The fabulous French fable writer Jean de La Fontaine was famous for inventing words and the high jewelry house of Piaget has formidably followed in his footsteps with its new high jewelry collection Extraleganza, precisely Essence of Extraleganza, the house’s extravagant and elegant collection to celebrate its 150th anniversary. It’s all about carefully cut gemstones from the wilder shores of the world like the sapphires from Sri Lanka and Madagascar, the emeralds of Colombia, some 40 baguette-cut emeralds at that. There are the glorious garnets, adventurous aquamarines and the sparkling opals of October. And there are, too, the 96 timepieces from the house’s High Jewellery watch collection. 

Piaget High Jewelry necklace in 750/1000 pink gold set with 1 cushion-cut spessartine garnet(approximately 21.23 cts) yellow sapphires, cornalines and diamonds. This is a unique creation. Copyright Piaget. Handout via The Gourmet Gazette

The litany goes on with cuff bracelets, necklaces and rings and earrings. “In 2022, when we began to design the 150 year anniversary collection,” recalls Stéphanie Sivrière, the Piaget jewelry and watch artistic director, “It wasn’t about identically reproducing heritage pieces, but rather taking inspiration from them. Revisiting those values of boldness, originality and elegance that characterise this Maison’s soul at the dawn of modernity.” 

The graceful mesh High Jewelry cuff bracelet is shown right without the lower Milanese mesh element and left with the lower Milanese mesh element. It features a 6.43 carat cushion-cut spessartite and a modified brilliant-cut pink sapphire from Madagascar weighing 4.52 carats. This creation can be re-produced. Copyright Piaget. Handout via The Gourmet Gazette

There is this fiery jewellery set of necklace and earrings in carnelian, spessartite garnets, yellow sapphires, and diamonds. There is the transformable cuff bracelet in gold, pink sapphire, and spessartite garnets with its spectacular rose gold Milanese mesh edged with diamonds and topped with an articulated bracelet in textured gold latticework. Engraved with the famous Palace Decor – which the jeweller designed in the early 1960s — this precious metal is set with a pink sapphire of 4.52 carats from Madagascar and a spessartite garnet of 6.40 carats.

The High Watch and High Jewellery collections underscore the creativity and skills of Piaget’s craftsmen and women. It all began back in 1874 when in his first workshop in La Cote-aux-Fées in Switzerland, Georges-Edouard Piaget devoted himself to crafting high-precision movements in a feat that formed the very foundations of the house of Piaget. As a true innovator of the watch and jewellery world, Piaget strongly believed in creativity and artistic values. It is within the walls of the house’s Ateliers de l’Extraordinaire where master artisans continue to harness rare skills that have been preserved and perfected from generation to generation, transforming gold, stones and precious gems into dazzling works of art. ©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette. https://www.piaget.com/th-en

Piaget High Jewelry earrings in 750/100 pink gold set with 2 cushion-cut spessartines (approx 4,63 carats and 4,25 carats) yellow sapphires, cornalines and diamonds. This is a unique creation. Copyright Piaget. Handout via The Gourmet Gazette