Piaget’s Métiers d'art Altiplano Moonphase : Another Magnificent Ode To The Moon

It’s time to tell a tale. A lovely tale of refinement and artistic mastery, told by moonlight. For more than a century, Piaget has built its reputation on the Maison's expertise in putting technicality in service of beauty, freeing up as much room as possible for the latter.

As early as the 1960s, hard stone dials helped ultra-thin movements usher in a period of increased sophistication and inventiveness. The year 1998 saw the completion of a long journey toward the magnificent combination of workmanship and elegance with the introduction of the Altiplano watch.

The Maison has collaborated with artists and maîtres d'art for decades, enabling them to create one-of-a-kind jewellery and timepieces that reflect their individual vision and expertise.

Piaget is starting a new era this year by tackling the greatest challenge of watchmaking—the fusion of artistic beauty and artisanal perfection—head-on. Looks like it’s the year of moonphases.

Welcoming the moon phase complexity into the Altiplano lineup is the Altiplano Moonphase

A luxury of complex details and intricacy squeezed onto a 36mm broad watch, the four Métiers d'art Altiplano Moonphase watches are a work of absolute beauty and precision. After 2 years of development, their gauges finally came to life. Miniature white dots and precious stones stand in for the Chinese constellations on the translucent blue enamel sky designed by expert enameller Anita Porchet.

Each Guardian, representing a cardinal point and related with one of the four seasons and elements, quietly arises at night since Piaget enjoys playing with startling designs and original features. The red bird, representing the south, is related to summer and fire, while the azure dragon, representing the east, is close to spring and wood. The Westward-facing white tiger is naturally at home with Autumn and metal, while the Northward-facing black turtle is at home with Winter and water.

The four-piece unique métiers d'art collection elevates the Maison's decades-long partnership with master artists to new heights of savoir-faire and innovation. The artistic patterns that grace the Altiplano's dial have to be made on an infinitesimally small scale in order to maintain the watch's exceptional thinness aesthetics.

It takes a master craftsman to work with enamel and gold thread embroidery, and that's before you even consider the intricate Altiplano mechanism. Below this starry sky, the lower half of the gold palace-decorated dial is set with moon rays of graded diamonds, sapphires, and garnets. A labor-intensive masterpiece that shines thanks to the myriad of tiny details that were painstakingly included into every section: The moon window is framed in gold and adorned with graded diamonds to resemble a crescent moon, while the moon itself is covered in a deep blue lacquer.

Piaget's skill serves the profound meaning of the stars' powers and the Moon's limitless splendour in each of these works.