Swiss House Piaget was founded by 19-year-old Georges Edouard Piaget in 1874 in the village of La Côte-aux-Fées. Georges Piaget launched the factory and earned the ideal reputation fast. The leading watchmakers revealed interest to the young company, which was known for precision and high quality. At the beginning of XX century, and then in 1920-1930-ies incredibly hardworking watchmakers Piaget produced mechanisms for such famous watchmaking companies as Vacheron Constantin, Omega and even Cartier. At that period, the company concentrated its efforts on the production of wristwatches.
The founder of the company had 14 children and almost all of them were actively involved in the family business.
50 years later, the company became internationally famous. The grandsons of the founder, Gérald and Valentin Piaget, managed the company at that time. They made a lot of effort to create a prosperous brand and succeeded in it.
The company reached big heights in watchmaking industry. The biggest achievements of Piaget included the creation of the caliber 9P that was 2mm thick, extra-flat mechanical movement, the flattest automatic movement. Caliber 12P was just 12,3mm and entered the Guinness Book of Records.
One ambitious project followed the other. Piaget introduced many innovative ideas: square cases, rectangular cases of jewel watches for women, dials in hard stone, such as turquoise, onyx. The brand created stunning designs for worldly famous celebrities who travelled around the world, wearing Piaget jewelry watches, thus promoting the product in this way. Andy Warhol, Jackie Kennedy, Gina Lollobrigida and other bright representatives of the elite preferred Piaget. The brand was becoming a trendsetter.
The company decided not to stop on it and expand its activities. In the 1980-s it became a watchmaker jeweler. This was the turning point for the company that continued to grow and develop further.
The most expensive Piaget watch was created then at a price 3.5 million francs. It took 2 years of work to make it. The material that was used included 154 grams of platinum, a blue diamond (3.85 carats) and 296 diamonds.
In 1988, a bigger part of Piaget shares (60%) was acquired by the Vendôme group, which 5 years later became an only owner of the company. In the beginning of 1990, Piaget began working over jewel collections, Tanagra and Possession.
Though the company has new premises in Geneva’s Plan-les-Ouates, the manufacture in Côte-aux-Fées is still preserved.
Piaget manufactures products of the luxury segment. Piaget Altiplano 900P became the thinnest mechanical watch in the history. The case of the watch is 3.65 mm. It is about 10% less than the previous record-breaker. The price of the watch is $20,000.
Piaget is the only Swiss watchmaking manufacturer, which could benefit from jeweller’s art. The brand sticks to traditional values and at the same time always follows fashion. One can track the development of decorative watchmaking art on Piaget models. Just look at the collection of 1960-s, which can make the basis of the whole encyclopedia dedicated to the history of watches.
