Awarded the Aiguille d’or for the Altiplano Ultimate Concept in 2020, Piaget was once again in the spotlight this year at the Grand Prix de l'Horlogerie de Genève when receiving a prize in the mechanical exception category for the Altiplano Ultimate Automatic.
This blue Altiplano Ultimate Automatic has an unusual and innovative construction that merges the pink gold case with the movement. This unconventional display of time shows an ex-centred blue dial at 10 o’clock and a beautiful view on the movement. In spite of the watch thinness, the dial has incredible depth thanks to a reverse assembly of the bridges on the dial side of the watch. The raising of the bridges also prevents the watch from stopping when pressure is exerted on the sapphire crystal. The crystal will naturally and safely bend during everyday life or underwater, for example. So, instead of the crystal touching and stopping the hands, it is blocked by the raised bridges. This invention is protected by a patent that covers several of Piaget’s ultra-thin movements.
The suspended barrel is held by one single bridge on the dial side. Surrounded by a diamond-set bezel, the peripheral rotor made of blue-coloured 22K gold is highly visible as it spins around the outside of the movement, winding the watch as it goes. The rotor is made out of gold to give enough weight to make it turn efficiently and its peripheral design helps Piaget’s watchmakers to shave even more millimetres off of the movement height. "Always do better than necessary", Piaget motto.