Founded in 1874 at the family farm in La Côte-aux-Fées, a small village in the Neuchâtel Jura, by Georges-Édouard Piaget, then aged nineteen, the house of Piaget first built itself, over nearly seventy years, as a discreet supplier of movements to the great watchmaking houses. From the 1920s onwards, its calibers were fitted in the cases of Audemars Piguet, Breguet, Cartier, Longines, Rolex and Vacheron Constantin. The Piaget brand itself was only registered in 1943, by the founder’s grandsons, Gérald and Valentin; in 1945, a new, larger manufacture was opened in La Côte-aux-Fées. This was the turning point: Piaget ceased to be a discreet ébauche maker and became a house in its own right. It was not until 1957 that the manually-wound 9P caliber appeared, followed in 1960 by the automatic 12P caliber with its 24-carat gold micro-rotor, which would definitively establish Piaget as the absolute benchmark of ultra-thin watchmaking. But in the meantime, during a lesser-known and ultimately transitional period running from 1943 to the end of the 1950s, the house experimented, offered complete watches, and notably models that nothing in its later history would have suggested.
This piece is one of those witnesses. Far from the gold, diamonds and ultra-thin designs that would become the house’s signature from the 1960s onwards, what we have here is a stainless steel Piaget with a military-style water-resistant case, fitted with an automatic bumper movement and a black dial one could easily imagine on a Jaeger-LeCoultre or an Omega supplied to the armed forces. Everything about it is paradoxical for anyone familiar with contemporary Piaget. The 32 mm case is of so-called “Clamshell” construction: two blocks (the bezel on one side, the caseback and case middle on the other) joined by four oblique screws placed behind the lugs, which compress the whole around a waterproofing gasket. This principle is protected by Swiss patent no. 189190, filed in 1936 by Schmitz Frères & Cie in Grenchen and popularised by Gallet under the name Clamshell from 1939; it would subsequently equip some fifty brands at the end of the interwar period and in the following decade. The inside of the caseback is stamped “ACIER STAYBRITE”, the trade name of the 18/8 stainless alloy developed in Sheffield and introduced in Switzerland in the early 1930s – the benchmark alloy for Swiss cases of the time, before each house developed its own registered trademark.
The dial, of strictly military inspiration, is deep black, surrounded by large Arabic numerals painted in radium luminous paste; its cursive “PIAGET Automatic” signature sits above the small seconds sub-dial at 6 o’clock, itself decorated with concentric circles and accompanied by the inscription “WATERPROOF”. The sword-shaped hour and minute hands, also filled with radium, are original. The movement also commands attention: self-winding, signed in capital letters “PIAGET & CO” on the bridge – it is most unexpected. Piaget would indeed only have its own in-house automatic caliber from 1960 onwards, with the 12P. It is therefore an externally sourced automatic ébauche, identified by the Piaget Heritage restoration watchmaker as most likely a Felsa 282 caliber – one of Felsa’s first bumper automatics, contemporary with the famous Felsa 279 launched in 1938. Even more remarkable, according to Piaget Heritage: the “Piaget & Co” signature on movements was normally reserved for gold watches and coin watches. Its presence here, on a steel case, makes the piece all the more atypical.
To document this off-catalogue piece as accurately as possible, we consulted Mr. Alain Borgeaud, Head of Heritage at Piaget, who even took the trouble to consult the watchmaker in charge of historical pieces at the Customer Service department of the La Côte-aux-Fées manufacture. Their research in the old parts stock made it possible to find three dials identical to ours: another black Piaget dial, perfectly matching, a light dial also signed Piaget, and – another intriguing point – the same dial signed “Gladstone”, a brand for which Piaget was then producing identical models alongside its own line. The piece is therefore recognised as a Piaget by Piaget Heritage, despite the absence of a formal reference in the material archives – the number 2052 engraved inside the caseback most likely being a case serial number rather than a catalogue reference. Our thanks go to Mr. Borgeaud for this invaluable documentation, without which this piece would have remained an enigma.
The Staybrite steel case is preserved in excellent condition. The inscriptions inside the caseback (number, Clamshell patent, and Staybrite) are perfectly legible. The original dial displays a magnificent, warm “tropical” patina: the deep black has turned to a shimmering brown that changes with the angle of the light, and the radium of both numerals and hands has caramelised into a patinated orange, with no missing flakes. The domed crystal lends the whole a charm typical of the 1940s. The automatic movement signed Piaget & Co has been fully serviced by one of our experienced watchmakers and runs very well. The piece is delivered on a brown crocodile leather strap.
An extremely rare and highly curious piece, atypical on four counts – its military steel case, its “Piaget & Co” signature usually reserved for gold pieces, its black radium dial, and its automatic movement – this 1940s automatic Piaget is a true witness to the period when the house was still finding its way, between its heritage as a discreet établisseur and the birth of the ultra-thin legend that would follow. Documented with the assistance of Piaget Heritage and confirmed as an official production of the manufacture, it is a rare opportunity for the discerning Piaget collector to seize a little-known page in the house’s history – a world away from the gold, diamonds and stone dials that appeared in the 1960s and 1970s.
