Piaget Polo brings back the legendary spirit to dazzle new elites

The classic “Piaget Polo” timepiece was first introduced 45 years ago, to match the new lifestyle of the elites at the time to be sportive with a desire to still keep an elegant look yet pleasantly satisfactory at all times.

The timepiece disrupted watchmakers and the perspective of the wearers. There had been nothing like the Piaget Polo before — a masterpiece of modern design that conceived the watch face and bracelet as one aesthetic whole. Piaget Polo did this by crafting the watch from a single piece of 18 karat gold.

“We really had to cater to this particular demand of our customers who were used to getting just dress watches,” says Yves Piaget, president of the Swiss watchmaker, at the time. “But now our customers like to do more and more sports. That’s part of the evolution of our lives today. They want to be exquisite, even in sport. They want to wear a better watch, even in their sports. So we created this sports line which is waterproof, shockproof,” says Piaget.

The Piaget Polo 79 returns to the purest expression of its original design, albeit with a few subtle updates. In line with current tastes, the quartz calibre has been eschewed in favour of the ultra-thin 1200P1 in-house self-winding calibre that can be admired through the crystal back case that has been slightly enlarged to 38mm.

It is a near identical recreation of the 1979 Polo watch, with a name that also serves as a tribute to the original. On the dial, the hour markers and minute track come in the form of tonal dotted engravings, topped with only Piaget’s logo and matching dauphine hands. It still is the same masterpiece, executed entirely in 18 carat gold, that dazzled the jet setters 45 years ago, all the while weighing in at only approximately 200 grams.