Piaget’s Polo Skeleton Goes Gold And A New Altiplano Ultimate Concept

Watches & Wonders: Piaget’s Polo Skeleton Goes Gold And A New Altiplano Ultimate Concept

Piaget unveils plain and diamond-set precious metal editions of its openworked luxury sports watch, plus a green-dialed Altiplano Ultimate Concept.

By Steven Rogers
Contributor

Following its launch of the Polo Skeleton in steel earlier this year, Piaget has unveiled four new skeleton models with 18-karat gold cases at Watches and Wonders 2021.

Renowned for its expertise in crafting gold, Piaget is one of just a few watch brands equipped with its own gold foundry and precious metal case-making facility.

Polo Skeleton in Plain and Diamond-Set Gold Cases

As of this coming September, new versions of the openworked luxury sports watch will be available. One will be in plain 18K red gold and retail for CHF 43,100. And the other will be in 18K white gold with a bezel set with 56 brilliant-cut diamonds, totaling 1.59 carats, and retail for CHF 58,500.
 

Both boast blued, skeletonized 1200S1 automatic in-house movements with highly a visible slate gray oscillating weight and 42mm cases complemented by quick-change straps in blue alligator leather.
 

Two New Piaget Polo Skeleton High-Jewellery pieces

If you can’t wait that long and something even more ornate is on your wish list, then as of now, two fully paved Piaget Polo Skeleton High-Jewellery models are available, with prices starting at CHF 297,000.
 

Piaget stands in a class of its own when it comes to diamond-setting automatic and ultra-thin mechanisms. Indeed, it holds the record for creating the thinnest diamond-set skeleton movement ever seen.

Stunning Bracelet Set With 1,442 Diamonds

For both High-Jewellery pieces, the skeletonized movement and 18K white gold case, crown, bezel, and lugs are decorated with no fewer than 573 brilliant- and baguette-cut diamonds, totaling approximately 7.56 carats. There are also 11 brilliant-cut sapphires (0.17 carats) adorning each caliber.
 

One piece comes on a dark gray alligator leather strap with a white gold folding clasp set with an additional 6 baguette-cut diamonds (0.59 carats). The other has an 18K white gold bracelet and folding clasp but set with a mind-blowing 1,442 brilliant and baguette-cut diamonds, totaling 15.67 carats. Absolutely stunning!
 

A Touch of Green for the Altiplano Ultimate Concept

In 2018, Piaget stunned the watch world when it unveiled the prototype for its Altiplano Ultimate Concept at SIHH in Geneva.

Then, at Watches & Wonders 2020, Piaget announced that, after only two years of development, the Altiplano Ultimate Concept was ready to hit the market as the thinnest mechanical hand-wound watch in the world.
 

At just 2mm in height, the record-breaking timepiece went on to pick up the top prize, the Aiguille d’Or, at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève at the end of 2020.

Now at this year’s fair, Piaget has unveiled a new Altiplano Ultimate Concept with green ALD-treated bridges and sub-dial, plus a green alligator leather strap.
 

A Tribute to La Côte-aux-Fées

The green touches on the new Altiplano Ultimate Concept are meant to pay tribute to the verdant landscape of La Côte-aux-Fées, the Swiss Jura village where Georges Edouard Piaget founded his eponymous watch company in 1874.
 

More than just being the town of its birth, it is at Piaget’s workshop in La Côte-aux-Fées that the design, development, and creation of every ultra-thin Piaget movement from the 9P caliber to the Altiplano Ultimate Concept’s 900P-UC caliber have been carried out.
 

The viridescent Altiplano Ultimate Concept Côte-aux-Fées Edition is priced at CHF 408,000.

(Photography by Pierre Vogel)

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