Piaget Watches and Wonders 2022

Piaget presented a great collection of novelties at Watches and Wonders 2022 but we selected two very precious and very Piaget-like timepieces to have a closer look at, here. 

During my childhood I was never a fan of enchanted castles in the amusement parks, but I would be happily lost at the gold-blue-turquoise-beige mirroring magical booth of Piaget at Watches and Wonders 2022 in Geneva. The design plays with the different colours, structures, mirrors, reflections and animations on the screens. 

The colourful booth offers a fascinating surrounding to the novelties – the latest one-of-a-kind Altiplano Ultimate Concept, the Polo watches and the radiant Limelight Gala watches. 

The loud and buzzing 60’s and 70’s had a great influence on Piaget’s creations and their pieces have always been associated with high society and elevated glamour. In 1967 the company started creating watches with dials in coloured hard stones; such as lapis-lazuli, jade, rubellite, onyx, tiger’s eye or hawk’s eye and combining it with precious metals. Later in the early 70’s the brand launched an asymmetrical watch with a gem-set bezel and lugs, which became the inspiration behind the Limelight Gala collection. 

The Limelight Gala luxury watches are very feminine, elegant but bold timepieces embracing the asymmetrical design with different gemstones, dial variations and colours. In the collection the brand offers more everyday pieces with Piaget quartz or mechanical movements (the 430P for example), with silvered or mother-of-pearl dial and leather straps; models executed in fully metal (such as this beauty here) and also limited series pieces with other different gems completing the diamonds, like blue or pink sapphires. 

Piaget Limelight Gala Precious

The new Piaget Limelight Gala Precious timepiece features a beautiful malachite dial surrounded by a masterfully coloured gradient setting of tsavorites (the emerald-green variety of grossular garnet) and diamonds on the asymmetrical bezel. It can take several months to create an optimal gradient – not only sourcing and selecting but grouping together the most complementary stones. The art of colour pairing and shading is very important to Piaget and this particular colour gradient of the tsavorites has been chosen to provide a delicate but impressive frame for the malachite dial. 

As Piaget is using semi-precious stones for the dials in many of their designs, the artisans have a strict criteria for these stones – in this case the malachite has to be deeply coloured and feature a regular grain with contrasts and show no presence of crystals in its structure. For each dial the stones have to be meticulously cut into thin layers.  

Beyond mastering the thin hard stone crafts Piaget has a wealth of experience with goldsmith techniques too. The sumptuous metal texture decorations include the so-called ‘palace-decoration’ for example – which we can find on the bracelet of this timepiece. It is powered by a Manufacture automatic movement the 501P1 that is on full view through a sapphire case-back.  

Piaget Limelight Gala High Jewellery

As we just discussed here, Piaget is a master of many crafts. With its amazing haute joaillerie creations the Maison is very well known for its gem-setting and goldsmithing artistry. The new Limelight Gala High Jewellery is an amazing interpretation of the Limelight Gala model, in white gold and with different cut diamonds. The various gem-cuts capture and reflect the light in diverse ways, lending the timepiece even more brilliance. 

The bezel, case and bracelet are set with 71 brilliant-cut diamonds, 98 baguette-cut diamonds and 87 marquise-cut diamonds, which look like little leaves hugging the wrist. 

The snow-paved dial is set with 190 brilliant-cut diamonds – this type of setting features diamonds of different sizes that are juxtaposed in a seemingly random pattern. The arrangement aims to leave as little metal visible as possible. Each arrangement is unique and gives the effect of a blanket of snow glittering in the sunshine. At Piaget, in the ‘Atelier de l’Extraordinaire’, where the High Jewellery creations are set, the Maison’s gem setters are constantly experimenting with new ideas and perfecting the techniques.