Piaget

Piaget is one of the oldest brands of Swiss luxury watches. It all started in 1874 when Georges-Edouard Piaget decided to make his own watch company. Up to that date he was recognized as one of the best watch designers in Switzerland, dedicated to both quality and style.Piaget watches are a premium watch manufacturer from Sweden. They have been making watches for over 125 years and their products are a status symbol for wealth, fortune, and prestige. In recent years, the early models of these watches, known as vintage Piaget watches, have becoming very popular and very sought out among collectors. There are three eras of vintage watches, The Original Vintage Era, The Brand Years, and the New Designs Era. These watches are very hard to come by and feature very exquisite designs.The Original Vintage Era: This era took place between 1874-1942. These watches featured very simple designs featuring just the time with a simple frame. Only three numbers were featured on these models, 3,9, and 12. These watches are nearly impossible to find and worth an absolute fortune.The Brand Years 1943-1955: These models were more sophisticated and a ladies line was made. This line was designed and marketed to the sophisticated woman, and were very expensive at the time. The mens models were skinny watches, and the brand started to become very popular in the United States and all over Europe.New Designs Era: Between 1956-1963 is when Piaget started really making a great name for themselves. A technology marvel was the Piaget Caliber 12P, this watch being the slimmest watch in the world that winding itself. These watches were more tech savvy than previous models but like previous years, every watch was hand crafted by a jeweler. Also, during this era, Piaget started creating their own stores in high fashion, luxury areas.With time the company developed and Piaget watches began being recognized worldwide. This sort of watches was never designed for a very large market as the watches themselves have been always manually produced. The market share hunted by Piaget watches is the one of luxury, small edition watches.To date Piaget watches continue to be produced only with the best of materials and all the components are made in house. This might seem a little odd in the world of outsourcing we experience today, but it allowed the company to maintain its very high standards, while keeping the concept intact from the design to the final product.As you may guess Piaget watches do not come at a small price tag. Further still every watch made by the company is a small jewel in itself, hiding not very well behind a functional appearance. This trend was perhaps most beautifully illustrated during the 70's when the concept of watch bracelet was introduced. These watches had a radical design making the watch itself "melt" within the bracelet. This change of focus produced some of the most elegant watches ever designed. As a matter of fact the Piaget company still sees these watches as the pinnacle of their creative design.Apart from their looks Piaget watches also hide a great deal of attention to quality and exactitude. The name of Piaget is a trademark for them. To date the radical design of the Piaget watches was tempered as the company moved on to producing more classical designs. When you see a Piaget watch though you can't help feeling that tension that kept the designer on course, but which is still visible in the smaller elements. Overall it might look like your average luxury watch, but when you use a magnifying lens you will discover a whole new world behind it.The history of Piaget watches seems as a constant battle between the creative thrust and the traditional standards. Fortunately for us this battle had a happy ending and just about any model features some subtle references to its glorious past.As soon as the Piaget watches began being noticed by more than the luxury watch enthusiasts the company didn't give in into the corporate promise of mass production and kept on relying on the traditional manufacturing techniques. There aren't many authentic Swiss watch manufacturers left. Piaget is one of the last mohicans in this field and we can only hope that they will remain this way and keep on producing those marvelous watches. A Piaget watch is simply more than a watch.