This watch was presented during the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH 2018). It is a perfect compromise between a classic and elegant style and a technical achievement. Piaget closes the 60th anniversary of its Altiplano collection with a record-breaking watch in the form of the Altiplano Ultimate Automatic: the world’s thinnest self-winding mechanical watch, at just 4.30mm total thickness for the watch.
This is the thinnest automatic wristwatch in the world. It is more than that though, and in this Week on the Wrist inspection, I came to understand that the Piaget Altiplano 43mm Automatic might just be defining a new category of utterly elegant everyday watches. An ultra-thin does not need to be only for a suit and tie type of guy anymore, and this watch demonstrates that. The Altiplano 3mm Automatic was declared at SIHH 2010, and they are only hitting retailers at the U.S. right now. What exactly was Piaget up to all this time? Simple really. They were perfecting an absolutely magnificent automatic movement, the 2.35 millimeter 1208P, a movement that any real watch enthusiast must appreciate as a work of art. Piaget is famous both for its own thin mechanical watches and its work in the business of high jewelry. It’s even known for its complex thin watches, like the Emperador Coussin Tourbillon Automatic, the planet’s thinnest automatic tourbillon, and also the usage of high jewelry in complicated wristwaches. The brand new Altiplano is a thoroughly modern and masculine watch, a watch that’s sized for today but constructed with yesterday in mind.
