The Record Breaking Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept
Introducing the 2mm thin timepiece
Written by Emily Bunn
May 16, 2022
A world record was broken at the annual Watches & Wonders Geneva event in 2018, and the horological feat was further enhanced this year. While thirty-nine luxury brands showcased a host of novelty watches, most paled in comparison to a particularly unique timepiece. The watch in question has received five patents and recognition from the Aiguille d’Or prize from the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in 2020, and is only continuing to garner rightful prestige and acclaim.
Unsurprisingly, the master maison behind this never-before-seen design is Swiss watchmaker Piaget. “Always do better than necessary” is the motto of the brand’s founder, Georges-Édouard Piaget. With the release of the Altiplano Ultimate Concept in a new colorway, dark slate blue, the company is certainly setting a new precedent for design excellence when it comes to chronos craftsmanship. The 2mm-thin concept stands as one of the world’s thinnest mechanical, hand-wound watches.
Despite the watch’s contemporary, slender silhouette, the timepiece also references several signature details from the watchmaker. Recalling Piaget’s classic design ethos, the Altiplano Ultimate displays the company’s logo at the top of its dial. “Piaget” is displayed in the brand’s historic typeface, utilized in the company’s original manufacturing. To further honor the Piaget’s rich heritage, a La Côte-aux-Fées (the Swiss Jura village where Georges Edouard Piaget founded his watch company) inscription has carefully been engraved onto the timepiece’s ratchet wheel alongside the manufacture’s exact GPS coordinates.
Placing this rich history into a more modern context, two circles are positioned among the dots of the minute ring to indicate the time– 7:47pm, to be exact – when the original 2017 edition of this unprecedented watch was first brought to life. Furthermore, the Altiplano’s birthday (February 7, 2017) is inscribed in a small window, next to the timepiece’s 2:30pm mark. As a final, touching tribute, the concept’s cosmic main plate displays a galaxy of twinkling, Super-LumiNova-illuminated stars, which replicate the sky on the night of the watch’s birth.
Piaget’s limited series, novelty Altiplano Ultimate Concept watch is now available online and in Piaget boutiques.
