Piaget watches
by David Barth
written June 2003
Piaget
Piaget, "Manufacture d'Horlogerie" since 1874, manufactures top line watches, hand-crafted in 18-carat gold and platinum. Initially, Piaget was a manufacturer of
movements sold to numerous watch making firms. The Piaget legend was born with the technical pursuit of ever-slimmer watch movements. Piaget succeeded in
designing and producing a hand-wound mechanical movement of only 1.35 mm, the world's slimmest watch. All Piaget movements are made in La Cote-aux-Fees,
Switzerland.
About 1950 Piaget began putting its name on the watches it created, entering the world of finished timepiece manufacturers.
The company's motto is, "Always do better than necessary." For Piaget craftsmen, the art of "dressing" a watch relies on painstaking attention to details.
After three years of research efforts representing a 3.5 million Swiss franc investment, 1997 marked the completion of 2 new watch lines: the mechanical Tangara
and Gouverneur lines.
Gouverneur wristwatches have "grande sonnerie" movements and are limited edition timepieces.
In 1956 Piaget developed the ultra-thin 9P line and in 1997 created a new ultra-thin men's watch, the 9P2, 2.15 mm thick.
Other lines include the Piaget Polo and the Protocole which has been Piaget's best-seller for over 30 years.
Piaget has outlets in more than forty countries using 900 highly selective distribution channels and ten strategically located boutiques under its own name. The
first boutique opened around 1970 in the prestigious Rue du Rhône in Geneva, Switzerland.
Piaget Boutique locations:
Geneva, Switzerland
Paris
Monaco
Hong Kong
Singapore
Kuala Lumpur
New York
Barcelona
London
Mumbai
Piaget remains one of the rare Swiss watch companies that is wholly vertically integrated to support all phases of production. It even has its own gold
foundry.
Piaget cases are only 18-carat gold or platinum, and may be embellished with gemstones of lapis, lazuli, coral, mother-of-pearl, tiger's eye, and
onyx.
Watch models:
9P
9P2
Polo
Protocole
Tangara
Gouverneur