Last week, we hosted an intimate lunch for my friends to celebrate the the new Collection of glittering pieces for the festive season of the Swiss watch and jewellery brand Piaget.
The Maison Piaget is originally known for its Extraleganza, which reflects the craftsmanship of jewellery and watchmaking, and its sophisticated mechanisms, and especially for its jewelled watches from the 1960s and 1970s, which were and still are statement pieces (soon to be auctioned at Artcurial). They are constantly adding new collections to their repertoire, most recently the new Possession Décor Palace, and have won two prices this year’s at the Grand Prix de L’Horologie de Genève.
For lunch, we divided our home into the Library and the Dining Room, with champagne and flying delicacies provided by Stenz Catering, and after a while I opened my studio, a wooden paneled Bavarian parlour from the 1930s, looking out over the English Garden, almost to the Bavarian Alps. On my sketching table, we presented the latest collections: Piaget Décor Palace, Piaget Sunlight, Piaget Possession and, of course, the new Polo watch in various versions.
It was great to see that at the Maison Piaget, many different designs still follow one direction, which is the craftsmanship of mastering Gold, with the signature Gold crafting shown in the Possession Décor Palace line.
Piagets love of detail and always a little bit of playfulness, which is often expressed in the design and through the colour and light of the diamonds and precious stones. Piagets passion for stones is beautifully seen with Yves Piaget’s favorite one: the Opal which represents the world with all its different personalities.
Originally a men’s watchmaker, Piaget became famous for its hand-wound Calibre 9P, which was only 2 mm thick. But by 1965, Piaget luxury watches were being worn by many female icons such as Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor and Jacqueline Kennedy. This level of visibility and prestige encouraged Piaget to push further into the realm of cutting-edge design and to embrace its image as a unique artistic brand. In 1967, Piaget initiated a special project with the artist Salvador Dali that would lead to years of collaboration with exceptional artists, the Piaget Society.
I am proud to be a part of the Piaget Society and proud to have such creative and energetic friends, be they artists, designers, architects, consultants or lawyers. It is great to see how they connect, even if some of them have only just met, but I think that is the common sense of a free spirit and the joy of creating.
