Statement of Achievement: Piaget Emperador Coussin Tourbillon Automatic Ultra Thin Watch

There exists in psychology a concept known as the hierarchy of needs. This forces us to have a set of wants and desires no matter how comfortable our lives are. The idea is that after a person has satisfied basic elements of life and subsistence, their needs move up the ladder to things such as shelter, love, socialization, and all the way up to actually requiring intellectual stimulation and to be surrounded by the finest things in life. When you are at the top, your needs can be just as distinct and pervasive as the need to eat for those who have nothing. There are people who need this watch, and without they feel a great lacking.

For 2011, Piaget has created a watch that encompasses almost everything the Swiss brand wants to be known for on the higher-end of the timepiece scale. Brand enthusiasts and horology lovers will desire this watch without a doubt. The watch is complicated, very thin in size, and beautiful in an unconventionally conventional manner.

Part of the Emperador Coussin collection, this watch contains the worlds thinnest automatic tourbillon mechanical movement that is just 5.55mm thick. I find it stunning how straight forward the execution is, given its novelty. The thin size of the movement construction contains knowledge Piaget has developed from years of making watch movements. Piaget, as a brand, actually began as a company making watch movements, only later (around the middle of the 20th century) to put those movements in timepieces with their own name on it. Almost since that time, Piaget has consistently focused on very thin and elegant mechanical movements.

The movement, specially developed for the Tourbillon Automatic Ultra thin, is the calibre 1270P. With a flying tourbillon, time, power reserve indicator (located on the rear of the watch), and a front-mounted micro-rotor, the movement has an amazingly sparse 269, hand-finished parts. The back of the watch has two smaller sapphire windows showing a rear view of the flying tourbillon, as well as another window that serves as the power reserve indicator.

Placed in their larger 46.5-mm wide Emperador Coussin case (in either 18-karat white or rose gold), the watch has an incredibly rich face mostly made of etched crystal over a skeletonized vision of the movement. The case has been flattened a bit to be just 10.40-mm thick – setting a record for a wrist watch housing a movement that has automatic winding with a tourbillon escapement.

The design of the dial is clever allowing the wearer to see the constant movement of not only the tourbillon, but also of solid gold micro-rotor. It is true that easy reading of the watch takes second place, after the ability to be impressed by the dial and its various features. Applied hour markers help the watch dial create a sunburst like motif seen previously in other Piaget timepieces. The same look has been engraved into the movement for a layered sunray effect. Elements of color are cleverly integrated into the dial design. Most timepieces look best having two main colors, and a third color as an accent. Piaget uses two accent colors for the Tourbillon Automatic Ultra Slim, which are accomplished through the many exposed red sapphire crystals and blued steel screws. These added hues really help shape the prestigious appearance of the timepiece.

The elite watch lover who believes they have it all, will no doubt discover a need for this new flagship Piaget watch given its ability to push the envelope of what Piaget is capable of offering. Each Emperador Coussin Tourbillon Automatic Ultra Slim watch produced will be individually numbered. A six figure cost with the price on request. www.piaget.com.

1. 46.5-mm wide and 10.5-mm thick 18-karat white or rose gold case
2. Front-mounted solid gold engraved automatic micro-rotor
3. Ultra-thin Flying Tourbillon
4. Middle dial in etched crystal
5. Off-centered time display

Ariel Adams is the Haute Living Watch Editor and also publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.