Watches and Wonders 2024: Piaget celebrates 150th anniversary with its iconic timepieces

Marking its 150th anniversary this year, watchmaker and jeweller Piaget launched several celebratory editions at Watches and Wonders 2024, writes Gloria Fung

Among the most recognizable designs from the watchmaker include the sporty Polo Piaget, the elegant dress watch Altiplano as well and the sensational women’s timepiece Limelight. The watchmaker chooses to celebrate with new renditions of the Altiplano and a celebration of a classic jewellery watch design, the Cuff Watch.

First introduced in 1969, the cuff watch is a display of goldsmithing creativity and know-how and showcases how the house is able to approach watchmaking from a high jewellery artisan’s sensibility.

The cuff watch features graphic gold openwork, which comes together to form a mesh-like cuff. At the centre is a dial that’s embedded within the gold cuff, further blurring the piece’s identity as part jewellery, part watch. This year, the watchmaker offers a new reference that features a rectangular opal dial.

A major player in the skinny watch space, Piaget, since it feared its first ultra-thin movement, the 9p, 67 years ago. The watchmaker has since aimed to dominate this space with new novelties that continue to push boundaries and shatter records.

Since creating the thinnest watch in the world in 2018 with the launch of the Piaget Ultimate Concept, the watchmaker has set its sights on yet another feat. On its 150th anniversary, the house celebrates by unveiling the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon, the world’s thinnest tourbillion watch.

Inside, its blue PVD-treated case measures 41.5 mm across yet has a thickness of just 2 mm. The movement is fully exposed across the dial to achieve this slender profile, offering a visual openness that invites a closer look at the intricate ultra-thin calibre.

The tourbillon is positioned at 10 o’clock and a small dial just off the centre at 1 o’clock indicates the hour and minutes. Fully wound, the manual tourbillon movement has a 40-hour power reserve.

Also see: Watches and Wonders 2024: New Monaco features Tag Heuer’s first-ever split-second chronograph