THE JOURNAL
The house’s most famous watch, the Altiplano, is a Hollywood favourite and a smart choice for an evening out.
Green. It’s a colour to get you noticed as you head out to drink margaritas and tear up the dance floor. This emerald suede jacket, above, will make you stand out from the crowd, because everyone else’s this season will be brown or black. The shade goes well with the patterned shirt shown here, courtesy of Dries Van Noten, and even better with the rose gold case of the Piaget Altiplano.
Other than the colour of the case, the first thing you notice about this 40mm watch is probably the alligator strap. But what you can’t see is the medal its wearing. As the record-breaker for the thinnest self-winding mechanical movement with date (at just 3mm thick), this is a winning watch in all senses.
A bit of Altiplano history: this 18k version started out as a design by Mr Valentin Piaget in 1957. As the grandson of Piaget founder Mr Georges Édouard Piaget, he inherited his place in the family firm but drove the R&D side of the Maison, creating the ultra-thin Calibre 9P, and in 1976 the first in-house ultra-thin quartz movement. At this time actors from Mr Woody Allen to Mr Warren Beatty were wearing Altiplanos to red-carpet events and awards ceremonies.
As the record-breaker for the thinnest self-winding mechanical movement with date (at just 3mm thick), this is a winning watch in all senses
With its off-centre seconds display (at four o’clock) and date (at nine) it has a rakish air and an unconventional approach. Such individualism sits comfortably next to the simple elegance of a NN07 sweater, Acne trousers, and Gucci loafers, as shown above. But the watch takes centre stage.