Two millimetres of nerve
By Priya Nair, Singapore ยท
The watch is 2 mm thick. Not the movement, the whole watch. When Piaget released the production Altiplano Ultimate Concept in 2020, it was the thinnest mechanical watch in the world, a record that Bulgari and Richard Mille have since taken from it in the thin-watch arms race.
To get there, the case itself is the mainplate, so the movement is built directly into it, and the case is made of a cobalt alloy stiff enough not to flex. The hand-wound 970P-UC gives 40 hours. 41 mm across, blue dial, open caseback, leather strap, 20 m of water resistance.
Practically, it's absurd. At 570,000 to 600,000 dollars, it costs more than many apartments in Singapore. You'd be nervous to knock it on a door frame, never mind wear it in the rain. And the resale market for this sort of record-breaker is thin, much like the watch.
But as a statement of what watchmaking can do, I find it thrilling. It's not something I'd buy. It's something I'd want to see in a client's vault and be allowed to hold for exactly two minutes.