Meeting with Piaget

For this third meeting, I would like to introduce you to jewellery Maison Piaget which for more than 135 years has never ceased to combine exemplary technique and unparalleled style. The jeweller’s motto is « Always do better than necessary » and its emblem is « The Rose », faithful to Yves Piaget’s passion.

In June of each year, Piaget honours a special flower… A flower with eighty serrated petals and an incomparable and intoxicating fragrance, a flower named the « Piaget Rose » by the horticulturist Alain Meilland in tribute to Yves Piaget, the species won the International New Roses Contest in Geneva in 1982. This rose is pure delight… This year, its celebration date is today, keep your eyes open!

With Nicolas Mingalon, we naturally decided to surpass ourselves for this photograph, in order to highlight this magnificent necklace from the latest collection: Rose Passion, Rose exotique. We opted for a tropical atmosphere for this quite unique high jewellery piece. Imagine a bird-of-paradise, it seems to be made to clinge to a gracile and graceful neck…

This fabulous creation is made of 18k white gold, set with 99 brilliant cut diamonds (approx. 14,44cts), a pear cut spessartite garnet (in orange, approx. 12,30 cts), two pear cut blue sapphires (approx. 2,85 cts), nine pear cut yellow sapphires (approx. 4,62 cts), eight pear cut aquamarines (approx. 7,39 cts), seven pear cut green tourmalines (approx. 10,3 cts), two pear cut rubellites (approx. 1,42 ct), a pear cut blue sapphire (approx. 10,31 cts) and a cushion cut rubellite (pink tourmaline, approx. 19,99 cts).

This splendid high jewellery collection is composed of 100 creative and intense pieces as a tribute to Joséphine de Beauharnais who shared with Yves Piaget the same passion for roses and botany. At her image, all in same time colourful, exuberant, exotic, delicate and passionate, the high quality selection of brightly coloured gems arranged with taste gives this audacious collection a contemporary and glamour touch that creates instant appeal.

Piaget also decided to pay tribute to Joséphine by engaging to renovate the rose garden of the French Château de Malmaison which she had created in 1805 and which became a treasure for nurserymen.

Back to Piaget‘s history, dating back to 1874 in the small Swiss village of La côte aux fées where Georges Edouard Piaget first founded a watch manufacture. A family Maison, Timothée Piaget gave the impulse to sign the first models in the late 1930s. The slogan « Luxury and precision » appeared in 1942, but it was not until 1943 that the name « Piaget » became a registered trademark. Timothée Piaget passed the business on to his sons in 1945, when a new manufacture was inaugurated, capable of accommodating 200 artisans. Under the impulse of brothers Gerald (for finance) and Valentin (for marketing and technique) the company underwent a swift development. Contrary to its competitors who opted for mass distribution, Piaget decided to specialize in high-end timepieces and ultra-thin movements, favouring the exclusive use of platinum and gold.

In 1957 during Baselworld, Piaget presented the revolutionary ultra-thin watch movement, the iconic 9P, a 2,3mm thin hand-wound calibre, the worlds thinnest. Beyond the technical prowess, this model inaugurates other new models whose finesse instantly appealed to women. In June 1959, Piaget opened its first store in Geneva, a luxurious and welcoming boutique located at 40, rue du Rhône.

In the 1960s, then led by Yves Piaget, the brand became extremely fashionable and surrounded itself with artists like Salvador Dali or sculptor Arman, innovating ever more to the point of creating watches that combined hard and ornemental stones, precious or semi-precious stones with diamonds. So much so that celebrities and artists rushed to purchase these – often unique – timepieces, for instance Jackie Kennedy, Sophia Loren, Liza Minelli, Andy Wharhol, Roger Moore, and also the Royal Family of Monaco, to name but a few…

It was at that time, and thereafter in the 1970s, that Piaget started crafting jewellery and also decided to manufacture the world’s thinnest quartz mechanism, while most brands would simply ignore quartz.

In 1988, Piaget was bought out by the Richemont group, thus offering the manufacture unprecedented development prospects, particularly in the field of jewellery. Thus were released the Possession rings, as well as several feminine collections: : Tanagra, Limelight, Miss Protocole.

In 1998, the release of the Altiplano watch reaffirms Piaget’s leading position in ultra-thin timepiece manufacturing.

In 2003, Piaget presents the 600P movement, the world’s thinnest shaped tourbillon movement (measuring 3,5mm) and, in September 2010, Piaget presented for the first time at the Paris Biennale des Antiquaires a collection of 60 high jewellery and watch pieces.

Instant crush for this remarkable ring set with diamonds and pink sapphires (5,20 carats), from the collection #rosepassion #Iwant !

Thank you to Maison Piaget for its trust, special thanks to Madlyne Cardon, Marie Thevenon, Alexandra Dubois and Pierre Guerrier, and to photographer Nicolas Mingalon for the realisation of this magnificent photo.