Piaget Altiplano Ultimate 910P: Looking Good While Breaking Records
It is a battle of titans, as Bulgari and Piaget compete with each other to create the world’s thinnest mechanical watches. In this battle, Piaget can bow down on a much longer history as it started its legacy in 1957 with the 2mm thick manual wind caliber 9P, followed in 1960 with the 2.3mm slender automatic caliber 12P. Over the course of the decades, it has mainly used these thin, and small, calibers to offer its designers almost unrestricted freedom, which has resulted in turn in some of the most breathtaking dress watches in the world.
In 2011 Piaget introduced the 5.25mm thick Altiplano, as a modern predecessor of the caliber 12P, yet in 2017 Bulgari made a surprise move with its Octo Finissimo Automatic, which was with a height of 5.15mm, thin enough to take over the crown. With the Altiplano Ultimate 910P, Piaget clearly shows who’s boss, as it undercuts the Bulgari by 0.85mm, with a total thickness of 4.3mm. In the world of ultra-thin watches, this is not a step forward, but a leap!
Visually the Altiplano Ultimate 910P resembles that of the manual wind 900P, with as main difference the 22K peripheral rotor. Moving around the rest of the movement, it not only supplies it with power in a very efficient way, but it also contributes significantly to its thinness, as it does not add thickness to the back of the movement, or takes away space inside the movement such as a micro-rotor does. This does mean that the Altiplano Ultimate 910P is larger than its manual wind sibling, with a diameter of 41mm. This is, however, still modest enough to look very elegant on the wrist, as it remains, of course, a dress watch!
The fact that you can also see the vast majority of the movement only adds to the experience that you are wearing a mechanical marvel and the thinnest automatic wrist watch in the world. It gives the Piaget a contemporary look while remaining timeless and classy. Piaget offers the Altiplano Ultimate 910P in two colors gold: In 18K rose gold ($26.000,-) is more the classic dress watch, while in 18K white gold ($27.000,-) it amplifies more the technical side of the watch.
