Hot Skinny
Piaget, the undisputed King of Slim, returns this year with a new record holder and its very first concept watch
a year after celebrating the 60th anniversary of its super-slim Altiplano collection, Piaget has started 2018 with two bold unveils at SIHH: Altiplano Ultimate Automatic and Altiplano Ultimate Concept.
The former, otherwise referred to as the 910P, measures a mere 4.3mm and currently holds the record for the thinnest automatic wristwatch. The latter, an even slimmer concept piece that is not for sale at the moment, is the product of five patents and five years of intensive R&D.
Developing super-slim movements has been a Piaget forte since 1957, when it revealed the calibre 9P, the thinnest movement ever made. Three years later, Piaget introduced calibre 12P, which became the world’s thinnest automatic movement at 2.3mm. In 2013, Piaget pushed limits further by launching the hand-wound 900P, an ingenious construction that made use of the case as a movement plate. The result was a watch that measured a staggering 3.65mm — the slimmest in the mechanical watch industry at that time.
This year, Piaget follows the same approach it took with the 900P to introduce 910P. Like 900P, 910P’s movement and case are regarded as one single entity; it also bears the same unmistakable aesthetic that shows the bridges and the going train on the dial side. Providing 50 reliable hours of energy to the world’s thinnest automatic wristwatch is a 22k gold peripheral winding rotor that is incorporated within the thickness of the movement.
Setting yet another benchmark in the world of ultra-thin watches is the Altiplano Ultimate Concept, which, at 2mm is the world’s thinnest mechanical watch. This concept watch is more than a proud declaration of Piaget’s watchmaking might; in the five long years it took Piaget to bring it into fruition, it was also a test bed for creative solutions and technical innovations. One that took root and was subsequently put in place in 900P and 910P was using the case as the movement plate to keep measurements down to a minimum.
Five other patent-protected developments work together to ensure a fully operational watch that delivers 40 hours of power reserve and is water-resistant to 30m. On the exterior, the cobalt alloy case keeps the shape rigid and less susceptible to warps and deformities. Affixed on top of this case is a 0.2mm sapphire crystal, roughly a fifth of the size of a regular sapphire crystal, which can withstand up to 3ATM water-resistance. Other features that led to the watch’s impossibly slim profile include an integrated flat crown that protects the winding system and uses a worm screw instead of the usual winding pinion, allowing for a more effective use of space; a ball-bearing mainspring barrel devoid of cover and drum, machined directly on the case back; and a regulating system with no balance wheel bridge.