Piaget’s original 1970s Polo receives a thoroughly modern reboot
The brand’s sleek, fluted gold sports watch returns in a larger case and with a mechanical movement
To the Swiss ski resort of Gstaad, earlier this month, where Piaget kicked off its 150-year anniversary celebrations with a wonderfully remastered classic from the 1970s – the Piaget Polo 79.
The original watch launched in 1979 (geddit?), during a period in which the Geneva-headquartered watchmaker was pioneering ultra-thin movements. Compared to its competitors, Piaget was late to the luxury integrated sports watch party, but when it arrived it did so with something entirely different.
Whereas other brands – Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, IWC – were debuting sports watches in stainless steel, the Piaget Polo arrived in solid gold. And, rather than housing a mechanical movement, the Polo was powered by quartz. There was also the fact that the watch looked like nothing else, thanks to its standout lateral gadroon (or fluted) pattern. Eye-wateringly expensive, it was the reserve of the rich and stylish.
The Polo is part of an achingly elegant back catalogue of cool case shapes and interesting stone dials that have been growing in popularity among the collector community. It was in 1963 that Piaget presented its first watches crafted with dials worked in precious stones, after instruction from Valentine Piaget to “do what has never been done before”.
The first models were made with lapis lazuli, opal, jade, turquoise, onyx, malachite, and tiger’s eye. They proved a hit among entertainment royalty, with Piaget watches appearing on the wrists of Elvis Presley, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren. It was in the late ’60s that Piaget also began its long-standing relationship with Salvador Dalí.
Today, Piaget is a subsidiary of the Richemont Group – parent company to Cartier, Vacheron Constantin and Jaeger-LeCoultre, among others – yet it remains chaired by Yves Piaget, great-grandson of company-founder, Georges-Édouard. It was Yves who oversaw the creation of the ‘Piaget Society’, a collective of the brand’s wealthiest, most famous and most influential patrons, who are regularly invited to attend spectacular gala dinners around the world.
Having relocated to Los Angeles to study gemology, Yves was acutely aware of the power and influence of Hollywood. Friends of the brand, who Piaget has leveraged to tremendous success, currently include actors Claire Foy, Daniela Melchior, Emily Blunt, Raff Law, Diane Kruger and Ethan Hawke. Actors Jessica Chastain, Ryan Reynolds and Michael B Jordon are previous ambassadors.
The launch of the Piaget Polo 79 comes amid a resurgence of vintage-inspired integrated sports watches, with Vacheron Constantin’s 222 and IWC’s Ingenieur both being recently relaunched. Although, in truth, the Polo 79 is a new watch entirely from its original forebear.
For one thing, the 18-karat yellow-gold case is now 38mm, increased from an initial size of 27mm. It also has a thoroughly-modern movement, the Calibre 1200P1, an ultra-thin automatic workhorse found in a variety of Piaget’s current line-up.
While the case of the original was cast as a single piece, the Polo 79 is comprised of multiple parts, with each individual polished gadroon sliding into place. This allows for more precise finishing of the case. The time-only watch (hour and minutes hands, but no seconds) is sublime on the wrist – and incredible to photograph. Beautifully constructed, expect it to become the hottest ticket among Piaget’s roster of unfailingly chic timepieces.
Piaget Polo 79, £69,000, piaget.com
