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The Piaget Rose comes in a Generous and Joyful Bouquet

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The Piaget Rose collection welcomes two new rings and four new timepieces that each depict a whole bouquet of glorious and lavish Piaget Roses.

The Piaget Rose is best-known as one of the Maison’s exquisite jewellery collections, but it is also the name of an award-winning flower named after Yves Piaget. This rose comes in a unique and vibrant shade of fuchsia and is appreciated for its large bloom with 80 layers of petals and its fragrance that features hints of citrus.

Ever since he was a child growing up in La Côte-aux-Fées, Yves Piaget has been fascinated by the wildflowers around him. “I remember these wild roses that we called églantines with affection. They would grow at altitudes of 1,000 metres.” In addition to his work at Piaget, he was committed to promoting this unique flower and his life-long passion for roses was rewarded in 1982, when the rose created by the Maison Meilland, and which won the International new Rose Competition, was named after him.

Honoured by this gesture, he offered an 18-karat gold, life-sized rose to each new winner of the competition for several years. He has since created the Monaco International Rose Competition, which awards a trophy donated by the Maison Piaget.

The Piaget Rose was born in 2002 in the Maison’s High Jewellery collections and has continued to bloom ever since. Piaget dreamed up elegant gold and diamond bouquets, which were followed by creations featuring diva-pink tourmalines and candy-pink opals. Over the years the Maison has created an array of jewels inspired by the Yves Piaget Rose.

This year Piaget is presenting two rings and four timepieces in a bouquet style that accentuate the rich colours, textures, and volume of a beautiful bunch of Piaget Roses. More delightful than ever, this year’s Piaget Rose creations celebrate generosity and the beauty of sharing. Each piece is designed and developed by the artisans in Piaget’s “Ateliers de l’Extraordinaire”, but also introduces collaborations with external craftsmen and women who are leaders in their artistic fields.

Piaget Rose Rings
Two delicately-crafted Piaget Rose rings join the collection in a choice of pink or green. Pink for the vibrant colour of the Piaget Rose petals and green for the deep hue of the flower’s foliage. At the centre of each ring, a stunning tourmaline of approximately 5 carats is surrounded by gold and diamond buds, and Piaget Rose flowers. Each layer of rose petals is meticulously finished and set before being mounted on the ring in an asymmetrical design. The original and audacious setting is inspired by Piaget’s high jewellery creations and shows an exceptional level of detail that even includes a delicate “Rose ajourée” openwork decor that is secretly hidden on the back of each ring. It takes an impressive 50 hours of craftsmanship to complete each ring.

Extraordinary Colours
The tourmaline, also called indigolite or indicolite, is named after the colour indigo. Tourmalines usually come in a deep indigo blue but can also come in a shade of greenish/blue which is intense and luminous in colour. This vibrant greenish/blue brings an impressive depth to each gemstone. The indicolites selected by Piaget come in this greenish/blue colour and are very joyful, a mood which is reflected in all of Piaget’s creations.

These greenish/blue tourmalines are rare and sought-after gemstones. It is extremely difficult to find blue/green tourmalines with such a perfect tone and saturation balance that are not too dark in colour.

The delicate rose-coloured tourmaline has been prized by jewellers for centuries. This exact shade of colour and size is also quite rare to find. Tourmalines are appreciated by jewellers for their hardness and tenacity that means they can stand the test of time. They have also become increasingly rare as the few known deposits are now almost exhausted, adding to the magic of the tourmaline.

Extraordinary Cuts
The large pink and green tourmalines are cut into an oval shape, which is the best cut for coloured gemstones to allow the colour to be concentrated where the eye can see it and maximize brilliance and shine. All the stones are also cut in accordance with Piaget’s extremely high-quality standards.

Extraordinary Details
The green tourmaline ring comes in rose gold with 154 brilliant-cut diamonds (approx. 1.69 cts), one oval green tourmaline (approx. 4.92 cts) and 8 pear-shaped green tourmalines (approx. 1.36 cts). The pink tourmaline is set in a white gold ring with 154 brilliant-cut diamonds (approx. 1.69 cts), one oval pink tourmaline (approx. 4.94 cts) and 8 pear-shaped pink tourmalines (approx. 1.36 cts).

Glyptic and Enamel Art Timepieces
The Piaget Rose timepieces have been interpreted with an array of Métiers d’Art over the years, including micro mosaic, wood and stone marquetry, embroidery, engraving, guilloché, and miniature enamel. This year sees the arrival of four new timepieces that combine a mesmerizing mix of gold engraving, ornamental stones, glyptic, and enamel.

Ornamental stones have been dear to Piaget since the 1960s and the art of micro-sculpting and engraving them is called glyptic or glyptography. Glyptic is mainly used on large stones in jewellery, and it is rare to see it on this miniature scale.

