It has become known among educated watch enthusiasts that Piaget makes its mechanical movements in-house. What is less known is that Piaget is one of the very few Swiss watch brands that also makes its own quartz movements in-house as well. The brand paid tribute to this dual technical heritage at SIHH 2016 with the Piaget Emperador Coussin XL 700P, a “concept” watch (it will be produced and sold) that combines a mechanical caliber with a quartz-driven regulator.

Limited to 118 pieces, the Piaget Emperador Coussin XL 700P, and its ultra-thin, generator-regulated mechanical movement, Caliber 700P, commemorates the 40th anniversary of Piaget’s very first in-house quartz movement, Caliber 7P, which debuted in 1976. Firmly ensconced in Piaget’s Black Tie collection of elegant men’s dress watches, it features the familiar Emperador cushion-shaped case, measuring a stately 46.5 mm in diameter and made of white gold with a black ALDC-coated gold bezel. The “inverted” construction of the movement places the main functional elements on the dial side, with the offset micro-rotor and the quartz generator forming a figure eight, while the off-center, pointed hour and minute hands sweep over finely tapered hour indices.