The New Piaget Polo Minute Repeater’s Open Secret

The world of watches skews slightly toward enthusiasts and collectors because of the sheer volume of limited editions. And we can’t think of a better watch to illustrate our theory than the new Piaget Polo Minute Repeater.

Only five numbered pieces of the new Piaget Polo Minute Repeater will be made this year; however, the brand insists its latest Polo is not a limited edition by design but rather due to the level of expertise required for each piece.

We say it’s a little of both. Piaget didn’t need to make a Polo that goes this hard. But as enthusiasts, we’re kind of glad that they did.

The Piaget Polo, as you know, is the embodiment of the 1980s sport watch – although a more accurate descriptor would be “sport chic.”

But Piaget’s pursuit of watchmaking as both a technical discipline and an artistic calling goes way back to the brand’s founding by Georges-Édouard Piaget in 1874. The brand a double threat, just as celebrated for its haute horlogerie (it has produced some of the thinnest movements on record) as its haute joaillerie.

So, the Polo was a bit of a break in tradition when it launched in 1979. At the time, it was the world’s thinnest quartz watch, powered by the 3.1mm-thick caliber 7P. It was marketed to a younger crowd, looking for an everyday wearer. And its design – satin-finished gold with polished gadroons gave the Polo its signature look.
 

It was a line-crosser then, and the Piaget Polo Minute Repeater is a genre-breaker now. But this time, it’s pushing the boundaries of the Polo DNA. First, it’s a minute repeater – one of the most sophisticated and fragile complications.

Chiming watches were originally tool watches, invented before electric lighting was common so people could tell the time under low-light conditions; they were hardly considered “sporty.” Thus, even though the Polo collection has included un-sporty grand complications like a perpetual calendar and a flying tourbillon before, a minute repeater is not a complication we expected to see paired with the Polo.

At the same time, it’s not that unexpected. After all, Piaget has been making these musical mechanicals for a long time. Plus, in 2013, the Maison introduced the world’s thinnest minute repeater inside the case used for the Piaget Polo Emperador.

But the new Piaget Polo Minute Repeater builds on that 2013 achievement by integrating the complication into the Polo collection while aiming to maintain its everyday wearability.
 

The watch is powered by the caliber 1290P – completely conceived, developed, finished, and assembled at Piaget’s Manufacture in La Côte-aux-Fées. It contains 430 components that required weeks of hand finishing and assembly. The bridges are hand-beveled, the main plate features a subtle guilloché, and the minute-repeater hammers are hand-polished to a mirror finish.
 

To keep this complication ticking while maintaining the Polo’s signature slenderness, a platinum micro-rotor has been employed – a new milestone in the Maison’s technical toolbox. Of course, Piaget would want to show off these inner workings through a partially openworked dial.
 

And to address wearability, the Piaget Polo Minute Repeater is water-resistant to 3 ATM – a remarkable measure of resilience for a chiming watch.

Of course, Piaget would want to show off these inner workings through a partially openworked dial. This face represents a big break with the Polo signature.

Gone are the gadroons, replaced with a soleillé (sunray) finish that radiates across its surface and an opaline outer track. Meanwhile, an eccentrically shaped gold window reveals portions of the repeater mechanism beneath.
 

At four o’clock, a smoked blue sapphire ring – bearing the “La Côte-aux-Fées” inscription – sits atop the inertia wheel, making the dedicated regulator of the minute repeater fully visible.

And then there’s the sound of the Polo Minute Repeater. Hours are struck at G sharp; minutes ring in at A sharp. The 1290P delivers 64 decibels of intensity, three harmonic partials, and a damping factor of 2,600. These notes are activated by a chiming slide sitting at nine o’clock.
 

All this craft is housed in an 18-karat white gold case measuring 48mm with a case thickness of just 9.3mm. Piaget is also introducing another High Jewelry version, which puts the Maison’s dual expertise in watchmaking and jewelry on full display.

The bezel is set with baguette-cut blue sapphires; the case with a combination of baguette-cut and brilliant-cut diamonds. The dial is fully openworked, placing all 70-plus hours of handcraft on unobstructed display. It is the rarest of triple threats because, to paraphrase Piaget’s own press materials, the Polo Minute Repeater is haute jewelry, haute horlogerie, and acoustics brought together in harmony.
 

For more information, including price, check out the Piaget website.