PIAGET

While it’s more widely known for its jewelry these days, Piaget, founded in the small Swiss village of La Cote-aux-Fées by Georges Piaget in 1874, has been a watchmaker from the beginning; its original trade was making movements, and the company began making complete watches in In the 20th century. Since 1957, when Piaget created the historic 2mm-thick Caliber 9P, the company has been world renowned for the elegant thinness of its watches and movements. The world’s thinnest self-winding mechanical movement, Caliber 12P, followed Caliber 9P just three years later, in 1960, and Piaget has building upon these foundations ever since, the most recent triumph in this area being the Altiplano Ultimate Concept, which debuted in 2018 as a prototype and hit the market in 2020; the entire watch, case and movement, is just 2mm thick, matching the wafer thinness of the original Caliber 9P. Piaget also offers a wide range of other luxury watches for men and women, from the high-jewelry Limelight pieces to the elegantly sporty Polo and Polo S collections, which channel a 1970s vibe.

Founded: 1874

Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland

Ownership: Richemont Group

Notable models: Polo, Altiplano, Limelight

Did you know: Despite the company’s renown as a jeweler, Piaget didn’t start making jewelry until the 1960s, having focused solely on watches until then.