Piaget’s hallmark is its ultra-thin watches, true works of art and ingenuity that have made the company one of the world's most prestigious and best-loved luxury watchmakers. Piaget watches encapsulate unparalleled craftsmanship, elegance and creativity, the custodians of a savoir-faire that combines time-honoured craftsmanship, experimentation and ongoing innovation, all under the hallmark of ultra-thin gauges.
Piaget: from country workshop to luxury maison
To fully understand the evolution of Piaget watches, it is necessary to take a step back in time and discover the origins of the Piaget brand.
In the Swiss village of La Côte-aux-Fées, Georges-Édouard Piaget liked to devote his time during the snowy winters to his greatest passion, the creation of high-precision movements for famous watch brands.
With the motto “always do better than you need to”, which still continues to inspire the brand's work today, he founded his workshop on the family farm in 1870, when he was just 19, marking the beginning of an important chapter in the history of haute horlogerie. In 1911, when his son Timothée Piaget took over the running of the company, the name Piaget was already synonymous with excellence and, in the 1920s, was supplier to prestigious watch brands such as Rolex, Vacheron Constantin and Cartier.
The family registered the trademark in 1943 and Piaget became a watchmaking brand in its own right. The turning point came in 1957, when Valentin Piaget, driven by a veritable obsession with ultra-thin watches, developed the famous extra-thin manually wound Calibre 9P and, three years later, the world's thinnest self-winding movement, the Calibre 12P, with a thickness of just 2.3 mm. Piaget won the Guinness World Record as the creator of the world's thinnest self-winding watch movement.
The Calibre 9P and 12P were the real forerunners of the future ultra-thin movements made by Piaget, the true hallmark of the Swiss maison, such as the Calibre 600P, the world's thinnest manually-wound tourbillon movement, and the 1208P automatic, also the thinnest in its category.
The revolution of the ultra-thin watch by Piaget
The 9P movement made it possible not only to create ultra-thin men's watches, but also to develop a new aesthetic for lady’s watches, which had previously had very small dials, unsuitable for decoration. The ultra-thin movement had a bigger diameter, allowing for bigger dials.
Experimentation is the key to innovation and the skill of Piaget's craftsmen succeeded in making dials that were less than a millimetre thick by cutting hard stones such as lapis lazuli, onyx, rubellite, malachite, opal and tiger's eye. The Maison confirmed its pioneering spirit, expressed through masterpieces of engineering and the goldsmith's art, with an exclusive focus on precious metals. It was in this context that jewelled watches were also born.
In 1979, the Swiss maison introduced the Piaget Polo, model to the market, interpreting the changing tastes of a clientele that was still refined but looking for more casual accessories. Waterproof and with a sporty look, the Piaget Polo was made entirely of yellow gold. Ultra-thin, thanks to the 7P quartz movement, the thinnest in the world at just 1.95 mm, it features a case as thick as the bracelet, which, with a polished and brushed link motif also featured on the dial, allows unparalleled comfort.
Since then, the Polo has succeeded in innovating numerous times, changing guise while retaining its particular thinness: squared, set with diamonds, equipped with various complications, until the late 1990s and early 2000s, when its aesthetics changed radically, turning it into a true sports watch, also thanks to the steel version which joined the ever-prestigious titanium model.
To celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Piaget Polo, a re-edition of the first model was released in 2024 under the name Piaget Polo 79. It is already very popular with celebrities.
Piaget Altiplano: emblem of thinness and refined elegance
The brand's most elegant soul resides in the Piaget Altiplano, the dress watch par excellence, characterised by an extremely minimal design, leather strap and, of course, ultra-thinness with the movement built directly into the back to optimise every fraction of a millimetre.
This model too has taken on different guises and personalities over time: the Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept set a new record for thinness in 2020, with a fascinating design featuring visible components that enhance the extraordinary engineering work, evoking extraordinary craftsmanship.
Altiplano lends itself to creative experimentation, where the superfine technique of haute horlogerie and innovative design always go hand in hand, never ceasing to amaze.
Piaget is synonymous with ultra-thin watches, the finest ultra-thin watches: every one of their tiniest details harbours a unique treasure trove of excellence.
