Calibre 9P, 1957
Calibre 12P, 1960
Artist's rendering of a piece of jewellery
A jeweller assembles a wristwatch
Men's wristwatch, 1957
In the history of watchmaking’s quest for the infinitely small, Piaget has written some of the finest pages. In 1957 the workshop in La Côte-aux-Fées developed the Caliber 9P, an extraordinarily thin, manually wound watch movement. In 1960 its watchmakers came out with the Caliber 12P movement, just 2.3 millimetres thick – the slimmest self-winding movement in the world. These developments opened up new possibilities to Piaget’s designers in their search to create sophisticated timepieces. The jewellery watch was Piaget’s gift to the world of watchmaking, its extreme thinness reflecting its interior perfection. Alongside its coin watches, ring watches, brooch watches and cufflink watches, Piaget began creating its first matinee necklaces. In 1957 Piaget launched a men’s watch that was to become an icon: Emperador. The company opened a manufacturing facility in Geneva that was exclusively devoted to the creation of jewellery. In 1959, Piaget opened its first shop.
