The “right” way…..

Finely tuned – the Audemars Piguet Millenary Quincy Jones Edition

and the wrong way….

Off-key – the Piaget Limelight Jazz Party Polo Tourbillon Relatif

Seriously – those little musical notes intended to imitate Roman numerals are more than tacky!  Sure you are free to disagree – that’s what the comment button is for

Thin is in!

First Vacheron Constantin, now Piaget.  At SIHH 2010 in Geneva Piaget will be introducing a new ultra-thin Piaget Altiplano.  The watch is 43mm diameter but a mere 5.25mm thick.  Clean, simple and beautiful as we expect from Piaget.  43mm diameter does seem a bit large, though.  A couple pics below – click here to see the full press release and more pictures.

Watch collectors and enthusiasts around the world will surely enjoy these new and visually stunning watch ads from Piaget.  First In Watches was certainly quite impressed by the ads, which will be appearing in media worldwide starting this September 2009.  

The simplicity of the ads are what makes them great, in my view – Piaget let’s the technical sophistication and visual appeal of their watches speak for themselves.  No gimmicks needed!  The ads were created by the acclaimed ad agency Saatchi and Saatchi and feature the ultra-thin Piaget Altiplano, the new Polo FortyFive (both men’s watches) as well as the new Limelight Magic  Hour.  Enjoy!

Piaget Altiplano

Piaget Polo FortyFive

Piaget Limelight Magic Hour

Luxury watch brands continue to launch their own iPhone apps.  You can add Rado and Piaget to the growing list of brands that have introduced their own iPhone apps including Breitling, Bell & Ross, Glycine and Victorinox. 

It is interesting to see all these brands launching their own iPhone apps, particularly those that offer an app that is for a specific watch model (e.g. Piaget – Polo FortyFive and Breitling – B01 Chronomat).  Because their functionality is fairly limited – most you can really do is view a few pics, locate a nearby dealer, or maybe read some news about the brand – it seems that for the most part these apps are just another way for the brands to get in front of the consumer and increase brand awareness. 

If any of you have downloaded and/or used any of the these watch-related iPhone apps, First In Watches would love to know what you think.

Piaget’s Emerpador Coussin “first step on the moon” Commemorates 40th Anniversary Moon Landing

Well now we get a look at another “piece unique” for Only Watch 2009, this one from Piaget, master of the ultra-thin movement.   Only Watch is an annual charity auction of unique watches created by many of the most elite watch brands in Switzerland.   If you want to get up to speed on this event, I’ve blogged about it several times already (see here and here), and also shared lots of pictures of many of the amazing “Only Watch” watches on the Perpetuelle.com forums (see here) – have a look!

Piaget’s Only Watch 09 is based on Piaget’s Emperador Coussin.  This year, Piaget’s third year participating in Only Watch, the brand wanted to create a watch that represented something special related specifically to 2009. They decided to illustrate the creative approach of the brand by linking their unique watch to the celebration of the 40th anniversary of man’s first step on the moon in 1969.

OK, yes, I know – Omega “owns” the “moon watch” theme – but this is a whole new discussion that I will leave to someone else.  I will only say this is an excellent watch from Piaget – simple and elegant in the Piaget style, but with a unique twist – and I really like it!

Take a look at Piaget’s one-of-a-kind Only Watch below – do you see its moon landing tribute?  If not, keep reading below — I’ll give you a closer look after the jump.

“We wanted to make a unique piece, which had as its movement our new caliber 860P –so reinforcing the legitimacy of the brand,” says Franck Touzeau, Watch Marketing Director at Piaget.   He continues, “The result was a very nice complication with extra large moon phases positioned at 6 o’clock in a 12mm diameter aperture. The moon is made out of a gold plate. To give it this rough appearance it was heated until boiling stage and then cooled down. This enables it to have an irregular aspect that resembles the craters of the moon. Furthermore, on the moon phase disk we have engraved our interpretation of the tread left by Neil Armstrong after the first step on the moon.”

Philippe Léopold-Metzger, Piaget International’s CEO, stated:  “We loved it as soon as we saw it.  For us elegance is of most importance, and this watch is very elegant. The problem with today’s watch business is that sometimes people want to put 25 complications in a watch and you end up with a watch that is so complicated it is basically unreadable. This watch, on the other hand, has a very pure dial and when you look at the dial it is elegant and easy to read with its large indexes and 12mm moon phase aperture – the biggest moon phase on the market.” Furthermore, this high precision caliber only counts 1 day of digression every 122 years. It can therefore be considered as an astronomical moon phase.

Following the gold tradition of Piaget, the metal of the case of the Piaget Only Watch 09 is in pink gold with moon phases in white gold – all commemorating that first step on the moon 40 years ago.  Here is a nice closeup of the dial where you can see the “first step on the moon” and below this the case back engraving.

And finally a closeup of he case back of the watch which is engraved with “Only Watch 2009” and “Unique Piece”

Only Watch is a charity auction of unique watches created by many of the most important watch brands in Switzerland. This exceptional event is held every two years in Monaco during the Monaco Yacht Show and is under the patronage of HSH Prince Albert 11. All the proceeds from Only Watch go to support research into Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The next Only Watch auction is organized in close collaboration with Patrizzi & Co and the Monaco Yacht Show, and will take place on 24 September 2009.

Participating brands include Audemars Piguet, Blancpain, BNB Concept, Bovet Fleurier, Breguet Montres, Cartier, Corum Montres, De Bethune, Delacour, Franck Muller, Frédérique Constant, Glashütte Uhrenbertrieb, Hermès, Hublot, Jaquet Droz, Louis Vuitton, Maximilian Büsser & Friends, Mont Blanc, Omega, Patek Philippe, Piaget, Richard Mille, Swatch, Tag Heuer, Tourneau Timepieces, Ulysse Nardin, Urwerk, Vacheron Constantin, Van Cleef & Arpels, Zenith International.

Below is a mosaic of their “pieces uniques”  – you can view larger images and a quote from each respective brand about their 2009 “Only Watch” contribution HERE.