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Away from the Fairways | TEE TIME SPECIAL
KING OF THIN PIAGET HAS REGAINED ITS TITLE AS THE PRODUCER OF THE WORLD’S THINNEST WATCH WITH THE UNVEILING OF THE ALTIPLANO 38MM 900P.
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and designers converge in giving life to this masterpiece of reliability and precision. 2014 is an important year for Piaget. The Maison is celebrating its 140th anniversary and marks the occasion by launching a model that is set to defy the conventions of ultra-thin Fine Watchmaking for many years to come: the Altiplano 38 mm 900P. While clearly geared towards cutting-edge innovation, it is also a nod to history, since it gets the 900P part of its name from Calibre 9P, which was the first ultra-thin hand-wound movement made by Piaget in 1957. That particular mechanism measured just 2mm thin and sealed Piaget’s destiny in the field of ultra-thin horology. By 1960, Piaget was ready to set a first record with its Calibre 12P, the world’s thinnest automatic movement at just 2.3mm. The following years witnessed a spate of new slimness records in the fields of handwound and automatic models, with or without horological complications – like Calibre 600P, the world’s thinnest hand-wound shaped tourbillon movement; and 1208P, an automatic movement that is also the thinnest in its category, to mention just a couple of these feats.
AN IMPRESSIVE HERITAGE
Piaget has produced no less than 23 ultra-thin calibres out of the 35 movements developed and produced in-house, of which 12 have set new records for thinness
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either entirely a movement nor exactly a case, the Altiplano 38mm 900P is the world’s thinnest mechanical watch. Merging the hand-wound calibre with the case elements, it is designed as a single entity in order to achieve record-breaking slenderness at just 3.65mm thin. Representing a crowning achievement in over half a century of virtuoso skills displayed in the realm of ultrathin watchmaking where Piaget reigns supreme, it conveys the excellence of the two integrated Manufactures run by the Maison. Places where the skills of the watchmakers, case constructors
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Constantly reaffirming its unconditional love of slim mechanisms, Piaget has produced no less than 23 ultra-thin calibres out of the 35 movements developed and produced in-house, of which 12 have set new records for thinness over the past few years and are now part of the collection. Within this impressive body of work, each new accomplishment lays a new milestone in terms of the expertise thus accumulated. It is this know-how that nurtures the Maison in constantly pushing the boundaries of its art and perpetually innovating through a string of exceptional creations. The latter are distinguished not only by their extreme slenderness, but also by their uncompromising reliability – a criterion that governs each and every choice made by the Manufacture. Testifying to the impressive success of this double challenge, all of the 23 ultra-thin movements have been produced continually since the time of their launch, while Calibre 430P has established itself as one of the world’s most widely produced ultra-thin hand-wound movements, due to its extreme resistance.
MERGING THE SKILLS Making an ultra-thin watch is a constant challenge. Right from the first project sketches, all those involved must anticipate the functional, aesthetic HKGOLFER.COM
and durability constraints involved in paring down parts to the extreme. Very few manufacturers are tempted to adopt such an approach, and even fewer develop and produce in-house both their calibres and their cases under the watchful eye of the in-house designers. Piaget belongs to this exclusive circle. While the Altiplano 38mm 900P merges the case and movement to establish itself as the thinnest mechanical watch, it also stems from another fusion without which such a feat would have been impossible: that of the two Manufactures Piaget – one based in La Côte aux Fées, where the movements are traditionally made; and the other in Plan-les-Ouates, where the cases are crafted. These skills are now inextricably intermingled, since within the Altiplano 38 mm 900P, the mechanism and the external components form a single indivisible entity. For a full three years, watchmakers, case constructors and designers worked together at each stage of development, production, adjustment and finishing in order to give life to this slender marvel. Each technical choice had an aesthetic impact, and vice versa. While each of the 145 parts composing the Altiplano 38mm 900P has been trimmed to a size sometimes barely thicker than a hair’s breadth – including some wheels measuring a mere 0.12mm thin (compared with 0.20mm on a classic movement) – special care has been devoted to clearances. In other words, the process involved cleverly arranging the components to within the nearest hundredth of a millimetre so as to create optimal play between the fixed and mobile organs, while being careful to ensure that the later move freely and thus guarantee the smooth running of the mechanism.
While each of the 145 parts composing the Altiplano 38mm 900P has been trimmed to a size sometimes barely than a hair’s breadth, special care has been devoted to clearances 28
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AT ITS HEART Nonetheless, the true secret of this extreme slenderness lies in the structure of the case itself, of which the back also serves as the mainplate. Thereby merging calibre and case, the latter was machined directly from the case-back in order to house the mechanical parts. This highly
complex architecture meant reversing movement construction so as to fit the bridges on the dial side – an approach that also has an aesthetic effect by keeping them visible. To save another precious few millimetres, the entire mechanism and the hand-fitting system are contained within the thickness of the balance-wheel itself, thus entailing an off-centred display of the hours and minutes entirely in tune with the iconic design features of the Altiplano line. These characteristics are further enhanced by the entirely visible wheeltrain that invites the owner of the watch to plunge into the very heart of this supremely slender and technically sophisticated mechanism. Working within this extremely confined space, Piaget has devised a suspended barrel hanging from a single bridge on the dial side, contrary to classic barrels that are also fixed to the mainplate side. This highly unusual device is no way detrimental to the performance of the mechanism, since the Altiplano 38 mm 900P has a generous power reserve of around 48 hours. HKGOLFER.COM