Piaget is one of the brands embroiled in the ceaseless competition to create the thinnest wristwatch in the world and by extension the thinnest complication watches in the world – one of their titles from 2013 being the thinnest minute repeater with the Piaget Polo Emperador Minute Repeater. Now, Piaget is introducing a white gold version of that watch without the Emperador moniker, instead being called simply the Piaget Polo Minute Repeater.
As a brief history lesson, ‘Emperador’ was the term Piaget previously used for their precious metal and haute horology watches, as a way to distinguish them from watches like the steel Polo. However, as tastes and times have changed, the baseline Polo has become more prestigious (with precious metal variants and more complications) and so the Emperador naming convention has fallen by the wayside.
Jumping to the watch, it measures 48mm in diameter, which is fairly broad by Polo standards, but necessary to hold the haute horology movement with its chiming hammer and gong mechanism. The thickness though is only 9.3mm, which is exceptional for the large complication. For material, Piaget has gone for white gold, because gold happens to be one of the best materials for transmitting sound and ensuring a loud and satisfying chime while also being precious.
There are two versions of the watch being produced, the standard version with a plain polished bezel and an haute jewellery edition with blue baguette-cut diamonds on the bezel and white brilliant-cut diamonds across the lugs. There is a further difference between the two in that the jewellery edition has a fully openworked dial while the standard version is partially openworked.
The standard edition’s dial is blue with a soleillé guilloché texture radiating outwards from the central handstack. An open-heart aperture between 4-5 o’clock reveals the inertia wheel and the periphery of that window is inscribed “La Côte-aux-Fées”, which is the Piaget manufacture. The larger part of the openworking is from 6-9 o’clock revealing part of the minute repeater mechanism. Rather than a clean chunk of the dial being removed, it’s a wandering, curving line edged in white gold that gives a fun asymmetry to the exposed area.
For the movement, it’s the same calibre 1290P that featured in the 2013 world record watch. It has a platinum micro-rotor decorated in the same blue as the dial which winds the watch. Fully-wound the Piaget Polo Minute Repeater has a 40-hour power reserve, which is perfectly reasonable given the extra energy required by minute repeaters. It also consists of a whopping 430 components, all of which are compressed into a 4.8mm thickness.
The Piaget Polo Minute Repeater is not an official limited edition but only five can be produced annually. Due in large part to the fact that it takes over 200 hours to produce and finish the dial alone. It’s a serious piece of haute horology and a reminder that Piaget are masters of both technical and aesthetic watchmaking.
Price and Specs:
48mm diameter x 9.4mm thickness, 18k white gold, bezel set with baguette-cut blue sapphires, case set with baguette and brilliant-cut diamonds (high jewellery)
More details at Piaget.
So, if the class has been paying attention, you will all know by now, that overly elaborate dials or attention grabbing ornamentation is not for me, so the blue baguette cut diamonds and more standard diamonds on the shoulders of the case are just wrong, then add in the chiming function and you become the next crime statistic after being forcibly separated from your timepiece after being ‘tagged’ whilst at the posh restaurant. Just look at recent events and you will see that this is not particularly uncommon, both in the UK and overseas.
With that particular version from Piaget now being removed from the review, it leaves the (slightly) less gaudy version to consider. Well, still semi open worked, and minute repeater, so only marginally lower on the scale of “look at me” criteria.
So, the case form is beautiful, and the strap matches well with the dial (which if it were non open worked, would be gorgeous). I personally also don’t see why white gold was chosen as opposed to SS, (ok, it’s all about the acoustics for the chiming feature), but I guess it’s mainly about the exclusivity and the cost bracket that these watches fall into.
For me, less is more, so lose the minute repeater function and any open working, make the case from SS, and that is enough. It would still make the watch an expensive piece, but still a lovely piece of wrist candy.