“Color is light. Color is energy. Color is a rainbow and a playground.” With these words, Piaget opens the short documentary that accompanies Colours of Extraleganza, the third and final chapter of the High Jewelry trilogy created to celebrate the Maison’s boldest identity.
Even before the pieces in this collection are unveiled, images of lapis lazuli, malachite, diamonds, turquoise, opals, and tiger’s eye, alternating with cascades of chiseled gold and archival advertising posters—fragments from the 1960s and 1970s that resurface as a visual memory of the Maison. The camera lingers on the rough surfaces of the stones, tracing their veins and capturing their reflections. The narrator, Charlie Miller, focuses on color rather than their rarity, speaking of them as if they were living matter, skillfully transformed by the savoir-faire of the Maison’s artisans.
“We have emeralds, but with a hint of yellow that gives them a bit more presence; as for the blue, I find that it gives it much more freshness and youthfulness, and it’s truly a deep green,” says Stèphanie Sevriére, now creative director at Piaget, reflecting on the hues of the gemstones as if each color held an emotional and intrinsic value more important than their rarity.
To understand Colours of Extraleganza, we must start here. Because color is undoubtedly the collection’s stated theme, but its deeper meaning is rooted in an ancient history of pioneering spirit and exploration. Color, then, but also—and above all—a vision. The vision of a Maison that began experimenting with ornamental gemstones and dials at a time when the world of luxury watchmaking was still reluctant to embrace freedom and remained strictly faithful to international codes.
In the late 1950s, when Piaget’s technical excellence met creativity, the language of watchmaking changed forever: in 1957, the 9P caliber was introduced, a hand-wound mechanical movement just 2 millimeters thick. Three years later, the 12P became the world’s thinnest automatic movement. But this was not merely a technical achievement, for these movements opened up new creative possibilities, allowing the Maison to design ever more elegant, lightweight, and sophisticated cases, and to give free rein to space, materials, and imagination.
The slim profile of the movements allows for the use of stone dials, transforming lapis lazuli, malachite, turquoise, and tiger’s eye into dials and inlays—central elements of the Maison’s aesthetic language. An explosion of natural colors intertwines with gold for the first time, making gold the connecting thread of the Maison.
Of the 65 creations in the Colours of Extraleganza collection, some capture this diversity of spirits better than others: the legacy of the 1960s and 1970s, the virtuosity of the Ateliers de l’Extraordinaire, as well as expertise in gemology and watchmaking, versatility, and the ongoing dialogue between jewelry and watches.
We’ve picked out a few for you—let’s check them out together!
Blue Illusions: The heart of the Colours of Extraleganza collection is made up of diamonds, tourmalines, and sapphires
The centerpiece of the collection is Blue Illusions. A masterpiece requiring over 900 hours of work, crafted in white gold, in which three gemstones seem to come together in a small mineral constellation. The rich blue of an 8.52-carat cushion-cut sapphire from Madagascar and the lagoon-green of a 3 . 30-carat Paraíba tourmaline intertwine with an Australian black opal , whose iridescence seems to contain a northern nightscape crisscrossed by flashes of green and blue.
Surrounding these stones, set on a white gold lattice, sapphires, green tourmalines, and diamonds intertwine in a geometric pattern that creates an almost fluid optical effect, in which light appears to be multiplied and refracted into a myriad of iridescent reflections.
“In this collection, I’ve highlighted the chromatic power of the gemstones—that is, their presence, the energy they radiate, and the uniqueness they express when paired together,” explains Sivrière. The sapphire and tourmaline baguettes used in the Blue Illusion necklace, cut and adjusted as the piece is being crafted, naturally require absolute precision. Yet the final effect is anything but rigid, because the design—which can be separated into two different necklaces—creates a play of continuous reflections where precision is concealed within fluidity.
The Necklace Blue Illusions is paired with two rings—one of which features a nearly 5-carat Sri Lankan sapphire—and two pairs of earrings, also in the same midnight blue shades.
A gold and tiger’s eye long necklace : FlamboyantLinks
Alongside this captivating vision, Flamboyant Links reveals another facet of the Maison: that of the sautoir watch, first introduced in 1969 as part of the legendary 21st Century Collection.
In the sautoir featured in this chapter, rose gold meets tiger’s eye in a chain with generous, warm links that are deliberately textured. The mandarin hue of the 4.13-caratcushion-cut spessartite intensifies the warm tones of the entire piece, while the vibrancy of the tiger’s eye’s golden veins creates such a seamless visual continuity that the dial—powered by an in-house quartz movement—becomes almost invisible.
