This year has already proven to be a big one for the Piaget Polo collection following the announcement of the complicated but balanced Polo Perpetual Calendar in February. Still, the watch and jewellery firm wasn’t quite finished there and has announced a pair of new references in its 2023 collection, as well as new members to the time-only Polo family and Altiplano Ultimate Automatic line-up.
The most striking of the pair of new calendar watches is the Piaget Polo Perpetual Calendar Obsidian with an incredible stone dial and sapphire bezel that shows off exactly how impressive its stone sourcing and gem-setting expertise is. The new Polo Field, on the other hand, now arrives with an enchanting green dial and matching rubber strap while the Altiplano Ultimate Automatic blends gold and a blue dial to great effect. Colour is on the menu this year.
Highlights From The 2023 Piaget Collection
Piaget Polo Field
The Piaget Polo Field arrives this year in a verdant shade of green that works fantastically with the light thanks to its delicate sunray brushed dial and sharp case lines. Featuring the same steel case dimensions as the Polo Date of years past, measuring 42mm in diameter and 9.4mm thick, it’s a solid addition to the collection that isn’t a limited edition but will be a reference that only sees 400 examples leaving the factory each year. Powered by the beautifully designed and finished automatic 1110P manufacture movement with 50 hours of power reserve (which is just 4mm thick), if you’ve been considering a Polo for your collection, this is the one to hunt down. Price: AU$19,300.
Piaget Polo Perpetual Calendar Obsidian
While Piaget has further cemented itself as an expert in ultra-thin watchmaking over the last couple of years, it’s important not to forget the brand’s jewellery-making prowess and how skillfully this can be deployed into its watches. The freshly unveiled Piaget Polo Perpetual Calendar Obsidian is the perfect example of this, as one of my favourites of the 2023 collection thanks to its remarkably executed stone dial and carefully set sapphire bezel.
Its white gold case has the same dimensions as the first Polo Perpetual Calendar from earlier this year (42mm in diameter and 8.65mm thick), but the dial and bezel are the real show. Not only is it incredibly difficult to find a suitable slice of stone for a dial – this one essentially derived from volcanic glass – but integrating the subdials, hands, and hour markers is another level of challenge. Likewise, while most gem-set bezels you see are baguette cut (which are cut this way to make it easier to get consistent colours across different stones), Piaget has elected for round-cut stones that are significantly more time-consuming to find evenly toned examples of. Price: AU$174,000.
Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Automatic
The Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Automatic is a remarkable feat of engineering and this new reference in warmly toned gold is the perfect reminder of the brand’s ultra-thin watchmaking talents. Offered for the first time in a radiant shade of blue, not only has the dial received this treatment but the bridges of the movement too, which compliments the gold case incredibly well.
Measuring 41mm in diameter and a remarkable 4.3mm in thickness, the Altiplano Ultimate Automatic is a technical tour de force thanks to its 910P ultra-thin self-winding movement that is the same thickness of the case thanks to an innovative design that sees it directly integrate into its precious metal housing, along with its peripheral winding rotor designed to minimise height. With its fresh blue dial, this is arguably the best-looking Altiplano Ultimate Automatic reference released to date. Price: AU$52,500.
