Twenty five years ago when I ventured into luxury watchmaking, I was fortunate enough to connect with the wonderful world of Piaget. I spent a great deal of time interviewing Yves Piaget– dignitary, philanthropist and horticulturist (yes, the man even has his own uniquely cultivated rose)—and traveling with the brand to celebrity polo matches and on other enlightening journeys. A couple of years ago, I ventured with Piaget to Iceland for the unveiling of its Paris/New York collection, and I’ve had the privilege of visiting both of Piaget’s state-of-the-art workshops in La Cote-aux-Fees and in Plan-les-Quates (Geneva), where it creates exceptional feats.
Piaget is one of just a handful of companies in the world with expertise so ubiquitous that it can offer a wealth of technological advances, complicated technical movements and high-jeweled accomplishments. So I guess you can see why I am not at all surprised by the stunning new creations unveiled to demonstrate the brand’s expertise in high-jewelry watchmaking. Part of the Limelight collection, the remarkable new models include a feminine “secret” watch – wherein the watch dial is hidden from view until one presses a button that operates a mechanism to reveal the watch case. The Cascade Inspiration Secret cuff features alternating lines of baguette- and brilliant-cut diamonds, each ending with a pear-cut diamond. The magnificent feat of 18-karat white gold, and 43 carats of diamonds houses the 56P Piaget quartz movement. The cuff watch took Piaget’s watchmakers 950 hours to develop. It took the brand’s gemsetters 110 hours of painstaking work to masterfully set the more than 400 diamonds.
This second watch in the new line is the Couture Inspiration and resembles a seductive, partially unzipped zipper – a tantalizing work of art. The watch is set with more than 1,200 brilliant-cut diamonds and trapeze-shaped black spinels. This beauty took Piaget’s masters nearly 500 hours to develop and its craftsmen 140 hours to set. Time at Piaget is definitely what they make it. http://www.piaget.com/.