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Piaget gives a new dimension to the métiers d’art
Watches and Wonders

Piaget gives a new dimension to the métiers d’art

Sunday, 04 October 2015
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Christophe Roulet
Editor-in-chief, HH Journal

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4 min read

After The Silk Route, presented in 2013, Piaget embarks on the second part of its Mythical Journey, Secrets & Lights, inspired by Venice and Samarkand. These 93 jewellery creations and 38 timepieces transcend the métiers d’art at Piaget.

Piaget decked out its booth at Watches&Wonders in a heavenly blue, with constellations of glittering chains making swirls across the ceiling. It then filled this Ali Baba’s cave with its own treasures and wonders in the form of watches, from the most simple to the most complex, ablaze with diamonds. The majority were completely covered with these precious stones, dial and bracelet included. Visitors could feast their eyes on the Emperador Cushion in an XL Tourbillon version and a Minute Repeater version, on a Piaget Polo Flyback Chronograph and a Relative Tourbillon 47mm, and on Dancer, Limelight Aurora and Altiplano watches, the newest addition to this latter range, the hand-wound 900P, having claimed the world record for the thinnest watch ever made at 3.65mm high. Precious stones are second nature to Piaget, which expresses its horological expertise in harmony with this torrent of “tears from the gods”.

Anywhere else, such a display would have needed no further accompaniment. At Watches&Wonders, these vitrines stood like sparkling sentinels around the model that stole pride of place in their centre: the Limelight Stella, which makes its debut in the brand’s collections. Gracing Jessica Chastain’s wrist, it begins a new chapter in the enduring love affair between Piaget and women, as the very first mechanical complication watch to have been designed and developed inside Piaget’s workshops. The complication takes the form of an astronomical moonphase which require adjusting by just one day after 122 years, whereas a classic moonphase falls behind by one day every two and a half years. Piaget is presenting this Limelight Stella in three gold versions, two of which are set with diamonds.

The extraordinary capacity of their craftsmen and women to create three-dimensional worlds.
Credit where credit is due

And there was more. Piaget is constantly on the lookout for the finest independent specialists in techniques which are not already in place within its manufacture, and was clearly intent on showing the full range of this impressive expertise while in Asia. And so the public gazed in wonder as the brand lifted the veil on the second part of its Mythical Journey, an odyssey that began in 2013 with The Silk Route and continues today with Secrets & Lights. This new collection takes inspiration from the symbolism of Venice, the Serenissima, and Samarkand, Queen of the Earth, two cities that never fail to spark the imagination. Piaget has achieved the exceptional feat of presenting 93 jewellery creations and 38 timepieces, and has placed all its expertise in time measurement at the service of the métiers d’art. Among the array of crafts on show are gem-setting, gold sculpting, gold engraving, micro-mosaic, bulino engraving and enamelling. They are joined by two astonishing, rarely seen crafts that were hitherto unexplored by Piaget: feather art and eggshell-inlaid lacquer. Common to each of these pieces is the extraordinary capacity of their craftsmen and women to create three-dimensional worlds on a horological “canvas” so as to render each timepiece all the more fascinating.

Piaget called upon the most accomplished artisans to bring this second leg of the journey to fruition. Without naming them all, special mention must go to Cesare Bella, the Italian micro-mosaic artist and the only artist authorised to produce the pope’s official portrait after his appointment. For Piaget, he has created a masterpiece of precision by juxtaposing almost five thousand tiny glass tesserae to reveal a remarkable view of the Santa Maria Della Salute basilica as it overlooks the mouth of the Grand Canal. Isabelle Emmerique has brought to life a falcon, king of the desert, in lacquer incrusted with eggshell. Yet another falcon, this time soaring above the Registan, is portrayed as a miniature enamel, the work of Anita Porchet, a world-renowned enamel artist who is also behind a depiction of the Ulugh Beg observatory in cloisonné enamel. Lastly, feather artist Emilie Moutard-Martin is the author of a mesmerising wheel of time in individually cut goose feathers enriched with silver leaf.

A recent development in the world of watches is for brands to name the professionals involved in creating one or other calibre, a trend motivated by a desire for transparency but also for the prestige associated with these mechanical maestros. Now Piaget is crediting the artists who demonstrate their mastery of the métiers d’art. A welcome initiative indeed.

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