The Piaget Polo watch of 1979 was Piaget’s highly successful sporty-chic watch accounting for nearly one-third of the company’s sales in the 1980s. Following a radical makeover in 2016, the cushion-shaped Polo has appeared with mechanical complications, high and low, and even skeletonised high jewellery models. As a master of ultra-thin movements since the mid-1950s, last month Piaget added an ultra-thin perpetual calendar complication to the Polo mix inside a 42mm stainless steel case. Piaget is also synonymous with colourful semi-precious stone dials and, as the owner of the largest jewellery workshop in Geneva, gemstone setting is also an integral part of the brand’s DNA. Two models, one in pink gold with a green dial and an exceptional white gold model with a blue obsidian dial and blue sapphires, enrich the Polo collection.

Sharing identical specifications to the steel model launched in March 2023, the Piaget Polo Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin comes in the typical cushion-shaped stainless steel case with a flat round bezel. It has a 42mm diameter, a height of 8.65mm and 30m water-resistance. The 18k pink gold model shares the same emerald green dial as the steel model with its signature horizontal gadroons. The perpetual calendar layout, with the month and leap year indicator at noon, the date at 3 o’clock, the day of the week at 9 o’clock and the moon phase at 6 o’clock is also identical to the steel model.
Employing Piaget’s long-standing experience in stone dials, the blue model features a mysterious silvery blue obsidian dial framed by different-sized blue sapphires in dark claws set in the bezel. Produced when lava from a volcano cools rapidly, obsidian is a form of volcanic glass. The natural iridescence found in the obsidian dial of this watch is formed when drops of mineral-rich sulphide liquid are trapped in the rock as it solidifies, a phenomenon that ensures that no two stones are alike. The movement powering the perpetual calendar functions is Piaget’s in-house calibre 1255, based on Piaget’s famous, ultra-thin (2.35mm) 1200P automatic calibre with a perpetual calendar module. Thanks to the incorporation of a micro-rotor, this automatic movement has a thickness of just 4mm. With a frequency of 21,600vph and a power reserve of 42 hours, the perpetual calendar function won’t need adjusting until 2100. The pink gold model is presented on a textured green rubber strap, while the white gold comes on a blue alligator strap with an additional rubber strap. The Piaget Perpetual Ultra-Thin models have the brand’s SingleTouch interchangeable strap/bracelet system.