Each of the four dials depicts a bouquet of Piaget Roses in all their splendour thanks to the expert work of two artisans: Dick Steenman, who is a watchmaking artisan, jeweller, gem-setter, and engraver, and Anita Porchet, the watch industry’s most renowned enamel artist. Both artists have years of experience and are leaders in their respective fields.

Dick Steenman has created several glyptic timepieces and jewellery for Piaget, including an Extremely Piaget hand-engraved emerald cuff bracelet, a one-of-a-kind Golden Oasis Glyptic & Enamel timepiece, and a Wings of Light timepiece to name a few. His favourite mediums include miniature gold and glyptic sculpture and he never ceases to push the boundaries of his creativity by fusing watchmaking and jewellery techniques.

Anita Porchet has been collaborating with Piaget since 2006, and is renowned for her mastery of all the enamelling techniques, from the most complicated miniature, to cloisonné, champlevé, grisaille and paillonné. In the intimate surroundings of her atelier, surrounded by hundreds of small bottles containing precious powders in every shade imaginable, she experiments like an alchemist mixing them together to create the perfect colours. Armed with her tools, she masterfully applies her paints before firing the enamels in one of her kilns. As the colours set, her artistic vision turns into reality.

Together, Anita Porchet and Dick Steenman have created four unique dials using gold, imperial jasper, coral, chrysoprase, mokaïte, enamel, and mother-of-pearl of various colours. These ornamental precious stones and materials have been combined with Piaget’s ultra-thin 430P movement in the creation of four exquisite limited editions of eight pieces.

The Creative Process
Each dial comes to life in the hands of Dick Steenman who sculpts and engraves each miniature Piaget Rose in gold so that Anita Porchet can add the perfect shade of enamel. Dick also sends Anita the stones so that she can research the exact hue of colour. Once the enamel is completed, these delicate elements are returned to Dick who works the glyptic of each ornamental stone and meticulously re-sculpts the edges of some of the enamel petals, a process that is not without risk. He also delicately hollows the centre of the flowers to prepare them for the setting of the diamonds, sapphires, and tsavorites that will become the pistils. The final process is the assembly of the final bouquet, which is a real-life puzzle that demands utmost dexterity.

The Challenges
Each dial takes at least a month to complete due to the numerous challenges that arise. Firstly, it is important to have the perfect alloy of 22-karat gold to obtain the richest colours of enamel. This is important so the flowers do not oxydise in the kiln or burn around the edges during the enamelling process. Secondly, the stones are particularly fragile and can easily break or crack. Each stone has its own set of constraints: Opals are very fragile, coral can change colour, and rhodonite and chrysoprase are extremely hard and difficult to work with. Dick had to create his own tools and techniques to work each stone and he uses a combination of oils, paste, and diamond powder for the final polishing. Even this step requires utmost attention as it is easy to over-round the petals.

The enamelling process is equally intricate as Anita must not only position the enamel onto a shaped surface but also be attentive to the thickness of the enamel so as not to cover up the underlying sculpture. She must also find the perfect enamel colours, which are unique to each timepiece. She pays particular attention to each colour scheme so that they perfectly match the gemstones, as well as bring light and movement to each petal as it catches the light. Add to these challenges the fact that the dial is only millimeters thick and must respect all the tolerances of a mechanical timepiece further increases the complexity of the creation process for both Maîtres Artisans.

All four limited editions come in an ultra-thin 36mm, 18-karat gold cases set with baguette-cut diamonds. Three of the four timepieces are adorned with ornamental stones as well as pink sapphires, green tsavorites and diamonds. The fourth one features an engraved solid gold dial adorned with pink sapphires amethysts and diamonds. Each timepiece is limited to eight pieces.

This audacious and creative series of limited editions celebrates entire bouquets of Piaget Roses. Bouquets that are so beautiful, you can almost smell them!

Discover The New Piaget Care Programme
Piaget extends its international warranty on all Piaget timepieces to eight years, reinforcing the Piaget Care Program and the Maison’s commitment to serving its treasured clients.

Piaget has long been recognised by its determination to “Always Do Better Than Necessary”. This was its founder Yves Piaget’s motto and it remains as true today as it ever did.

With this new extended international warranty of eight years, the Piaget Care Program attests to the Maison’s dedication to excellence and innovation. Piaget is confident in its promise to its clients as it knows how reliable and well-crafted each and every Piaget timepiece is. Clients who already have a Piaget timepiece under warranty can extend it to eight years on request.

With the launch of the new client care program, Piaget will not only offer an extended warranty but it will also present a host of free personalized services throughout its network of boutiques. There will also be additional content on the Piaget website regarding the care and servicing of the Maison’s timepieces.

Through the Piaget Care program, the Maison is committed to taking care of its clients by offering them the ultimate service for their timekeepers. The company’s mission is to delight and astonish its clients not only with its creations, but also with its commitment to the very best customer service.

How the Piaget Care Program Works

You can do one of the following:

Discover Piaget Luxury Watch and High Jewellery at Piaget Boutique by S.T. Dimension on M Floor, Siam Paragon, Tel. 02-610-9678