A few of the standout highlights of the 2024 Watch Week in Geneva undoubtedly revolved round ultra-thin watches. Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo Extremely COSC now reigns because the world’s thinnest mechanical wristwatch, boasting an astonishing 1.70mm profile. In the meantime, Piaget clinched the report for the thinnest tourbillon ever with its Altiplano Final Idea Tourbillon, measuring a mere 2mm! We’re undoubtedly dwelling in a golden age of the ultra-thin watch, with data for ultra-thin watches being overwhelmed one after the opposite as timepieces materialise with a thinness that will have been actually unimaginable a couple of years in the past. Let’s delve into a few of the most notable developments on this area.
Piaget can rightly be thought-about the precursor and historic specialist of ultra-thin watches. From the 9P and 12P offered within the Fifties to the legendary 20P and 25P, these record-thin but delicate actions had been made with Jean Lassale within the mid-Seventies. The 20P motion was a staggering 1.2mm thick, whereas the 25P computerized model was solely 2.08mm thick! Extra lately, the model broke a collection of data for thinness. In 2014, the 900P – and later its computerized model with a peripheral rotor, the 910P – marked an necessary step with its ingenious idea and building, fusing the mainplate and the caseback. This allowed Piaget to current the thinnest mechanical watch with an Altiplano as skinny as 3.65mm. However the end result is evidently the Piaget Altiplano Final idea. At a mere 2mm, it was the thinnest mechanical watch ever when it was unveiled in 2018, actually smashing all earlier data! A radical reengineering of the structure of a watch and its superb slenderness was achieved by fusing the motion’s mainplate, the case and the bezel into one single element.
Over the previous ten years, a brand new contender has emerged as a formidable pressure within the realm of ultra-thin watches. Bulgari, with the Octo Finissimo Saga, has had a formidable run of data initiated in 2014. Amongst these, Bulgari broke the report for the thinnest watch in 2022 with the 1.8mm Octo Finissimo Extremely, a improvement performed with motion specialist Concepto. Fairly equally to Piaget, its motion parts are built-in immediately into recesses machined into the caseback. The concept is to keep away from having totally different layers within the watch structure, making the most of your complete floor of the watch and re-arranging and constructing all features in the identical horizontal aircraft.
However Bulgari’s report was short-lived. Only a few months later, Richard Mille got here up with the RM UP-01, a watch with a profile of simply 1.75mm! What is de facto spectacular concerning the RM UP-01 is that, not like Piaget and Bulgari, Richard Mille has assembled the motion (made with Audemars Piguet Renaud Papi), itself simply 1.18mm thick, into the case!
However now, Bulgari has grabbed again the title for the thinnest mechanical watch with the Octo Finissimo Extremely COSC, which is simply 1.70mm thick! To grow to be skinny sufficient to reclaim the report, there was no revolution within the “extremely” construction. The form of the bezel, crystal, dials, and barrel had been reworked to shave off a couple of microns… And curiously, the watch is chronometer licensed, exhibiting that it’s not only a idea watch or prototype.
To not be outdone, Piaget has not offered a brand new record-beating, ultra-thin watch; as an alternative, it has created the thinnest tourbillon watch ever. The Piaget Altiplano Final Idea Tourbillon a hundred and fiftieth Anniversary is paper-thin at simply 2mm and appears nearly two-dimensional. For the data, it’s now the thinnest tourbillon ever, the earlier mark being held by the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Computerized at 3.95mm!
Manufacturers appear to be competing on two totally different planes concurrently. Whereas they by no means or not often admit it, they’re competing in opposition to one another. And wholesome competitors is nice enjoyable, truly… Most significantly, they’re chasing ghosts, chasing microns—making an attempt to grow to be thinner than ever earlier than! From a technical or innovation perspective, we’re speaking about real prowess. How far can the bounds of extra-thin be pushed? Stand by for the following instalment!
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