Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Automatic

For fathers who love audacity as much as they love ground-breaking technology, the Altiplano Ultimate Automatic is the wristwatch that says it all. Rich from a legacy in ultra-thin movements that date back to 1957 and 1960 – with the birth of the historically thin 9P and 12P movements – the Altiplano collection continues the journey of the Maison’s savoir-faire in ultra-thin watchmaking.

In 2016, Piaget unveiled the manually wound Altiplano Calibre 900P for its 60th anniversary. For this important occasion, the brand’s watchmakers and constructors had completely rethought the construction of the wristwatch by turning the caseback into the main plate of the movement, shaving millimetres off the thickness.

This was followed in 2018 by the Calibre 910P, an ultra-thin automatic movement measuring a mere 4.3mm in thickness. And just two years after that, the legendary Altiplano Ultimate Concept broke all the records with a total thickness ­– including the case and the sapphire crystal – of 2mm. All these record-breaking timepieces pay testament to the expertise of Piaget’s watchmakers working in La Côte-aux-Fées.

In celebration of Father’s Day and the Maison’s love for ultra-thinness, Piaget is unveiling an Altiplano Ultimate Automatic with its unusual and innovative construction that merges the case with the movement. This new version comes with a striking ex-centred blue dial at 10 o’clock and a beautiful view on the movement. In spite of the watch’s thinness, the dial has incredible depth thanks to a reverse assembly of the bridges on the dial side of the watch. The raising of the bridges also prevents the watch from stopping when pressure is exerted on the sapphire crystal. The crystal will naturally and safely bend during everyday life or underwater, for example. So, instead of the crystal touching and stopping the hands, it is blocked by the raised bridges. This invention is protected by a patent that covers several of Piaget’s ultra-thin movements.

In this reduced space, fathers will also appreciate a barrel in suspension that is held by one single bridge on the dial side and a peripheral rotor made of blue-coloured 22K gold that is highly visible as it spins around the outside of the movement, winding the watch as it goes. The choice of gold is to give the rotor enough weight to make it turn efficiently and its peripheral design helps Piaget’s watchmakers to shave even more millimetres off of the movement’s height.

With a Piaget Polo Chronograph – with or without an array of sparkling diamonds – and this refined Piaget Altiplano Automatic, say thank you to the father figure in your life for both the time you have already spent together and the extraordinary moments that lay ahead. Happy Father’s Day!