Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon 150th Anniversary

To mark this special anniversary, Maison Piaget has performed an outstanding feat, a first in watchmaking history. 150 years after the Maison was first founded, 67 years after it invented its first ultra-thin calibre - the 9P - and 6 years after it revealed the thinnest watch in the world, the Altiplano Ultimate Concept, in 2018, Piaget has once again pushed the boundaries of horological ingenuity. Shaped by a quest for elegance and driven by inventiveness, this unrivalled timepiece boasts 2 mm, the same thinness as its predecessor. All the while, it shelters the beating heart of a tourbillon. A natural next step in the Maison’s journey, this invention is both a technical and emotional milestone.   

The Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon is a paradox in and of itself. And yet, its dimensions, which truly stretch the limits of watchmaking feasibility, are a visual statement that can only begin to outline 150 years of human and horological history. With a diameter of 41.5 mm, a guaranteed water resistance to a depth of 20 metres and a blue PVD-treated cobalt alloy case, the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon appears to possess all the features of an everyday watch. However, its 2 mm thickness and its tourbillon take it to a different plane: that of the extraordinary.

Set in circular motion by a bridge encircling it, the carriage of the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon completely subverts the current state-of-the-art technical principles. The signature engraved on its back, next to a sapphire crystal placed under the tourbillon, sums up the process that has driven Piaget since its beginnings: “Always do better than necessary”. This is a Maison whose culture is based on people, invention and collaboration. This spirit has led it to take on the challenge of barely believable thinness.

The Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon is a mere 2 mm thick. Not a micron more. Its diameter is 41.5 mm. Not a millimetre more. And yet, it is able to cope with the 30% additional power required by the tourbillon. These figures are not only a series of numbers. They stand for extraordinary victories achieved by Piaget. Behind this technical prowess, there lies a whole saga: a race against time conducted in secret inside the Piaget Manufacture in La Côte-aux-Fées. Three long years of work, doubt and self-questioning have marked the lives of everyone who took part in it.

The tourbillon complication has come to join the ranks of the great classics of watchmaking royalty. Here, it takes on a new dimension, both technical and poetic, remaining loyal to the Maison’s ancestral approach: technical achievements are but meant to serve the aesthetics of a watch. Extreme precision was this project’s guiding principle. Contrary to appearances, Piaget had to redesign 90% of the pieces from the original Altiplano Ultimate Concept – and even develop new machines – to craft a watch even thinner than the thinnest that came before. Inside the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon, everything is new: its parts have been reinvented and redesigned, drawing on years of experience. “We did far more than merely add a tourbillon. We reinvented everything,” explained Benjamin Comar, Piaget CEO