Among the pieces in the new collection, Flamboyant Links is a true treasure trove of memories and savoir-faire. But it is the piece’s versatility that makes it an iconic masterpiece: the sautoir can be reconfigured as a necklace or as a bracelet-watch, echoing one of the most distinctive features of Piaget’s great creations from the 1970s.
The set is completed by a rose gold ring featuring a cushion-cut spessartite weighing approximately 6.42 carats and a tiger’s eye, and a pair of drop earrings with two cushion-cut spessartites weighing approximately 3.04 carats each.
GemsPop: Piaget’s necklace-watch inspired by the Memphis Group
Also tied to this core is Gems Pop, perhaps the most playful part of the collection, but also one of the most revealing. Inspired by the Memphis collective and its concept of color as a manifesto, the set combines warm, saturated hues in a bright and vibrant palette that ranges from the orange of spessartite and aventurine to the pink of sapphire and tulite, all the way to the white ofopal and diamonds.
The convertible sautoir watch, crafted in rose gold, features a coussin-cut spessartite weighing approximately 8.30 carats and a pink coussin-cut sapphire from Madagascar weighing approximately 3.54 carats. Surrounding them, aventurine, tulite, white opal, and diamonds create a color palette that is deliberately joyful, yet anything but naive. The watch dial (powered by an in-house quartz movement) is made of orange aventurine.
Unlike previous versions, the pendant can be detached from the necklace and turned into a table clock, offering yet another creative possibility.
The Gems Pop collection continues with two rings and two pairs of earrings that draw on the same color palette. Among these, the rose gold ring featuring a cushion-cut spessartite of approximately 8.53 carats, orange aventurine, tulite, white opal, and diamonds clearly showcases the craftsmanship in the setting and background work.
The collection also includes a table clock. Crafted in white gold with verdite, lapis lazuli, turquoise, and diamonds, it takes the story beyond the body, with entirely different nuances. The turquoise dial, powered by an in-house quartz movement, becomes the centerpiece of a small mineral-inspired structure.
The gadroon motif makes its debut in Piaget’s High Jewelry collection with the Gold Swirl collection
The Gold Swirl collection, on the other hand, is more sculptural and, in some ways, more closely tied to the artisan’s craftsmanship. “Gold is the energy and the radiance of the sun,” says the narrator of the documentary. And gold, in fact, is Piaget’s primary color: “the primary color of Piaget, gold animates them all” ever since the brand made the landmark decision to work exclusively with precious materials.
Here, the Maison returns to the sinuous lines of the 1970s, reinterpreting them through a jewelry set in whichrose gold is the true star of the show. The cuff bracelet, with its labyrinthine interweaving of gold, diamonds, and baguette-cut blue-green tourmalines , showcases the ability to makegold appear alive, almost textile-like—a quality that has always been one of Piaget’s most captivating traits.
The reason gadroonmotif, a hallmark of Piaget watchmaking, makes its debut in a High Jewelry set, adorning the Gold Swirl sautoir from the collection. A masterpiece that alternates fire opal cabochons and indicolite tourmalines with oblong gold links, illuminated along the perimeter by a pavé of diamonds.
The watch dial, which is also entirely set with diamonds, is powered by an in-house quartz movement.
The set also includes a rose gold ring featuring a cabochon fire opal, a cabochon indicolite tourmaline, and diamonds, as well as a pair of earrings that echo the same interplay between fiery orange and teal.
All the ring watches in the Colours of Extraleganza collection
Alongside the sautoir necklaces, the Colours of Extraelganza collection revives the ring watches, another style dear to the Maison.
One example is the Twirling Shimmery. Powered by an in-house quartz movement, the landscape jasper dial appears to emerge from the center of the composition, encased in a wide, sculptural rose gold bezel set with diamonds, as if it were a clearing in a mineral landscape. Alongside this ring-watch, the same collection features rose gold earrings set with two fancy dark orangy brown diamonds , landscape jasper , tiger’s eye, and diamonds.
In the Gold Abstraction, on the other hand,rose gold—left to take center stage in all its chromatic richness, without engravings or embellishments— harmoniously blends with the turquoise of the dial in a more minimalist composition. Powered by a quartz movement, it highlights only the contrast between the richness of the gold and the pure intensity of the turquoise, vaguely evoking the charm of theÉtablisseurs Galets by Audemars Piguet, in a play on echoes of the past.
Two new versions of the iconic Altiplano: Twirling Shimmery and Twirling Colours
Alongside the ring watch version , there are two new versions of the iconic Altiplano, one of the Maison’s most beloved contemporary models.
