Piaget Unveils Its New Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon

To mark this special anniversary, Maison Piaget has performed an outstanding feat, a first in watchmaking history. 150 years after the Maison was first founded, 67 years after it invented its first ultra-thin calibre - the 9P - and 6 years after it revealed the thinnest watch in the world, the Altiplano Ultimate Concept, in 2018, Piaget has once again pushed the boundaries of horological ingenuity. Shaped by a quest for elegance and driven by inventiveness, this unrivalled timepiece boasts 2 mm, the same thinness as its predecessor. All the while, it shelters the beating heart of a flying tourbillon. A natural next step in the Maison’s journey, this invention is both a technical and emotional milestone.

The Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon is a paradox in and of itself. And yet, its dimensions, which truly stretch the limits of watchmaking feasibility, are a visual statement that can only begin to outline 150 years of human and horological history.

With a diameter of 41.5 mm, a guaranteed water resistance to a depth of 20 metres and a blue PVD-treated cobalt alloy case, the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon appears to possess all the features of an everyday watch. However, its 2 mm thickness and its flying tourbillon take it to a different plane: that of the extraordinary.

Set in circular motion by a bridge encircling it, the carriage of the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon completely subverts the current state-of-the-art technical principles. The signature engraved on its back, next to a sapphire crystal placed under the tourbillon, sums up the process that has driven Piaget since its beginnings: “Always do better than necessary”. This is a Maison whose culture is based on people, invention and collaboration. This spirit has led it to take on the challenge of barely believable thinness.

THE ATELIERS DE L’EXTRAORDINAIRE

The Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon is a mere 2 mm thick. Not a micron more. Its diameter is 41.5 mm. Not a millimetre more. And yet, it is able to cope with the 25% additional power required by the tourbillon.

These figures are not only a series of numbers. They stand for extraordinary victories achieved by Piaget. Behind this technical prowess, there lies a whole saga: a race against time conducted in secret inside the Piaget Manufacture in La Côte-aux-Fées. Three long years of work, doubt and self-questioning have marked the lives of everyone who took part in it.

The tourbillon complication has come to join the ranks of the great classics of watchmaking royalty. Here, it takes on a new dimension, both technical and poetic, remaining loyal to the Maison’s ancestral approach: technical achievements are but meant to serve the aesthetics of a watch. Extreme precision was this project’s guiding principle. Contrary to appearances, Piaget had to redesign 90% of the components of the original Altiplano Ultimate Concept- and even develop new machinery- to craft a watch as thin as its groundbreaking predecessor, with an added flying tourbillon. Inside the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon, everything is new: its parts have been reinvented and redesigned, drawing on years of experience. “We did far more than merely add a tourbillon. We reinvented everything,” explained Benjamin Comar, Piaget CEO.

LIFE FORCE

The Altiplano Ultimate Concept was the product of a collective endeavour lasting over six years, recognised by the prestigious Aiguille d’or at the 2020 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. The series of challenges it posed, not to mention the solutions that had to be invented and reinvented to create it, may have appeared to be the last step in the Maison’s ultra-thin adventure.

However, from the moment the first timepieces were delivered, the team of watchmakers in Piaget’s historic Manufacture in La Côte-aux-Fées could not resist imagining what would come next. What could they do to surpass it? There was one complication, one that is not an extra indication, one that combines visual effect, movement and technical challenge, prized by watchmaking connoisseurs.
The momentum behind the design of the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon was the same kind of energy that led to the creation of the thinnest manual winding caliber at that time, the 9P and 12P calibres, the Altiplano Ultimate (900P or 910P), and finally the Altiplano Ultimate Concept. The new idea still needed to be put into action. The question of how to achieve it had no simple answer.

Thanks to a principle that has been tried and tested since the invention of calibre 900P, there is no distinction between the movement and the case. To gain precious space and achieve ultra-thinness, the case back also serves as the movement mainplate. Its exterior side is in contact with the skin. The case is made from a deep blue treated cobalt alloy, which offers the best thinness to hardness ratio. The crown, integrated into the case band, is pulled out and operated using a dedicated tool. This tool is a stylus containing a gear reduction and torque control system, breathing new life into the barrel.

