The second chapter of Piaget’s a hundred and fiftieth anniversary could possibly be titled “Much less Is Much less.”
That’s how the Altiplano Final Idea Tourbillon, or AUC Tourbillon, the model is revealing Tuesday could possibly be summarized: much less watch case, much less sapphire and, most significantly, much less motion thickness in a record-beating feat.
Inside a 2mm thick cobalt-alloy case lives the 1.49mm 970P-UC tourbillon caliber, wedged between two whisper-thin slices of sapphire.
So overlook reinventing the wheel. What needed to be executed to get a watch that’s as skinny as a coin was a minimum of “reinvent every little thing,” mentioned Piaget chief government officer Benjamin Comar.
Whereas many will house in on the information that this breaks the file set by Bulgari in 2018 at 3.95mm, with a 1.95mm motion within the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Automatique, the Piaget government mentioned that was solely the cherry on the cake.
“The primary emotional second for us all was when the beating coronary heart of the tourbillon labored for the primary time, then when the watch handed all of the technical approvals and was lastly in entrance of us,” the manager mentioned.
At 2mm in thickness, the Piaget AUC Tourbillon beats earlier information in its style.
Courtesy of Piaget
And that got here with a bittersweet twinge for the groups who labored on the event, added Rémi Jomard, the watchmaker’s merchandise and innovation director.
“The parallel between the technical information and the individuals who made it attainable could be felt while you take a look at the residing mechanism,” he mentioned. “It’s unhappiness and wonder as a result of the unique conceptor of the AUC retired in March and this was his loopy thought. In La-Côte-Aux-Fées, there may be actually a familial and historic dimension.”
The brand new record-setting tourbillon is the fruits of a six-year course of that began with the 2018 launch of the Altiplano Final Idea, which tapped into the home’s penchant for ultra-thin elements initiated by founder Georges-Edouard Piaget.
That timepiece, which scooped the “Aiguille d’Or” prime gong on the 2020 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, had already taken six years to develop.
“After [that watch] was regular and improved, the groups began to consider their subsequent transfer,” recalled Comar. “They wished to problem themselves with a brand new victory, including a tourbillon within the AUC.”
That was simpler mentioned than executed.
“The paradox on this venture was that while you work on a complication, it mechanically takes more room than a non-complication motion,” Jomard mentioned. “So you need to select whether or not you wish to do extra with the identical, or do the identical with much less.”
What the deliberate watch amounted to was extra with much less — and do it in time for the anniversary, too.
It took a minimum of 70 variations of the tourbillon cage, 15 variations of the anchor and 30 variations of the case body to reach on the remaining construction.
And the event crew was nowhere close to executed, with 90 % of the unique elements needing to be redesigned over two-and-a-half years.
In the end, just a few issues within the AUC Tourbillon stayed true to its predecessor.
There’s the place of the watch elements, with a barely off-center hours and minute dial, a tourbillon at 10 o’clock with the seconds indicator engraved on its ring. Its case again serves because the motion mainplate, in impact fusing them collectively, and the built-in crown requires a devoted stylus that comprises a gear discount and torque management system.
One idea that stands out within the new AUC is the best way the tourbillon, largely made in titanium, is held in place on the perimeter by a ceramic ball-bearing that drives the one-minute rotation. Eradicating the bridges was solely one in every of myriad methods the groups chipped away on the thickness, one micron at a time.
Idea sketches for the AUC Tourbillon 150e Anniversaire.
Courtesy of Piaget
One other is the 40-hour energy reserve, which required a made-to-measure mainspring with a barely elevated blade thickness to ship the extra vitality — a tourbillon consumes round 25 % greater than a set regulator — and the usage of ball bearings as an alternative of pivots almost in every single place to lower friction.
In keeping with Jomard, even the work groups and equipment needed to be reexamined to get there. “Groups had been one hundred pc devoted to subsections and we parallelized improvement to conceive, make and check totally different ideas,” he defined. “We parceled out the conception section, which meant additionally dividing up duties.”
Tentatively priced at 650,000 Swiss francs, the tip result’s as a lot about technical mastery as it’s aesthetically pleasing, he continued.
“It must be wearable and fascinating,” Jomard mentioned. “What we’d like individuals to recollect is that we keep rooted in our home R&D that tries to mix mastery of the technical experience required for ultra-thinness and the product dimension of being in service of an aesthetic.”
And with entrance and case again manufactured from sapphire thinned all the way down to 0.2 and 0.16 millimeters, respectively, the flash of 1’s wrist seen by the tourbillon is a reminder of that human contact.
Behind this mix he outlined as “extravagance and attract” is the hand of inventive director Stéphanie Sivrière, who helms the excessive jewellery and watchmaking designs for the home.
Blue and gold had been chosen as the colours, with a midnight hue for the previous offsetting the metallic parts, together with steel-toned seen elements, inscribed with the mannequin identify.
On the micron, or a thousandth of a millimeter, scale of the elements, any ornament may lead to deformation. The wheels, made of 4 arms as an alternative of six, needed to be diamond polished and chamfered by hand.
Within the anniversary yr, showcasing the model’s prowess is all of the extra important with a purpose to assist navigate the difficult financial panorama, along with retaining an excellent cut up between watches and jewellery.
“For us, it’s in step with our previous DNA of ultra-thin mastery, so it’s not one thing we simply conquered,” Comar mentioned. “Innovation isn’t the one essential factor. Consistency can also be key and we’ve to activate the 2 on the identical time.”