WORLDTEMPUS - 27 October 2011Kristian Haagen
“I fully understand why other watch companies do not make super-slim watches,” Piaget CEO Philippe Léopold-Metzger told Worldtempus from a sunny terrace in Seville, where Piaget showed its new Altiplano Skeleton.
The Altiplano is an impressive timepiece. This is not only due to the fact that it is already powered by the thinnest automatic movement available on the market with a slender height of 2.4 millimeters. The Altiplano is also the thinnest automatic watch with a case height of only 5.34 millimeters.
True artisans
Léopold-Metzger's remark was a salute to the master craftsmen behind the watch who had to pretty much create the impossible: skeletonizing an already slim and – therefore – fragile movement: Caliber 1200S. Skeletonizing, also known as open-working, reveals only the most vital parts of the movement structure. In this case it was achieved without losing the well-known, luxurious look of a Piaget movement with its own décor and inner beauty.
“This is a task reserved for only a few of the world's most talented artisans,” Léopold-Metzger claimed, indicating that Piaget employs some of the most talented hands in the Swiss watch business. “Mind you, at Piaget we do not ask external and independent watchmakers to design a movement for us. We do everything ourselves,” Léopold-Metzger underlined the strength of the watch company that he has captained for the last 12 years.
The choice of Steve Jobs?
We wanted to know from Léopold-Metzger why Piaget is so keen on being the master of the slim watch when some of its closest competitors are exploring new and exotic materials and multiple mechanical functions. “Piaget is an elegant company, offering elegant watches. But we are also very much movement makers, talking a lot about our calibers and how we put much effort into the aesthetics of our movements. Our super slim watches offer elegant simplicity, and I think that our Altiplano is a watch that Steve Jobs would have worn due to the extraordinary simplicity of the design.” Jobs would probably not have protested against this remark, as Piaget's Altiplano indeed reflects elegance and simplicity paired with incredible technological features.
Tough job
Even though the Piaget Altiplano may look simple, creating its super slim movement certainly is not, as some of its components are as thin as 0.12 millimeter. On top of that, the Altiplano Skeleton is elegantly finished: a blackened platinum rotor elegantly decorated with Piaget's coat of arms rotates against the backdrop of a movement featuring satin-brushed, hand-sawed and hand-beveled plates and bridges. This caliber has been painstakingly skeletonized, yet the time is still very visible due to the blackened dauphine hands that provide a much needed contrast to the satinized, sunray-polished movement.
Masters of the ultra-thin
With this new open-worked model, it is hard to see how Piaget will be able to come up with another record-breaking Altiplano. The Skeleton version has been stripped down to its bare essentials, and it would take an even slimmer movement to move this new model out of the champion's circle: Piaget is indeed the “Master of Ultra-Thin Movements.”
The Altiplano Skeleton has a case diameter of 38 millimeters and is only offered in 18-karat white gold. Suggested retail price is 50,000 Swiss francs.
