Long before Piaget was a jeweler, it was a watchmaker. The luxury brand traces its roots to La Côte-aux-Fées, a village in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel where Georges-Édouard Piaget founded a movement-making company in 1874. In 1959, the maison introduced jewelry for the first time, showcasing its creations at the new Salon Piaget in Geneva.
Almost immediately, the brand established itself as a trendsetter across both realms. Proof that the watchmaker-turned-jeweler continues to occupy the most rarefied precincts of the luxury trade arrived last month, when Piaget unveiled its “ Essence of Extraleganza ” high jewelry collection. The third and arguably most spectacular of the brand’s 150 th anniversary product introductions (following the reboot in February of its Piaget Polo 79 timepiece and the April unveiling of the thinner-than-thou Altiplano Ultimate Concept Flying Tourbillon ), the collection of 96 jewels and bejeweled timepieces is a tour de force of craftmanship and gem-setting that bears an explicit connection to Piaget’s roots in jewelry.
“Of our three major launches this year to date, none of them have just been a launch — each and every one of them has hinged on a product, a story, a saga bringing the past and present together,” Benjamin Comar, CEO of Piaget, tells Robb Report . “So of course, this high jewelry collection had to bring more density than a regular collection. And this is why it’s called ‘Essence of Extraleganza’ — beca.
