Inspired by the year’s most exceptional night, the Piaget Solstice collection is a celebration of shared joy, extravaganza and pure beauty.
After a first chapter inspired by voluptuous and fluid Haute Couture gowns, the Solstice collection takes this precious mix of fun and craft even further: Solstice’s second installment is all about laughter and long conversations under the shimmering moon. Outside, night has finally descended. Inside, illuminated by the stars in the sky and the glowing moon up above, the lights shine an infinity of sparks on the joyful crowd.
The brightness of their smiles, the warmth of their laughs, the echoes of their glasses clinging as they cheer… The heart of the party vigorously pumps a flow of energy, travelling through the cocktails that are poured into the glasses, and the rich colours of the unique watches and pieces of jewellery they inspire.
Big, striking rings were worn by women during the 1920s America, giving it the name “cocktail rings”. In 2009, faithful to its playfulness and love of technical challenges, Piaget decided to take the idea literally and created a whole jewellery line inspired by the endlessly creative world of mixology resulting in fun, colourful and original pieces evocative of the most inventive cocktails.
Intricate, luminous and crafted to perfection, the cocktail rings of the Solstice collection all display Piaget’s unique expertise in gemmology and gold craftsmanship.
To reproduce the volume, colours and textures of the cocktails’ ingredients, the Piaget ateliers and their faithful craftsmen worked for months, pushing the limits of their excellence to create unique pieces.
All over the world, gemologists looked for the perfect stones, ones that could stand in for grenadine (pink sapphires), mint leaves (emeralds), sprinkled sugar (diamonds paved mounting), ice cubes (rough diamonds), or slices of lime (sculpted peridot)
Piaget’s High Jewellery savoir-faire then came into play, to assemble these gems with extreme precision and playfulness. The fruit slices were sculpted by hand by glyptic masters, and ultimate precision was needed for the diamonds and metal slice covering the fruit to fit perfectly.
On the rings, the delicate decorations open to free the centre gem which can then be worn as a solitaire, once again establishing Piaget as a master of creativity and transformability.
Combining the perfect playfulness and the quiet elegance of an iconic drink, and inspired by the warm and rich colours of a dark-brown liquor, the Audacious Savor necklace combines exceptional natural brown diamonds with sugarloaf spessartites and brilliant-cut diamonds. Because the Piaget Society likes to drink on the rocks, the square-shaped gold structures set with diamonds remind the shape of the ice cubes in a glass.
At Piaget, craftsmanship and excellence resonate in both the jewellery and watchmaking universe. In collaboration with the best artists and Maîtres d’Art, the Piaget ateliers design rings, earrings, necklaces and watches like works of art. Daring and bold artists, visionary trendsetters, adventurers of beauty… The Maîtres d’Art are a perfect embodiment of the values cherished by the Piaget Society.
With its intricate dial evocative of the inside of a cocktail glass, the Joyful Sharing watch illustrates the level of mastery achieved by collaborating with these unique artists and creators. It is the result of a collaboration with the world’s premier enameller, Anita Porchet, and the Dutch Master engraverDick Steenman. On a bed of sculpted mother-of-pearl, Dick Steenman engraved the stones to create shimmering and playful lime slices and mint leaves. Anita Porchet then covered the elements previously engraved with mint leaves and ice cubes created with a palette of translucent enamels, for a true-to-life result. To respect the dial’s thickness constraint, each enamel or glyptic element had to be individually adjusted to be set on the right height. The result is an exquisite feat of craftsmanship, the unique collaboration of the renowned Métiers d’Art with Piaget’s very own watchmaking expertise.
Anita Porchet’s incredible savoir-faire is showcased in another creative timepiece’s dial: The Festive Sharing watch. This creation reveals a mix of precious techniques: champlevé enamel, paillonné enamel as well as some details in miniature. A true master of craft (and a Piaget collaborator since 2006!), Anita also loves challenges. For this piece, she created the paillons motifs herself, as lime slices do not exist as such! After finding an existing paillon that could remind of a lemon slice, she gave it the perfect shape and colour. To achieve true perfection, she then integrated some touches of Miniature, making them look like real limes.
Because creativity is limitless (and collaboration is a passion), the Gleaming Savor watch gets its exceptional crystal glass look from Rose Saneuil’s mastery craftsmanship. Based in Montrouge, near Paris, Saneuil is a French marquetry specialist who works with an array of different materials. Using the “element by element” technique, she developed a surprising association of straw, sycamore wood, and elytron for this one-of-a-kind piece of watchmaking.
Although the dial is flat, she managed to create a volume effect by working with the light reflection of each of her materials. This masterpiece of miniature marquetry work has 177 pieces of materials. Another daring element: the baguette-cut diamonds are set upside-down on the bezel, giving the piece a bold additional touch. This makes the Gleaming Savor Watch a true work of art, something to marvel at throughout an amazing Solstice night.
With a cocktail in hand and the never-ending excitement of a starry night above, may this night ever end!
Solstice by Piaget
About Piaget
Piaget epitomizes daring creativity – a quality that has continued to permeate through the Maison since its beginnings in 1874. From his first workshop in La Côte-aux-Fées, Georges-Edouard Piaget devoted himself to crafting high-precision movements in a feat that formed the very foundations of our pioneering name. In the late 1950s, Piaget unveiled the ultra-thin movements that would later become the Maison’s trademark and the cornerstone of the Altiplano collection. As a true innovator of the watch and jewellery world, Piaget strongly believed in creativity and artistic values. It is within the walls of our “Ateliers de l’Extraordinaire” where master artisans continue to harness rare skills that have been preserved and perfected from generation to generation, transforming gold, stones and precious gems into dazzling works of art. Through its pursuit of masterful craftsmanship, the Maison has created emblems of daring excellence channelled into its collections including Altiplano, Piaget Polo, Limelight Gala, Possession, Piaget Sunlight, Piaget Rose and Extremely Piaget.
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