It was in La Côte-aux-Fées that Georges-Edouard Piaget set up his first workshop in the family farmhouse and devoted himself to producing high-precision movements. This was back in 1874 and marked the start of an ever-growing reputation. In 1943, the company took a decision that would prove crucial to its future by registering its brand name. Faithful to its pioneering spirit, Piaget in the late 1950s set about designing and manufacturing the ultra-thin movements that would become one of the Maison’s signatures and leave a lasting impression on watchmaking.
But Piaget was also a style: a marriage of gold and an explosion of color, new shapes, precious gems, and dials made of hard stones. Carried along on the wave of extraordinary creativity driven by Yves G. Piaget, the brand’s jewelry collection grew in an original direction with a resolute emphasis on color. Rich in more than 140 years of history, the ever-bold brand innovated by offering jewels in motion, extravagant Haute Joaillerie collections, and incredible watches to become today one of the world’s most prestigious watchmaker-jewelers.
The Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept Watch is proof of Piaget’s unending quest for infinite slenderness and technical virtuosity. It redefines the rules of ultra-thin watchmaking. It is the result of years of painstaking research and development. At just 2 mm in total thickness, the Altiplano Ultimate Concept has been crowned as the thinnest hand-wound watch in the world.
Things to Know About the Watch
The Altiplano Ultimate Concept began four years earlier as an idea and an ambition. The Manufacture assembled some of its finest engineers, watchmakers, and designers and asked a simple question: “How can we reduce the thickness to the very limits of feasibility while making no sacrifice to reliability or aesthetic appeal?” The challenge was set.
To meet the challenge, the most talented men and women in their professions would have to find innovative new solutions. To save precious tenths of a millimeter, they chose a new ultra-rigid and robust cobalt-based high-tech alloy, stopping the watch from buckling due to its extreme slenderness. They erased the distinction between movement and case, by making the case both an exterior component and the movement mainplate. And, discovering solutions to challenges that had never before been set before, they filed five patents for the technological innovations essential to making the Altiplano Ultimate Concept possible. To maintain the ultra-slender profile, the winding crown was designed to meet the case seamlessly. Of course, a watch that breaks so many rules was never expected to have a traditional crown. Instead, a flat-shaped ‘telescopic’ crown is recessed smoothly against the case band.
Re-imagining completely many of the fundamentals of watchmaking, Piaget mounted several ball-bearing mechanisms directly onto the frame, such as the the barrel. This features an innovative and distinctive construction and was designed without a cover or a drum. At 9 o’clock, also mounted on a ball-bearing mechanism, the construction of the regulating organ has been entirely redesigned. The balance-wheel bridge has vanished.
The balance wheel and spring are pinned up to the collet and inverted, meaning that the balance wheel appears above the balance-spring. The absence of an index assembly is compensated by an adjustable balance-spring stud. This set of solutions enables a significant reduction in the thickness of the regulating organ while guaranteeing its precision, isochronism, and a power reserve of no less than 44 hours.
To portray the thinness of the Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept Watch we put it side-by-side to a massive Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore ‘Brick’. As you can see in the second picture, the Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept Watch looks almost as thin as the gasket in between the AP’s bezel and the case to give you a better idea of how thin this manual wound watch is in reality.
Even the watch crystal has been rethought for record-breaking thinness. Integrated directly within the case, despite being only 0.2mm thick, it still provides a water resistance of 30 meters.
The solid case back is totally integrated into the rest of the case to guarantee the slenderness that was once only imagined. A feat of horology in all the sens of the word and an incredible concept watch like nothing we’ve ever seen before.
On the Wrist
On the wrist, the Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept Watch wears flawlessly and with impressive wrist presence. When compared to how the Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Automatic 910P wears next to this one, just know that the Ultimate Concept Watch is less than half the thickness of the Ultimate Automatic 910P.
Out of words after perusing this feat of horology and one of the most impressive watches we’ve ever reviewed here at WCL.
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