SIHH 2012 getting ramped up. Here’s the Piaget Gouverneur Chronograph, powered by the new Piaget Calibre 882P, an ultra-thin mechanical self-winding movement. This classic model is distinguished by its two-counter design reminiscent of vintage chronographs. In addition to the flyback chronograph functions – featuring a sweep seconds hand and a minute counter at 3 o’clock – the movement also drives the hour and minute hands, a 24-hour dual time-zone display in a subdial at 9 o’clock, and a date indication at 6 o’clock.
Piaget Governour Chronograph
43mm pink gold case, Manufacture Piaget 882P ultra-thin mechanical flyback self-winding chronograph movement
Here’s an early look at the 2012 Piaget Altiplano Skeleton Automatic. When it is unveiled in Geneva next January, the watch will be the world’s thinnest automatic skeleton with the world’s thinnest automatic skeleton movement. In my book, Piaget is the “King of Thin”, always bringing out these absolutely wafer-thin timepieces which really are amazing (recall as last year’s Piaget Altiplano Automatic). The movement in this watch — the Piaget Caliber 1200S — is a mere 2.40mm thick. This lends itself to an overall case thickness of just 5.34mm. You gotta love the attention to detail and design contrasts in this watch — observe how the blackened (rhodium-finished) hour/minute hands, screws, and platinum micro-rotor contrast against the brushed, flat white gold surfaces — which themselves are finished with polished angles (edges) — it really is a case study in beauty. This watch will be hitting the market sometime in 2012, and until then I don’t expect firm pricing , but expect something near $60,000.
More SIHH 2012 Previews: Panerai PAM 422, Girard-Perregaux 1966 Small Second
Piaget Altiplano Skeleton Automatic Watch
38mm white gold case (5.34mm thick), automatic mechanical Piaget Caliber 1200S (2.4mm thick),
Side view — can you see it? hehehe
Continuing my ONLY Watch 2011 previews (see them all here) — here’s a first look at the Piaget Altiplano Skeleton for Only Watch 2011. The watch features a black-PVD finished white gold case with an openworked dial that allows for visibility of the movement. Note also the “sunray” pattern which is incorporated on both the movement and the outer edge of the dial.
Piaget Altiplano Skeleton for ONLY WATCH 2011
white gold case with black PVD finish, manual-wind, ultra thin mechanical Piaget 838P movement with black PVD finish, sunray guilloché motif, pink gold finished hands, on a black alligator strap and matching buckle
by Kyle Stults on January 03, 2011
And the Show goes on…
Hello everyone, and Happy New Year to you all! I must say it feels good to be back behind the keyboard after some relaxing time-off over the holidays.
As you may know, one of the world’s largest and most prestigious watch shows occurs this month in Geneva, Switzerland — the Salon Internationale de la Haute Horlogerie 2011, or ‘SIHH 2011″ for short. Bringing you the newest watches that 19 of the world’s greatest luxury brands unveil at this show is something we here at Perpetuelle enjoy very much, and we are ready to deliver again in 2011! This will be our third year running a dedicated SIHH Forum Feed, and we hope you will tune into our real-time coverage starting January 17th. You will not find more comprehensive and timely coverage anywhere on the ‘Net. Also as in years past, I will be discussing my favorite and new watches coming out of SIHH 2011 here on the blog.
In keeping with tradition, each brand at SIHH usually pre-releases one of its new watches in the weeks and/or months leading up to the big show in order to whet our appetites, but a couple brands are yet to tip their hats this year. I’ve already covered most of these SIHH 2011 pre-releases as you can see here (two of my favorites are the Girard-Perregaux 1966 Small Seconds and the Panerai Luminor Composite PAM 386).
Which brings us to today — the SIHH 2011 preview from Piaget, the Piaget Emperador Coussin Tourbillon Automatic Ultra Thin (say that three times fast).
Piaget Emperador Coussin Tourbillon Automatic Ultra Thin
46.5mm case in white or pink gold, featuring new manufacture Caliber 1270p
A look at the pink gold model:
Piaget Caliber 1270P
5.5mm thick, automatic, tourbillon, front-facing micro-rotor
“Veuve Clicquot yellow” subdials…
For the second year in a row, Piaget was the official timekeeper of the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic, one of the world’s most high profile polo matches. While the 2010 match will be remembered by most for the unfortunate “Royal Tumble” by Prince Harry, the horologically impassioned may rather prefer to take note of the limited edition version Piaget Polo FortyFive Chronograph which was created to commemorate the event. The specially designed timepiece keeps form and function with the Polo FortyFive models — except for its “Clicquot Yellow” on the subdials and the “New York” designation on the outer edge of the dial.
Piaget Polo FortyFive Veuve Clicquot Classic Chronograph
Limited Edition of 10 pieces
So why “New York” on the dial? I have no idea, but I do think that Piaget could and should have come up with a better phrase to mark this watch. “New York” seems so generic.
If you ask me, Piaget collectors could better spend their time chasing down the Piaget Polo FortyFive “Marcos Heguy” edition which I profiled last week.
For the “Kobe Bryant” of Polo…
This is a very nice looking and very limited (45 pieces) edition Piaget Polo FortyFive watch. It was created in tribute to Piaget’s ambassador to the world of polo, superstar sportsman Marcos Heguy. Heguy is a legendary polo player from Argentina, one of the world’s powerhouses of the sport. The watch was officially unveiled at the USPA Piaget Gold Cup tournament which was held in Florida in April 2010. It is now available for purchase — I don’t know the price but I would expect $25,000 at a minimum. More about the watch’s “Handicap 10″ marking on the dials — and Marcos Heguy — below.
Piaget Polo FortyFive Marcos Heguy Limited Edition (Ref. GOA34620)
Titanium case, brushed bezel with polished steel accents, screw-down crown in rubber and titanium, Piaget caliber 880P automatic movement (double barrel), steel triple-folding clasp on rubber strap (with steel inserts)
Blue counters on a black dial incorporating the words “10 Handicap”
The “Marcos Heguy” signed sapphire crystal case-back is not pictured.
Did You Know?
Marcos Heguy is captain of the Pilará Piaget team in Argentina’s famous Triple Crown series. Heguy was first awarded his 10-goal handicap rating in 1987. A “10″ handicap is as good as one can earn — it basically means you are the “best of the best” in the sport of polo. The Federation of International Polo website currently lists just 25 players with a perfect “10″ rating. Thus the “Handicap 10″ marking on the dial of the Piaget Polo FortyFive Marcos Heguy Limited Edition!
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”