The first one, the Twirling Shimmery, is crafted in rose gold with diamonds and powered by the in-house Caliber 670P, a hand-wound flying tourbillon movement. The mesmerizing complexity of the tourbillon meets the art of semi-precious stone marquetry, used to trace tiny concentric circles on the dial made of landscape jasper and tiger’s eye. All 8 pieces measure 38 mm and are finished with a matching light brown alligator leather strap.
The second Altiplano in this collection, the Twirling Colours, is crafted in white gold with diamonds and is powered by the same Caliber 760P. Here too, the dial—set within a 41mm case—features a complex marqueterie of carnelian stones, shifting the tone toward warmer hues. The dark burgundy alligator strap serves as a tonal extension of the dial, while the white gold case provides a luminous, high-contrast frame that complements the tourbillon dial. Like the other Altiplano, it isa limited edition numbered from 1 to 8.
Prismatic Facets, an ode to turquoise and the 1960s
More ornate in style but no less consistent with the tradition of dials made of decorative stones, Prismatic Facets is an extraordinary masterpiece in rose gold featuring yellow sapphires, turquoise, rutilated quartz, and diamonds set within a structure of longitudinal tiles. The dial is a piece of turquoise that blends into the delicate geometry of the bracelet until it almost becomes indistinguishable, while an extraordinary play of refractions alternates the yellow of the sapphires with the deep blue of the turquoise, interspersed with the filament-like inclusions of the rutilated quartz and diamonds.
A simpler in-house quartz movement frees this masterpiece from the need for complications, leaving room for a masterpiece in which only the sensory richness of the surfaces takes center stage.
The matching set expands on this same mineral-inspired narrative. The rose gold necklace , featuring a cushion-cut indicolite tourmaline weighing over 8 carats, aquamarines, tourmalines, yellow sapphires, turquoise, rutilated quartz, and diamonds, forms a sort of precious prism, traversed by mottled shades of blue and green and flashes of sunlight.
Accompanying it are two rings: one featuring a 6.65-carat emerald-cut indicolite tourmaline and one featuring a nearly 4-carat emerald-cut green tourmaline, as well as two pairs of earrings.
Gold Unveiled Watch, the white gold version with a blue opal dial
The Gold Unveiled , on the other hand, is an extraordinary piece, completely different from the other watches in the collection. Crafted in white gold and set with diamonds, it unfolds as a sequence of slender horizontal elements—densely packed and tapering—arranged to form an asymmetrical wave. When closed, the timepiece disappears into the grooved texture of the white gold: what remains is a luminous bezel , set with diamonds arranged in a cascade like small, irregular sparks across the surface.
The dial is revealed only later, hidden beneath the rectangular window that mimics and extends the slatted pattern of the bracelet, and echoes the irregularity of the whole with a green opal: By its very nature irregular, this iridescent stone shimmers with hues of blue, green, and orange that shift as the wrist moves. The watch is powered by an in-house quartz movement.
“Colors are matter. Color is legacy”
On an evening in mid-June, against the ethereal backdrop of Villa Cypris on the French Riviera, Piaget presented “Colours of Extraleganza,” the final chapter in a High Jewelry trilogy that began with “Essence of Extraleganza” and continued with “Shapes of Extraleganza.” This collection draws inspiration from Piaget’s historic color archive and captures its most vibrant energy: that of the 1960s and 1970s, a time when the watchmaking industry began experimenting with materials and forms.
For Stéphanie Sivrière, currently Artistic Director of the Jewelry and Watches division, color is not merely a decorative detail: “Color is an integral part of Piaget’s history and heritage. Today, with Colours of Extraleganza, we have explored a new dimension of color in perfect harmony with Piaget’s aesthetic codes: extravagance and elegance.”
Ever since its first High Jewelry collection, presented in 1959, Piaget has dared to experiment with asymmetry and interlocking designs, using unexpected color palettes and natural materials. Contemporary lines—from reinterpretations of the Andy Warhol Watch to High Jewelry creations inspired by the archives—draw on the gemstones, shapes, and colors of the 1960s and 1970s, confirming how Piaget had foresightedly intuited that the contemporary public was seeking unique and expressive pieces for themselves.
“Color is matter. Color is legacy “says the documentary that accompanies the collection. Color—the primary form of creativity par excellence—is the starting point for all the research and the very soul of the project.”
Yves Piaget, a fourth-generation member of the founding family, loved to say that “always doing better than necessary” was the Maison’s philosophy. This vision guided the brand’s creativity during the years of its greatest international expansion, when Piaget was synonymous with glamour, elegance, and freedom of expression. The use of color in this collection continues to pay homage to its extravagant, irreverent, and playful heritage—a heritage that is constantly reinvented with impeccable quality.
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