The release of the Altiplano in 1998 was a major event and a powerful confirmation of existing expertise. Piaget gave a name to the watchmaking specialty that had largely contributed to its success since 1957: ultra-thin. At that year’s Basel Fair, the brand caused a sensation by unveiling the 9P calibre with its 9-ligne diameter; at the time the world's thinnest mechanical manual-winding movement (2mm thick). This technical feat would encourage the development of elegant watches for men and, surprisingly, ladies’ watches bursting with creativity. The small watches available to women until then were generally equipped with movements built on two levels, featuring a smaller surface area and a lighter weight, yet still relatively thick. Ultra-thin made possible broader models with all the slenderness and lightness one could wish for. As a bonus, they also offered designers additional scope for creative freedom. 9P and 12P – the self-winding 2.3mm calibre unveiled in 1960 and the thinnest of the era – accompanied Piaget's gradual ascension in this field for some 40 years, leading to the arrival of modernised versions, starting with the 430P manual-winding movement that kicked off a collection of ultra-thin watches in 1998. Its name, Altiplano, (meaning “high plateau" in Spanish) is borrowed from a high-altitude region of the Andes mountain range, which has similarities with the Jura village of La Côte-aux-Fées where Piaget was born. From an aesthetic point of view, the Altiplano men's or women's models are characterised by their extreme sobriety – thin crystals, tapering lugs, baton-type hands and hour-markers – along with certain subtle touches such as the combination of single and double hour-markers or the offsetting of the small seconds subdial, when it appears. Since 2011 refined Roman numerals have offered an alternative in the women's line. On the automatic side, the latest generation of calibres (1200P family) was launched in 2010 to mark the 50th anniversary of the 12P. Piaget set a record not only for the thinnest movement in its category but also, with the 43mm Altiplano case, for the thinnest automatic watch on the market. This double record was reiterated in 2011 with a version which, despite featuring a diamond-set bezel, maintained the same case thinness. Ultimate thinness was achieved in 2014 by a concept merging the case and movement. In this mechanical manual-winding watch, the caseback serves as a baseplate, which results in a reversed construction of the movement, with bridges visible on the dial side. The Altiplano 900P celebrated the 140th anniversary of Piaget with a nod to its ancestor, the 9P, and, by a happy coincidence, to the Andean Altiplano, since the model’s 3.65mm thinness echoed the region’s average altitude of 3,650 metres. For a few months in 2018, Piaget claimed a new record for the thinnest self-winding watch. The Altiplano Ultimate Automatic combines movement and exterior to achieve a thickness of 4.30mm. That same year, Piaget unveiled the Altiplano Ultimate Concept which, at just 2mm thin, was crowned the world's thinnest manual-winding watch. The pursuit of extreme thinness didn’t end there. Having lost the title of world’s thinnest, Piaget nonetheless continued its exploits by bringing the Altiplano Ultimate Concept into its regular collection in 2021, with a cobalt alloy case for strength and resistance. Alongside time-only versions, the Altiplano extends to complications that include the chronograph and the tourbillon – as unbelievably thin as ever, as witnessed by the 670P movement (4.6mm thick), unveiled in 2017 inside the Altiplano Tourbillon High Jewellery to celebrate 60 years since that first ultra-thin movement. As a canvas for the decorative arts, the Altiplano is equally remarkable, as shown by the Altiplano Double Jeu with gold lace.

• Ultra-thin wristwatch officially launched in 1998 and based on expertise cultivated since 1957