Maison of Extraleganza
A family of watchmakers lives high in the Swiss mountains, surrounded by green pastures in summer and a blanket of white in winter. Somehow, out of the confines and limited palette of those surroundings, the Piaget family conjures up a world of intense colour, audacious innovation and exceptional craftsmanship.
Balancing extravagance and elegance in equal measure into a world of Extraleganza, each generation applied their own diverse talents to build a Maison that has mastered the arts of first watchmaking, then jewelry, and given the world something beyond what could be expected.
In 1874, Georges-Édouard Piaget used the long winter months in La Côte-aux-Fées to manufacture watch movements. He distinguished himself early on in creating ultra-thin escapements of exceptional quality and precision, and ended up working for some of the biggest names in watchmaking at the time. His approach, aptly summed up in his motto, “Always do better than necessary”, laid the foundations for what was to follow.
Now come the mid-20th century, and at the helm of a trademarked brand in its own right, Georges-Edouard’s grandsons Gerald and Valentin developed the business, from La Côte-Aux-Fées to La Côte d’Azur. Gerald travelled the world spreading the word and reach of Piaget, while Valentin’s imagination fired with new ways to distinguish Piaget as a watchmaker.
He masterminded the creation of the ultra-thin movement, an innovation that led the way for all the achievements that followed. The calibre 9P, a highly precise hand-wound mechanical movement measuring only 2mm thin, was unveiled in 1957. The 12P, part of the craze at that time for developing automatic movements, quickly followed in 1960. It was world’s thinnest automatic movement, measuring just 2.3mm thin. These inventions not only revolutionised the calibre inside the watch but liberated the case and dial from technical and size restrictions, so they could become a vibrant canvas for creative expression in watches for both men and women.
In 1957, Piaget announced its commitment to precious metals. From now on, it would only create watches in platinum and gold. Against a backdrop of competitors who were focused on the practicalities of the sports watch emerging at the time, this was a bold statement.
Its seclusion in the Jura mountains meant that the company had long been self-sufficient in terms of developing a full complement of in-house resources, including after in Geneva its own gold foundry and highly skilled teams of watchmakers, goldsmiths, stone cutters and engravers.
Now from those foundations of skilled hands and far-seeing minds, Valentin’s vision for jewelry watches could follow. In the late 1960s, he established Piaget’s own creative studio. Employing designers who possessed backgrounds in jewelry rather than in watchmaking, he instructed them to ‘do what has never been done before’ and encouraged them to travel to Paris and draw inspiration from the latest couture fashion shows. The designers ripped the pages from fashion magazines and drew their designs directly on the pictures inside, so their creations would be in line with the tidal wave of liberation and modernity that was to characterise the world in the 1960s.
Piaget’s first High Jewelry creations in 1959 championed the playfulness of asymmetry and mixed stone cuts. Movement was a Piaget hallmark even then. The house harnessed the malleability of gold to its own creative ends, creating sensuous masterpieces that moulded to the neck and wrist like the ribbon in a couturier’s bow, moving freely with the wearer.
Coinciding with the step into these new creative waters, Piaget opened its first boutique in Geneva in June 1959. Its watches were already being sold around the world but this was a chance to celebrate its unique spin on creativity, both in high watchmaking and high jewelry, in one uniquely designed location. By way of contrast with the historical buildings lining the streets of the lakeside city, it was a statement of modernity.
Instead of the traditional large boutique windows stuffed with product, Piaget’s were narrow, tempting passersby to stop and take a closer look at the strikingly spartan selection of wonders inside. The boutique, known as the Salon Piaget, sign said all it needed to: Piaget Horlogers Joailliers. Inside was more art gallery than store, a place to savour audacious design and exceptional craft.
The same team behind these creations mixed with clients who were rejecting the staid fashions of the past, and seeking a new glamour that combined modernity and colour. Thus in 1966, Piaget unveiled its first ornemental dial watches.
The deep cobalt blue of lapis lazuli, the rich veining of malachite contrasted with the dancing shimmer of a gold that was woven like chainmail. Heightening the overall effect was Piaget’s development of its very own Palace Decor technique. With its roots in the tradition of guilloché engraving, which had been used for centuries to enrich watch dials, Piaget liberated the technique from beyond the confines of the dial and began to engrave its tightly woven gold bracelets to form rich, densely textured patterns that mimicked nature patterns, such as bark, fur or frost.
The Maison was soon counting the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy, Ursula Andress and Alain Delon, among its dedicated fans. All of this however was simply build-up to the revolution incumbent in Piaget’s 21st Century Collection. This apotheosis of flamboyant jewelry creativity and watchmaking artistry was unveiled at the Basel Watch Fair in 1969, the same year that man first walked on the moon. This series of one of a kind jewelry timepieces from a creative team that included Jean Claude Gueit, one of the 20th century’s greatest watch designers, was exceptional for its elegant, hand-sculpted gold cases, complex chainwork and avant-garde designs that saw watches set into elaborate cuffs and swinging from sautoirs.
At the same time Piaget revolutionised watch advertising with its bold campaigns for the 21st Century Collection in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. These were the result of a creative collaboration with Alberto Rizzo, the Italian photographer and artist, who was rethinking the way the world saw fashion photography.
Gerald’s son Yves joined the business in the 1960s. Despite being trained as a watch engineer and later as a gemmologist, artistry and the handmade remained his first loves. “We create watches, we don’t produce them,” he said. Yves was equally blessed with charisma and charm, and his love of travel meant that he spread the word of Piaget to the four corners of the earth, developing client relationships with some of the greatest figures of the 1970s and 1980s including Brooke Shields and Ursula Andress. It became his Piaget Society.
That attention to detail and level of symbiosis between creativity and the client experience led to the Style Selector. This innovative launch at the Piaget boutique in the heart of Manhattan meant that clients, like watch lover Andy Warhol, could create their own custom design, selecting the shape of their watch case, the type of dial and bracelet and the extent of the gem setting.
More than just a service, it was a lifestyle and a demonstration of Piaget’s unique and distinctive mastery. An in-house expertise and a symbol of distinctive elegance and refined extravagance, that we call the Maison of Extraleganza.
Our Creations
