Typically sleek and simple, Piaget’s Altiplano line of ultra-thin watches is often dressed up with unusual dials, sometimes in semi-precious stone, and for SIHH 2019, coloured meteorite.

The meteorite used for watch dials is of the iron variety, made up most of iron and nickel. It’s grey in its natural state, with a distinctive, streaky Widmanstätten pattern created by the nickel-iron crystals inside. Iron meteorite is usually etched with acid to bring out the definition of the Widmanstätten pattern, and can also be coloured, which is what Piaget has done.

The Altiplano Tourbillon gets a dial made of blue meteorite with the markings done in gold print. Set with diamonds on the bezel, the case is 18k pink gold and 41mm in diameter.

Inside is the hand-wound cal. 670P, a movement just 4.6mm thick that has a flying tourbillon regulator along with an off-centre time display. The unusual layout of the dial is a consequence of the movement’s slimness, as the movement is constructed with the various parts spread out on the same plane, instead of upwards as in conventional movements.

More affordable and just as elegant, the Altiplano automatic has a grey-brown meteorite dial matched with an 18k pink gold case. Unlike the printed markers on the tourbillon dial, here the hour indices are applied and made of 18k pink gold.

It’s 40mm in diameter, with the cal. 1203P movement inside just 3mm high. It’s an automatic wound by a micro-rotor, with a 44-hour power reserve.

The dial indicates hours and minutes, and unfortunately for traditionalists, the date in a window at three o’clock, which throws off the symmetry and simplicity of the dial.

Price and availability

The Altiplano Tourbillon with meteorite dial (ref. G0A44053) is limited to 28 pieces, priced at SFr110,000. And the Altiplano automatic with a grey meteorite dial (ref. G0A44051) is a 300-piece limited edition, priced at SFr24,500.