REVOLUTION

The position of the watch components was maintained. The dial displaying the hours and minutes is still slightly off-centre, as it was on its predecessor. The tourbillon is located at 10 o’clock, with a seconds indicator engraved on the tourbillon ring. The most crucial constraint of all was thinness: a prerequisite, unchangeable and fundamental. All its parts had to fit within 2 mm.

Working with the same case height and components just as thin, the difficulty lay in how to insert a tourbillon when the space inside the watch was already full.

From there, cogs started turning in the minds of watchmakers in La Côte-aux-Fées and Geneva. Pencil and paper, memory and culture, open-mindedness and watchmaking expertise: they drew upon all their talents. This process was based on a development approach that Piaget has always applied. It involves trying and testing ideas to retain them or discard them, then starting again, ceaselessly. That is how, after more than 70 versions of the cage, 15 versions of the anchor and 30 versions of the case frame, the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon acquired its final structure.

Piaget capitalised on its expertise with ultra-thin technology, especially drawing on its ultra-thin, 4.6 mm 670P tourbillon calibre, which fit inside a case 7.35 mm thick. Its flying tourbillon fit into a space that was a mere 1.49 mm in height. With no upper bridge, it was only held in place by its underside. However, by gaining a few hundredths of millimetres here and there, the Manufacture in La Côte-aux-Fées was still falling short of the mark. Piaget needed to completely re-imagine the tourbillon.

Soon, a new idea was set in motion. The tourbillon would be held in place by its perimeter. The Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon is a tourbillon. Its outer edge is held in place by a ceramic ball bearing, which drives its one-minute rotation. It is mainly made of titanium, and steel where possible. Next, it was time to supply it with power.

VIRTUOSITY

The Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon relies on a unique skeletonised barrel, which replicates the cross-hair design of the original Altiplano. However, a tourbillon’s energy consumption is higher than that of a movement with a fixed regulator, around 25% higher than the Altiplano Ultimate Concept.

Furthermore, the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon is able to offer a power reserve of around 40 hours. The extraordinary result stems from two different solutions.

The first was the decision to use a made-to-measure mainspring, reworked based on its most force-bearing factor. The thickness of the blade was slightly increased to deliver the additional energy required. The second solution was the almost systematic use of ball bearings instead of pivots. By making it easier for the mobile elements to rotate, Piaget decreased friction, allowing the watchmakers to achieve an even thinner result. In designing the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon, innovation also meant optimizing the thickness of the sapphire crystal, reduced to 0.20 mm dial-side and 0.16 mm back-side.

When a watch is 2 mm thin, all the rules change. This fact will barely be noticed by its wearer, but it is vitally important to watchmakers. The machining tolerance of miniaturised parts is a true challenge. With the balance wheel rim and the sapphire crystal both being 0.2 mm thick, the machines that craft them have to work to an accuracy of around 2 microns, that is two thousandths of a millimetre. This is even more crucial as the parts also undergo a series of processes to decorate their surfaces after manufacture. For example, the wheels, now made with four arms instead of the six previously used, are diamond polished and chamfered by hand. That decoration cannot be allowed to deform them.

The Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon could be described as the sum of these technical feats. But the true feat remains the same as the Altiplano ultimate Concept’s: it is the effect that it creates. Putting on a watch fitted with a tourbillon that is a mere 2 mm thick, and therefore as thin as a coin, is a surprising experience but also a comfortable one. Seen from the side, it almost vanishes. From the back, it surprises the wearer with its striking opening.

From the front, it shows remarkable depth, a potential for self-expression that the wearer never could have imagined. Day to day, it can either go unnoticed or make a statement. It showcases its profoundly elegant character with a play of colours that is intensely Piaget, pairing blue with gold. This elegance is, more than anything else, the feature that Piaget constantly strives to achieve, placing it at the very heart of its DNA. Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon is made to be worn. To be looked at. To remind its owner of the long history of the people and the Manufacture that made it. And finally, to make them wonder what challenges Maison Piaget will set itself next.