Piaget CEO Chabi Nouri On New Releases, House Heritage, Pioneering Innovation & The Shifting Watch World
Founded in the late 1800s by Georges-Édouard Piaget in Switzerland, Piaget is one of the most well-known and celebrated luxury watch and jewelry Houses in the world. Seamlessly marrying its illustrious heritage with contemporary design and technology, the brand has always been at the forefront of innovation, leading to some revolutionary creations, like the Altiplano Ultimate Concept—the thinnest mechanical wristwatch in the world. At its helm for three years is Chabi Nouri, Piaget’s Chief Executive Officer who joined the House in September 2014, initially as Global Brand Equity, Marketing Jewelry & Communication Director, before being appointed to International Managing Director, Sales & Marketing in September 2016, and CEO as of April 2017. A Swiss native, she earned her Master of Economics Degree from the University of Fribourg prior to joining Cartier in Switzerland in 1998 as Product Manager, subsequently joining Cartier International—within the Richemont family—where she spent most of her career. Her mission at Piaget is to modernize and rejuvenate the new positioning and ambition of the brand, while capitalizing on its history and unique heritage, as well as leveraging its development strategy across the world and launch a new managerial dynamic. Chabi is characterized by her passion for the profession, her rare energy, the desire to share an exceptional adventure with her teams and Piaget Society, consisting of clients, ambassadors, friends of the Maison, artists and celebrities. Most recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Chabi—virtually, of course—where she joined from Geneva, to chat exclusively with me about the House’s new releases—including the Wings of Light High Jewelry collection—how the brand has maintained its reputation as a pioneer in innovation while maintaining its heritage, how the watch world as a whole is shifting as a result of the pandemic, how her time at Cartier helped her at Piaget, and so much more. Scroll below to see some highlights and watch the video in its entirety at the bottom of this piece to learn even more.
Photo Credit: Piaget
ON THE TECHNOLOGY/INNOVATION & PRESTIGE IN PIONEERING ULTRA-THIN WATCHES & THE ALTIPLANO ULTIMATE CONCEPT
Piaget has always been an ultra-thin watchmaker. We started doing ultra-thin components that we were supplying all the different watch brands in Switzerland and then we moved into producing our own watches, and we really worked on going where nobody had gone before. So, that was driving the brand, and that’s where it led us to this ultra-thinness because it was also the way to liberate our creativity. When you have thin watch, it gives a bigger dial, you’re able to work and play on the dial, and not only around the dial but on the bracelet. So that has given the brand a lot of new ways to express our creativity and that was really driving the Maison to always look for something new and go beyond what we’re used to do[ing]. So, the first expression of that was the hard-stone dial, the colorful dials in the ’60s. That was the first way for us to express that, ‘Yes, we use our technology, our very strong, high watchmaking know-how, to liberate our creativity.’ With this spirit, we launched in ’57—it was the first, thinnest mechanical movement calibre in the world. It was a 2mm calibre; and then a few years after, we came with the thinnest automatic movement. And when we had to celebrate the 60th anniversary a few years ago, we said, ‘Ok, how can we pay tribute to something as amazing that really revolutionized the watchmaking industry at the time?’ So, we said, ‘Why don’t we not do a calibre of 2mm [and instead,] why don’t we imagine a complete watch that’s 2mm thin?’ Of course, it was a crazy idea…but it was so exciting…We worked around six years on it to be able to develop that. We had to put five patents to be able to craft everything because also the bracelet had to be different. We had to use also new alloys—super resistant—because if you use gold with such a thin [watch], it’s too malleable, so you wouldn’t be able to build a watch on it. So what we did is instead of having a calibre and a case like a normal watch, we merged everything together, and we used the bottom part of the case as the main plate of the calibre. That’s really the part that made it feasible…We launched [it] in 2018. It was a concept watch…but it was functioning…We wanted to do every single test that we do on any kind of watches on this watch [too], to make sure that this would not be a museum watch, but also a real proper watch that you can wear. So, we did two years of tests, and now we have the facility, of course, [for our clients] to own such a masterpiece. And…we made our life even more complicated! We not only did the tests but also managed to give an opportunity to personalize most of the elements of this watch. Imagine, it’s a watch with 280 components, as thin—some components—as one hair, and also giving the possibility for people to customize a lot of elements on this watch. This is another very big step in innovation that we brought into the landscape. We were so proud to share this news not only because it is a record, that’s not what drives us. What drives us, it’s really to push the boundaries of high watchmaking because it’s continuously developing this amazing industry that we all love, we all need to bring innovation to that. We all need to make it move, in a way. We continue to express passion, technique, but also creativity.
Photo Credit: Piaget
ON THE #EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN CAMPAIGN WITH JESSICA CHASTAIN, CYNTHIA ERIVO, CONSTANCE WU, OLIVIA PALERMO & MORE
We’ve always praised and paid tribute to creativity, and to people who have done something different in their own field…Each of these women have made a change in their own field of creativity. So, it could have been music, arts, movies/theater, photography—very different types of arts where we see these women making a change, and that was the most important part of the “Extraordinary Women.” But at the same time, we believe and I believe, that every woman—as every man—has something extraordinary. You don’t need to be someone that is famous to have something that is extraordinary. We all have something that is different and extraordinary. And I feel that today, more and more, that women are also proud of their own specificity, their own personality, their own asperity, their own charisma, and that’s what we wanted to celebrate. Piaget has always been a Maison with a strong personality. All our creations are very different; there are no creations of Piaget that follow trends. People who buy Piaget pieces, I don’t think they’re buying to put a status on them. They’re interested because it expresses their own personality and their own charisma…At the same time, we believe it was a nice way for these women that have done something, have accomplished, have shown something very interesting to the world…for them to share also the way they have learned, the way they share some tips, advice, when they fail, how they recover, how you continue to move on and to learn…we thought it was very interesting for them to share that with the wider community…And also sharing their positive spirit. That’s something we like at Piaget because we are driven by a very positive spirit.
ON THE NEW HIGH JEWELRY LAUNCH CALLED THE “WINGS OF LIGHT”
We are just launching now, as we speak, a new collection, which is called the “Wings of Light,” and have worked on 80 amazing pieces; because each of them is a piece of art, each of them has a specific stone and each of them requires a lot of not only time but also passion…we need to find the exceptional stones that goes with [each]. It is inspired by the nature of the jungle—the spirit of birds, feathers…all these elements are very organic. When you take the pieces we created in the ’60s and ’70s, these amazing cuff watches, they all have motifs and designs inspired by organics. The Piaget family was in the mountain[s]…and they were inspired by the nature around them. A lot of our pieces look like wood or sand or grass, anything that is in the nature there, so we continued with that. This collection’s inspiration also allowed us to play with colors, so you will discover pieces that have a firework of different colors combined together that express very well the Maison. I am excited for you to discover it and to see how Piaget expresses its own personality!
