Piaget Altiplano Infinite Blue
The Piaget Altiplano Infinite Blue perpetuates the Maison’s reputation for ultra-thin watches, high complications and artisanal crafts such as gem-setting. The Altiplano Infinite Blue is offered in three variants, each with dials and cases suffused with diamonds.
Wallis Simpson, the famous socialite once remarked, ‘You can’t be too rich or too thin’. In terms of the latter characteristic, Piaget would probably agree. While other brands make ultra-thin watches, Piaget is always at the forefront of this horological genre.
Piaget was founded in La Côte-aux-Fées within the Val-de-Travers region. From the outset it was a Manufacture, making highly precise movements. Throughout its history it has produced complicated watches including tourbillons and minute repeaters.
However, in 1957 the prestigious Maison unveiled the Calibre 9P. With a height of just 2mm it was the thinnest hand-wound movement at the time. Only three years later, in 1960, Piaget unveiled the Calibre 12P, the thinnest automatic movement. The Swiss marque has also gone on to release further slender models, some endowed with an array of complications.
Now, the luxury watch brand has combined a flying tourbillon, a tourbillon devoid of an upper bridge, with a myriad of gems. And yet, despite such complexity, the new Piaget Altiplano Infinite Blue has a slender waist that Wallis would undoubtedly have approved of. Understandably such excellence doesn’t come cheap, hence Wallis was probably right, ‘you can never be too rich’.
The brand’s press release
The origins of Piaget’s Altiplano can be traced back to the very beginnings of the Maison in 1874. Piaget’s founder Georges Edouard Piaget started his watchmaking business by making high-precision components for the leading watch brands of the day. His ability to create ultra-thin parts brought him immediate recognition across the Swiss Jura region.
Success as a supplier gave Georges Edouard the impetus to start producing his own watches and in 1943 the Piaget brand was formed with this ultra-thin savoir-faire becoming a speciality of the Manufacture.
Ultra-thin movements and timepieces are not a complication per se, but the art of creating components two to three times thinner than regular parts is something incredibly complex. To date, Piaget has developed 35 in-house calibres, of which 23 are ultra-thin.
Ultra-thin at the Service of Style and Design
It is not only the quest for ul0mate thinness that is at the heart of Piaget, but the Maison’s love for elegance is also second to none, always encouraging its designers and cra=sman to express their crea0vity to the fullest and follow the Piaget motto to “always do better than necessary”. The no0on of ultra-thin has always served Piaget’s audacious style.
Art of Movement: Piaget’s Altiplano Flying Tourbillon
In 2017, Piaget celebrated the 60th anniversary of its ultra-thin movement with the ultra-thin Altiplano flying tourbillon, putting the movement at the service of the design. This manual- winding movement, featuring the time at eight o’clock and the tourbillon at two o’clock, is entirely made and assembled in Piaget’s Manufacture. With 157 ultra-thin and ultra-light components, such as the carriage measuring a mere 2.88mm, three titanium bridges weighing no more than 0.2g, and some components measuring no more than the thickness of a human hair, the Piaget Altiplano Tourbillon is a feat of engineering.
It also holds a patent for its stem mechanism, featuring an intermediate wheel that looks like a staircase and enables the user to set the time of the off-centred dial — another first in the watch industry.
Piaget’s Altiplano Tourbillon Infinite Blue
This Spring, the Maison is unveiling three new Altiplano Flying Tourbillon timepieces in Piaget’s elegant blue colour that is reminiscent of the immense night sky above our heads and the mysterious depths of the ocean. These three novelties feature dials that have been designed with a gem-set motif that echoes the Infinite symbol formed by the juxtaposition of the tourbillon carriage and the off-centred hour and minute counter. This Infinite shape is hand-crafted in Piaget’s Ateliers de l’Extraordinaire and requires the utmost precision and expertise to cut the shape and set the array of sparkling diamonds.
Piaget Altiplano Tourbillon Infinite Blue Limited Edition 38
The Piaget Altiplano Tourbillon Infinite Blue Limited Edition of 38 pieces is fitted with an exquisite blue sunburst PVD dial and is adorned with 135 diamonds (approx. 2.29 cts) on the bezel, lugs, buckle, and dial with an Infinite diamond figure encircling the 670P flying tourbillon movement and the off-centred hour and minute counter. The timepiece is completed with a blue alligator strap.
Piaget Altiplano Tourbillon Infinite Blue Limited Edition 18
The Piaget Altiplano Tourbillon Infinite Blue Limited Edition of 18 pieces takes creative design to the limit with a hypnotising swirl of diamonds that continue the Infinite symbol across the blue sunburst PVD dial. The bezel, lugs, and buckle are also embellished with diamonds, totalling 276 diamonds (approx. 3.41 cts). The timepiece is powered by Piaget’s 670P flying tourbillon at two o’clock that forms the Infinite sign with the off-centred hour and minute counter at eight o’clock. The timepiece is completed with a blue alligator strap, limited to 18 pieces.
Piaget Altiplano Tourbillon Infinite Blue Limited Edition 8
This limited-edition version of eight pieces has been decorated with baguette diamonds – a precious and elegant cut that brings out the intense blue of the sunburst PVD dial, the 670P tourbillon movement, and off-centred hour and minute counter. Baguette diamonds adorn the bezel and the dial while brilliant-cut diamonds grace the lugs, the buckle and the case (profile & back) making this timepiece even more precious. The timepiece is set with a total of 386 diamonds (approx. 6.05 cts) and comes fitted with an elegant blue alligator strap.
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