Heraldic Workshop from the Art Studio "Traditions of Times"

The mountains of Neuchâtel are devoid of bustle. There, time seems to be heard and felt in the silence. And it was there, just over one hundred and fifty years ago, that the history of Piaget began. The watchmaking house Piaget did not immediately become a brand in the traditional sense of the word. Its rise to fame took several decades. In 1874, Georges Edouard Piaget opened a small workshop in the village of his birth, La Côte-aux-Fées, in the mountains of Switzerland. The young master crafted pocket watch movements with precision and accuracy. His work was in demand. Other watchmaking houses commissioned calibers from him and installed them in their watches. In 1911, management of the company passed to Timothy, the son of Georges Edouard. Wristwatch movements were a priority. It wasn't until the mid-20th century that the Piaget family decided to take the important step of producing watches under their own name. This occurred in 1943, when the third generation of Piagets, Gérald and Valentin, registered the Piaget brand. From that moment on, the company ceased being a parts supplier and became a watchmaker.

One of Piaget's key features is its focus on ultra-thin movements. In 1957, they achieved something almost no one else had achieved before: they created a movement just 2 millimeters thick. The 9P is still considered a model of engineering minimalism. Three years later, the 12P self-winding movement was released, so thin it was included in the Guinness Book of Records. These developments opened up new design possibilities. The thin movement eliminated massive cases and reimagined the very proportions of watches. In the late 1950s, Piaget made another fundamental decision: to use only precious metals for cases. Gold became the rule, not the exception. This determined the brand's future development. At the same time, Piaget introduced the Emperador men's watch. Decades later, after its reimagining in 1999, this model has earned a special place in the watchmaker's history and has become one of its recognizable and most distinctive lines. Piaget increasingly found itself at the intersection of watchmaking and jewelry. The watch company likely saw potential in combining jewelry with watch movements. Consequently, Valentin Piaget sent designers to Paris to attend fashion shows, to observe how fabrics moved, how light fell, and how silhouettes changed. This was the early sixties. Three years later, the company began working with dials made of stone, lapis lazuli, malachite, jade, and tiger's eye. Each dial was unique in its design, which was in keeping with the Piaget brand's core logic. Watches were viewed not as mass-produced products, but as individual pieces.

At the same time, Piaget was increasingly pushing the boundaries of classic forms, creating bracelet watches and jewelry. In the 1970s, the Piaget brand developed a circle of clients and friends, including artists, designers, collectors, musicians, fashion designers, and actors. These were celebrities, judge for yourself: Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol. Warhol, having assembled a small collection of Piaget pieces, said of them, "I wear them not to tell time, but because they are beautiful." Apparently, this was unforgettable, as in 2026, the Art Genève fair featured a special exhibition about the artist Warhol and his Piaget. Today, as many years ago, Piaget watches and jewelry are worn by many famous people. The watchmaker didn't intentionally cultivate an image of elitism, but instead found affinity with people who value style, freedom, and personal choice. Piaget has its own symbols, among which the coat of arms sometimes comes into view. But there's also the rose, which initially emerged as a personal family story. Named after Yves Piaget in 1982, the rose variety is still considered one of the most fragrant. This flower later became a jewelry theme in the collections. The marquise-cut diamonds are elongated, resembling a smile. The Décor Palace technique involves hand-engraving gold with the finest lines, each unique. As for the coat of arms, although few know about it, it occupies a special place among the symbols. At the top, as if crowning the coat of arms, is a lion. It holds a peasant threshing tool in its paws, a reminder that it all began on a farm. At the bottom of the shield in the coat of arms is the number magpie, which in French sounds like "pie." This resonates with the Piaget family name. The three fleurs-de-lis symbolize that the ancestors once served the French crown. The House of Piaget also periodically adorns its watches with the "P" monogram.

Piaget places its coat of arms where only the attentive will see: on movement rotors, internal components, cufflinks, and other jewelry for connoisseurs. In 1979, the Piaget Polo was born. An integrated bracelet, gold—a design that was called a "bracelet watch." Back then, sports watches were made of steel. Piaget made them gold. In the 1980s, Yves Piaget headed the Piaget company. In the late 1980s, Piaget became part of the Richemont group, but the brand's character remained. Its strength lies in its ability to combine bioengineering precision and jewelry-making without pressure or ostentation. Today's Piaget is a brand that speaks to different generations. The Possession collection with rotating rings is about play and freedom. The Altiplano is about ultra-thin elegance, a timeless classic. The Limelight Gala is a model that still captures the spirit of the 1970s. Free-spirited, without rules, with diamonds that don't feel cramped on the case. In 2026, the new Limelight Gala was released with an orange dial and diamonds.

Production can be done on an assembly line. Creation can only be done by hand, slowly, with room for error and a constant search for perfection. One hundred and fifty years ago, on a Swiss mountain farm, no one was thinking about world fame. They simply did their job well. And that was enough.

Photos from Instagram Piaget and the company's website Piaget.com