To mark this special anniversary, Maison Piaget has performed an outstanding feat, a first in watchmaking history. 150 years after the Maison was first founded, 67 years after it invented its first ultra-thin calibre and 6 years after it revealed the thinnest watch in the world, the Altiplano Ultimate Concept, in 2018, Piaget has once again pushed the boundaries of horological ingenuity.
Shaped by a quest for elegance and driven by inventiveness, this unrivalled timepiece boasts 2mm, the same thinness as its predecessor. All the while, it shelters the beating heart of a flying tourbillon. A natural next step in the Maison’s journey, this invention is both a technical and emotional milestone.
The new Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon 150 Anniversaire, comes with a diameter of 41.5mm, a guaranteed water resistance to a depth of 20 metres and a blue PVD-treated cobalt alloy case. This timepiece appears to possess all the features of an everyday watch. However, its 2mm thickness and its flying tourbillon take it to a different plane, that of the extraordinary.
Set in circular motion by a bridge encircling it, the carriage of the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon completely subverts the current state-of-the-art technical principles. The signature engraved on its back, next to a sapphire crystal placed under the tourbillon, sums up the process that has driven Piaget since its beginnings: “Always do better than necessary”.
A collection of parts makes up a tourbillon. It consists of a cage that, being a cage, contains the balance wheel, balance spring, lever, and escape wheel—the watch’s regulating mechanism. This organ is rotated on its axis by the cage, which replaces the second gear train wheel. Imagine it as a sandwich that contains the already extraordinarily thin Altiplano Ultimate Concept steak. Additionally, creating an excellent sandwich is an art.
Piaget had already abandoned the classic, sandwich-like form of the watch. The case is symbolic of the two buns: the movement, or steak, is in the centre, and the top buns, or crystal and bezel, are on top. Two of these layers are gone because of Piaget’s shaving: the movement’s baseplate, which has recesses for its parts, is now the rear of the case.
The company used this method to reduce the size of its Altiplano Ultimate to 3.65mm, which was the lowest point at which it could be made. This allowed the Altiplano Ultimate Concept to become the thinnest watch in the world across all categories.
From the front, it shows remarkable depth, a potential for self-expression that the wearer never could have imagined. Day to day, it can either go unnoticed or make a statement. It showcases its profoundly elegant character with a play of colours that is intensely Piaget, pairing blue with gold.
This elegance is, more than anything else, the feature that Piaget constantly strives to achieve, placing it at the very heart of its DNA. Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon is made to be worn. To be looked at. To remind its owner of the long history of the people and the Manufacture that made it. And finally, to make them wonder what challenges Maison Piaget will set itself next.
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