Piaget has long been known for creating some of the world’s thinnest luxury watches, and they still are. “It’s all due to our highly qualified watchmakers,” said Yves Piaget, 73, the last member of the Swiss family to work for the firm, which was sold to Richemont in 2007. Part of the deal was that Piaget stay on to run it. “My role is to transmit values, to have continual dialogue with the younger generation,” he said. He has written a new book, “Piaget: Watchmakers and Jewelers Since 1874,” with text by Florence Müller and photographs by Philippe Garcia and Steve Hiett (Abrams, New York). It features many detailed close-up photos of how the watches are made and glamorous photos of the results. There are also lots of great-looking vintage ads.
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In his tenure at Piaget, he has expanded further into fine jewelry, a category which has been important since the Fifties, and opened 60 boutiques “in the capitals of the world.” The company’s first sport watch was their polo watch, which was a good fit since polo is known as the sport of kings. “It attracts the best crowd we could have,” said Piaget, whose firm often underwrites competitions in the sport in such locations as Palm Beach, Fla. Jewelry watches are a major category for them.
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The firm is, he said, in a process of “continual revolution.” But not in certain directions. “Piaget will never make clothes, bags or perfume,” he said. “We do what we know for four generations.” The production is also relatively small. While some luxury brands make 100,000 watches a year, Piaget limits itself to 25,000. Also, while other companies are shedding artisans, Piaget is taking them on. In their workrooms in La Côte-aux-Fées, the small town in Switzerland where the firm was founded with a mission of making luxurious watch movements and components, a grandfather, his son and his grandson may work together. The founding family itself was prodigious; his great-grandparents, Georges-Édouard and Emma, had 14 children, and his father, Gerald, was the fifth of 13. His father, though, had only two children. The family’s motto is, “Always do better than necessary.” Piaget watches start at $7,250 and can go as high as $1 million.
“They transmit this enthusiasm, vocation; it’s in the air in the workroom,” Piaget said. He grew up on the family farm in Switzerland, went to university, then qualified as a master gemologist after attending gemological school in the U.S. and went to work for the family firm. “I never thought we would have a store like this on Fifth Avenue in New York,” he said, gesturing around the shop, which is filled with beautiful Piaget watches and jewelry, along with some stunning heritage pieces which were brought in for a party to fete his new book.