Piaget’s Seventies-influenced, male-oriented sport-luxury Polo assortment, whose most up-to-date revamp had are available 2016, returned to the highlight earlier this 12 months with the discharge of the primary Polo Skeleton fashions in chrome steel circumstances. Piaget had hinted at a renewed give attention to the Polo assortment in 2021 and the watch-and-jewelry home has delivered, by following up the steel-cased fashions with 4 further items in gold — three of them diamond-set, two of these with absolutely paved circumstances and actions — unveiling them at Watches & Wonders 2021.
Like all of Piaget’s gold watches, the circumstances of the Piaget Polo Skeleton — identified for his or her “form inside a form” design combining a spherical case with a pillow-shaped dial opening — are solid in Piaget’s personal in-house gold foundry. The skeletonized, ultra-thin caliber 1200S can also be crafted in-house, and the gem-setting on the actions and circumstances is all performed on-premises by expert artisans. Like their metal predecessors, the circumstances measure a recent 42 mm in diameter, with a slender Piaget profile of 6.5 mm thick. The non-gem-set mannequin in 18k rose gold options darkish blue particulars on the motion’s bridges and plates to distinction elegantly with the tones of the case and harmonize with the blue alligator strap, which is supplied with a quick-change system.
One other mannequin in 18K white gold provides the identical case dimensions, and the identical blue colorways on the openworked dial and quick-change strap, however provides “a contact of glamour after darkish” with its gem-set bezel, incorporating 56 glowing, brilliant-cut stones. In line with Piaget CEO Chabi Nouri, in an interview carried out throughout Watches & Wonders, using eye-catching colours was simply the most recent inventive means by which Piaget has made its skeletonized manufacture calibers distinct. “Within the final seven years, we’ve constructed 12 skeleton [timepieces], all from scratch,” Nouri says. “We approached them every very in a different way: some had been embellished, some had been engraved, paved, or set with stones. This 12 months, we determined to deal with them with colour, beginning with the metal blue and grey fashions earlier this 12 months, and likewise labored on the ending, making it sharper and extra modern to match the feel and appear of the Polo assortment.”
In fact, Piaget has utilized its legendary jewelry-making savoir faire to the brand new fashions as properly. The Excessive Jewelry model of the Piaget Polo Skeleton dazzles with its white-gold case and flange, bedecked with 148 brilliant-cut diamonds and 132 baguette cuts, in addition to its motion, whose key parts are additionally solid from gold, internet hosting 292 brilliant-cut diamonds and 11 brilliant-cut sapphires. This model of the openworked motion, which like its non-gem-set sibling makes use of an off-centered micro-rotor to wind its mainspring, has been dubbed Caliber 1200Di and is, in accordance with Piaget, the thinnest diamond-set skeleton motion on this planet. Integrating stone-setting right into a watch motion, Nouri says, requires a excessive stage of coordination between the inventive groups, from designers to watchmakers to jewelers. “All the things impacts the whole lot else,” she factors out. ‘The burden of the arms and indexes, the complexity of the mechanism, the burden of the stones — it’s another excuse why being absolutely built-in helps, as a result of all the individuals in all the fields are really working collectively.”
The case of the Excessive Jewelry mannequin is simply barely thicker than the non-stone-set circumstances, at 7.99 mm, and provides a rose-cut diamond set into the crown. The white-gold clasp of the model mounted on a grey alligator strap additionally hosts an extra six baguette-cut stones. For these searching for much more sparkle, Piaget additionally mounts the watch on a white-gold bracelet, absolutely paved with 184 baguette cuts and 1,258 sensible cuts for a mixed weight of 15.6 carats and a supremely eye-popping design.
Skeletonized wristwatches are principally considered a comparatively fashionable invention, however Nouri factors out that Piaget has been dabbling within the model for greater than 50 years, and counts the late jazz legend (and Piaget shopper) Miles Davis as one among its wearers. “Piaget has at all times been forward of its time, or maybe out of its time,” she says. “We’ve at all times performed, and proceed to do, issues that aren’t widespread. Skeletonization has at all times been one of many stylistic codes of the model, together with ultra-thin components, and we’ve combined these two codes in a fully elegant, comfy watch.” The Excessive Jewelry editions can be found as of April 2021, with costs starting at 297,000 Swiss francs. The rose-gold and white-gold-diamond-set fashions are slated for launch in September 2021, priced at 43,100 CHF and 58,500 CHF, respectively. Nouri guarantees extra improvements to come back on this Yr of the Polo, beginning within the fall.
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