Bvlgari & Piaget, Images: © Bert Buijsrogge
Continuing our articles about watches created by jewellery brands, we are going to take a look at Bvlgari & Piaget. Many watch collectors have just one favorite brand, or a few that form the base of their collection. In the many years that I’ve been active with watches, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many watch enthusiasts on various levels; some with just a few watches, and some with huge collections. The latter is less common, of course, as collecting mechanical timepieces comes with a hefty price tag; doing so isn’t realistic for the average Joe like me.
When I think about what is being collected today and all the collections I’ve seen in the past decade, from small to seriously huge, I can hardly remember anyone showing me a watch from brands like Bvlgari or Piaget. This would make one think that those brands don’t create high-end timepieces that are appealing to collectors, or that they don’t have the same iconic design as a brands like Audemars-Piguet, for instance. But is this true? Now’s the time to learn a bit more about these two brands, including their history and achievements in the horological industry.
Bvlgari
Unlike most brands (in the watch industry), Bulgari has its origins in Greece. The brand name, which is stylishly written as Bvlgari, comes from the surname of its founder, Sotir Bulgari. After moving around for several years, Bulgari found his way to Italy, where he founded the company in 1884 as a jewelers house. The company later expanded to include other luxury items such as leather goods, fashion items, fragrances, and even luxury hotels and resorts. It wasn’t until the late 70s that Bvlgari started making watches after an overhaul of the company.
Coming from the hands of world-renowned designer Gérald Genta, the Bulgari-Bulgari watch was launched in 1977. This model still resides in today’s collection with its original DNA clearly visible. Not much later, in the beginning of the 1980s, Bulgari Time S.A. was established in the Swiss canton Neuchâtel as the headquarters for all Bulgari watches. This remains the location for the design and creation of all watch lines. Today, most the watches feature an in-house mechanical movement. In addition to standard watches, Bulgari also has highly complicated watches in their collection, including tourbillon watches and even the Grande Sonnerie Carillon by the Daniel Roth company, which is known for complicated watchmaking. This is the only automatic wristwatch with four gongs playing the Westminster chime built into it.
Around the 2000s, Bulgari acquired the brand name and company of Gérald Genta and Daniel Roth. As of 2010, all Genta designed watches are solely marketed under the Bulgari brand name.
One of the most contemporary designed and successful lines is the Octo collection. In addition to the spectacular and award-winning minute repeater and other interesting complications, there is a relatively simple, but truly special watch. The Octo Solotempo is both elegant and bold and offers some very nice details such as a deep black lacquered dial and a double barrel in-house movement.
Piaget
Piaget’s watchmaking history goes back as far as 1874. That’s when Georges Piaget started setting up a small workshop at the family farm in Côte-aux-Fées, a small village located in the Swiss Jura region. Here, he began making high-precision movements. As the company grew famous for their products, the business grew and so did the workshop. It wasn’t until 1943 that Piaget was registered as an actual brand. From that moment on, they produced their own products under their own name. Shortly thereafter, in 1945, Piaget opened a new factory in Côte-aux-Fées where movements continue to be manufactured today.
In the 1950s, Piaget started taking steps in a direction that would turn out to be their company signature. Apart from starting jewellery making, they began designing ultra-thin movements. The very first ultra-thin movement, the Calibre 9P, was introduced in 1957 and measured only 2 mm in thickness. The Calibre 12p, the world’s thinnest automatic self-winding movement measuring just 2.3 mm, followed shortly thereafter. This achievement got them recognition in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Today, Piaget remains famous for creating some of the thinnest watches in the world in their Altiplano collection. The pieces are often simple time-only watches, but all are highly elegant in their appearance
From there things continued to go well for Piaget and they grew and expanded. Some of their better-known watch models are the Emperador and the Polo. Both of these lines still exist today. The Emperador dates back to 1957 and was re-launched in 1999. Their Polo line has been in the collection since 1979 and has recently been given a makeover.
The post Jewellery Brands with Serious Watchmaking: Bvlgari & Piaget appeared first on Chrono24 Magazine.