PIAGET (founded 1874)
The story of Piaget begins in the 1874, when a 19-year old Georges-Édouard Piaget started as a watchmaker in La Côte-aux-Fées, a village in the Swiss Jura mountains. However, Piaget as we know it today did not truly emerge until 1943. It was then that his grandsons, Gérald and Valentin Piaget, registered the company’s name. They went from owning a mechanical workshop that supplied watch movements to Audemars Piguet, Rolex, Vacheron Constantin, and Cartier, to manufacturing watches under their own name. Piaget quickly became a luxury watch brand synonymous with technological advancements. Piaget unveiled the 2mm-thick mechanical 9P calibre in 1957 and the 2.3mm automatic 12P in 1960. These ultra-thin watches became iconic- unsurprisingly as the cultural revolution was also shaking things up in fashion and jewelry.
Since the watch face was now wider and flatter, it ultimately served as a canvas for Piaget to go bold and experimental with its designs. Piaget advertisements from the 1960s and 1970s are a testament to this creativity. Similar to modern jewelry of that era, Piaget combined hardstones such as lapis lazuli, tiger’s eye, malachite, onyx, turquoise, and nephrite with textured gold. The combinations of colorful dials and decorative gold cuff bracelets, part of their 21st c. Collection, allowed them the most room for experimentation. Their workshops consisted of jewelers whose expertise in working with gold was demonstrated by a myriad of styles: sometimes cuffs were woven or solid, and at other times, open and lattice-like. Their fashion-forward approach sparked desirability. The uniqueness of the designs, the opportunity for customization, and the release of new models meant that consumers can keep adding to their collection. Diamonds were also incorporated into the designs, truly elevating the time pieces to high jewelry (envision rotating diamond dials). One advertisement from 1970, read “Piaget une montre née bijoux précieux.” (Piaget is a watch born from precious jewelry). Designing watches for men and women, their timepieces were stylish, elegant, and broke with tradition. Piaget became a favorite of celebrities, socialites, and artists. Their collaboration with Salvador Dali on the Dali d’Or (a coin minted with the artist’s name) also helped further move them into the watch-jewelry category. They began designing necklace and pocket watches, expanding their reach and growing their inner circle- The Piaget Society.
Piaget has remained at the top of watch connoisseurs’ wish lists not only because it is stylish (the Piaget Polo is as desirable today as it was in 1979) but also because they have continued to excel in the craft of watch mechanisms. In the mid-1970s Piaget released the Beta 21- the first and most famous Swiss quartz movement. Then they ventured into quartz in ultra-thin watches: the 7P, launched in 1976, was the thinnest movement in the world, later replaced by the even thinner 8P, only 1.95mm thick. Piaget went on to develop the 430P movement – the heir to the 9P. From this movement, sixteen others were born, including the 600P, the world’s flattest tourbillon. The Piaget Society and its desire for both vintage and contemporary timepieces is still alive and well.
