired by guilloche in watchmaking, the Palace Décor is only one of 100 different kinds of engraving techniques that the Swiss brand has mastered over time.
The signature motif ripples on a new Limelight cuff watch in rose gold. The dial is made from turquoise in a robin's egg blue that harmonises with round-cut sapphires.
Brilliant-cut diamonds illuminate another rose gold version featuring a white opal dial and bracelet etched with an evocative bark and vein finish.
Round-cut emeralds enhance the black opal dial of the white gold cuff watch, whose hand-engraved bracelet takes on an ephemeral frost-like motif.
Peeking out from the cuffs, the dials with its mystique ornamental stone seem asymmetrical, underlining Piaget's spontaneous and extraleganza design.
A Zambian emerald meets malachite in the swinging sautoir.
Limelight high-jewellery cuff watches featuring turquoise and black opal.
Brilliant-cut diamonds sparkle on this version with an opal dial.
