Piaget goes Italian

This year’s fashion week was largely dedicated to Italy and several houses worked and proposed their own visions of this country through very colourful and joyful creations. The Swiss company Piaget – with Sunlight Journey – chose to draw inspiration from the colours of the Amalfi coast with its typical small villages clinging to the cliffs in a series of pieces set with smaller stones creating almost the illusion of mosaics. The centre stones are increasingly qualitative. The company has chosen to move upmarket and it is a real pleasure to discover the perfect gems sourced by the manufacture’s gemologists and buyers: a 45.99 ct star sapphire on a sautoir and a 20.14 ct star sapphire on another necklace, a black opal weighing almost 9 carats on a watch, dials in the same material on several other timepieces, and imposing yellow diamonds on several pieces, including one weighing 11.85 carats that took eight months of research.

Somewhere on the Amalfi Coast…. Photo: Celebritours.

In addition to the stones, Piaget has called on artisans with remarkable skills to create Métiers d’Art pieces. For example, the feather-maker Nelly Saunier once again collaborated with the company to design luminous feather marquetry, while the Maitre d’Art Isabelle Emmerique proposed a dial in eggshell mosaic on gold leaf, Anita Porchet – a renowned grand feu enameller – contributed to several watches with dials of great finesse, and the Atelier Cesare Bella was involved in the creation of micro-mosaics featuring bougainvillea flowers for an Altiplano high jewellery watch, finally, Rose Saneuil has created marquetry of precious woods combining new materials such as white or black Tahitian mother-of-pearl, sycamore, parchment, bird’s eye maple, hornbeam, beech and tulip tree. I think it’s great that, in an industry that cultivates secrecy, the craftsmen involved in the creation of this very beautiful collection are mentioned and highlighted by Piaget.

I propose you to discover the pieces that I liked the most during the presentation that took place in the boutique of the rue de paix. Beware of the bright colours on the programme!