Piaget gifs - Skeletons galore!

I've got time to kill between now and the Watch Collectors' Club meet-up tonight, so here are some of those beautiful Piaget watches from their Bond Street boutique in motion! This was one of my favourite nights we've had recently.

First up is this Polo Skeleton. The tourbillon almost escapes without being noticed here, there's so much going on! The finishing around the bezel here is incredible, that'll be a theme of this post.

Some crafty balancing of my phone between my knees here, but look at this thing when you wind it! You can see everything turn and wind in unison. Super satisfying to watch.

The malachite dial, it's so deep in person! Lots to love. The bezel finishing on the stepped case is incredible. Piaget used to use the stepped cases to give the illusion of the watch being thinner than it was. The way the horizontal brushing meets the polished edges just dazzles! It had never come across to me in photos at all, but Piaget's bezel finishing is something to behold. I'd be devastated at that first scratch if I had one!

The Altiplano skeleton. This is an incredible watch, the Altiplano series is about as thin as a watch can get! The blue rotor spins around the outer edge, look closely and you'll see it move towards the bottom in this gif, with the white text moving under the six o'clock position. Piaget are a high jewellery brand at heart too, so the diamonds are set impeccably here. Can't see diamonds on a watch in my collection, yet anyway, who knows how tastes might change!

This would be the configuration I'd go for. Piaget generally only makes watches in white gold or rose gold, the boutique manager told me. Yellow gold is reserved for very special pieces, as we'll come to shortly! Their rose though is such a nice colour, it's about a shade pinker than what my eyes see as yellow gold. Paired with the sunburst blue dial it just glows.

Then the really crazy stuff. Full diamond set, microrotor goodness. This thing sparkled so brightly it caught my eyes as I walked across the room to check out their other stuff! I'd love to be a fly on the wall as something like this gets sold.

Here's a better view of that blue sunburst finish on their dials. Absolutely gorgeous stuff. Diamonds really are a Piaget's best friend here. The figure of eight around the tourbillon, keeping the time itself almost as an accessory to the gem setting and tourbillon is really cool. The manager described Piaget as inspired primarily by movement and the natural world. Movement is something that these watches capture so well, the light on the gems, the sunburst and the tourbillon all beating in harmony. It's why I think they don't quite hit the spot in photos.

I'll close with this vintage 1980 quartz Polo. It's a game of spot the difference, but compare this to the Polo 79 that's coming and you'll notice the 'quartz' on the dial here, but also the lack of a crown. On the new model, it's on the 3 o'clock position, but on this it's actually on the back! After seeing this I feel like more dress watches should do this. The symmetry is subtle but it adds something.

THE FUN BIT: They're releasing 2 new watches at Watches & Wonders this year, both limited to 300 pieces as a celebration of Piaget's 150th anniversary. Photos are under embargo until then, but they are just as lovely as anything you can see here.