In the 1960s, Piaget experimented with ornamental stones, drawing on their authentic colours for flamboyant timepieces.
Challenges included slicing opal, turquoise, tiger's eye and other stones to obtain delicate dials. Piaget honed the stonecutting expertise for crafting the faces of its watches, which are first and foremost pieces of jewellery.
Yves Piaget's vision has been reinforced by several pieces from the new Colours Of Extraleganza collection -- the third in a high-jewellery trilogy.
Turquoise lends a calming blue shade to the dials of the Gold Abstraction ring watch and the Prismatic Facets watch. The bracelet of the latter also features turquoise along with diamonds, rutile quartz and yellow sapphires.
Named after its resemblance to natural scenes, landscape jasper with an intricate pattern in earthy tones serves as the dainty dial of the diamond-set Twirling Shimmery ring watch.
Besides these rose gold quartz timepieces, Piaget designed a dazzling white gold model with a hidden dial and an audacious bracelet. Opening the Gold Unveiled allows the opal dial to play with the light for mesmerising flashes of colours.
Ornamental stones chromatically came to play as a creative exploration after Piaget developed the manually-wound Calibre 9P and automatic Calibre 12P, launched in 1957 and 1960. The ultra-thin movements allowed for larger dials and more surface area for artistic expression.
The art of marquetry meets ornamental stones in two reinterpretations of the ultra-thin Altiplano with a flying tourbillon.
A marquetry of landscape jasper and tiger's eye joins diamonds in adorning the rose gold 38mm Twirling Shimmery watch. Slightly larger at 41mm, the white gold Twirling Colours watch boasts a marquetry of carnelians in warm hues.
Powered by the manually-wound Calibre 670P, these high-jewellery Altiplano models are limited editions of eight pieces.
