There has never been a time when Piaget watches have not enjoyed the patronage of those who recognise and appreciate the beauty of a prestigious tradition. Designed by master craftsmen to a marque of distinction by which others are measured, the family operated company was established late last century by founder Georges Edouard Piaget. The watches that bear his name are considered works of art for their stylish and elegant lines, their bold, beauty and the preciseness of their hand-crafted movements. Worked in yellow, white or rose gold, special models displaying the rich jewel encrusted dials and hands for which Piaget has become legendary, each Piaget piece encompasses the timeless relationship between the talents of the artisan, the natural perfection of the raw materials and the oldest of desires - the precise measurement of time.

The impeccable Piaget reputation which four generations of family members have worked tirelessly to foster, has been enhanced by the efforts of Yves Piaget. He has devoted his time to ensuring that the name of Piaget is seen as a personalised and familiar one in the markets of the world. From its humble beginnings in the Swiss town of La Cote aux Fees in 1874, there has always been a prominent family member to lead the company through the decades of unsurpassed distinction constantly reaffirming Piaget as the watch-maker other watch-makers admire. And like those before him, such as Georges' fourth son Timothee whose driving force propelled the company onto the world markets in the 1930's Yves Piaget sets a gruelling pace for himself.

Travelling the world for most of year promoting the family business, Yves Piaget epitomises all that is refined about the gentlemanly craft of watch-making. He has an inherent flair for anticipating the demands of his clientele, charging his designers with the task of maintaining an aesthetic equilibrium in his beautiful watches, in spite of the cultural variables from continent to continent. Not surprisingly, no small number of the rich, powerful and famous that sport customised Piaget watches, are now firm friends as well as honoured clients, of this diminutive yet vital man.

Inevitably what these discerning people want is a piece of watch-making history, a taste of the Piaget prestige, from the workrooms of a company whose motto remains: 'Le temps Piaget ne se Mesure Qu'en Or', Piaget time is measured only in gold. Recently in Australia for the Melbourne Cup festivities, Kostas Metaxas spoke with Yves Piaget about his family's works of art that just happen to tell the time.

VIVE: Can you tell me a little about your background

YVES: I was actually born in La Cote aux Fees, Switzerland - the small village where the company was founded by my great grandfather, and I spent my early life up until I was fifteen on my father's farm. But of course, I had always been interested in the family business.

When I began studying in Neuchatel I realised the respect that existed for what my great grandfather and those who followed him - like my father - had done within the watch-making industry and I understood my role in the future of the company. My father had only two sons, myself and my brother Christian, but then there were my three cousins - the children of my uncle who ran the company with my father. I am the eldest of my generation but I was not necessarily planning on going straight into the business.

VIVE: What other professions interested you that you would perhaps have liked to have undertaken.?

YVES: In the early years of my life I had in fact, been planning to study economics and then look for a career in the diplomatic corps, and Law interested me for a long time too. I had not really decided what it was that I wanted to do until my father had a word with me about what he did, what the company means and what it was built on. I began to feel that I had a certain responsibility and complicity toward it. That's when I went on to study the engineering side of watch-making - involving mechanics, physics and mathematics at the University of Neuchatel.

VIVE: The art of watch-making itself is a very complicated procedure. I gather Neuchatel must have been fairly unique in offering a course precisely for this type of work?

YVES: It is the only one of its kind in the world and the engineering course in watchmaking is really its speciality. When I attended in 1965 the course ran for four years and had only 24 graduates before me. Many watchmakers took on apprentices to study under them, but my father wanted me to get as much of the basic knowledge as I could in a formal learning environment. It was important for him that I be able, if not to solve all the problems clients had, then at least to be able to comprehend and discuss them with some authority. It was then a matter of experience and close study to build up from the basic watchmaking complications I had learned at the university, to the six major complications necessary to be a master watchmaker.

VIVE: After you finished the watchmaking course was it then a simple step of joining the company?

YVES: No, I did not join the business immediately. I had always been fascinated by gemstones and had heard of the Gemological Institute of America. My father saw the advantage of becoming acquainted with another country and gave me the opportunity to go to California to study at the Institute there. I knew that once I became involved in the family business it would be a total commitment, and that the opportunity to study abroad, particularly in an area of personal interest might be difficult. Fortunately my father had the foresight to allow me to go to California to study for four months, and then to travel extensively around the world before my return to Switzerland.

I entered the company at a very important time. We were then building and integrating Piaget, expanding its production base. Up to that time we were only manufacturing our movements and with the expansion, we bought some workshops in Geneva whereupon we were able to manufacture our bracelets and our cases as well. It was the idea of my father and my uncle to become autonomous in this manner and since that time Piaget watches have been manufactured from A-Z in our own workshops.

VIVE: How far away was the advent of the quartz movement from the time that you entered the company?

YVES: Funnily enough, Just at the time I joined the family business, quartz was being introduced. I had the opportunity of being part of the discussions with my forerunners about this new technology and how it would apply to Piaget and to deluxe watches in general. Of course, my father and my uncle were slightly more conservative in their views, but by virtue of my studies, I was able to offer them some timely advice in this regard. I remember clearly that we made the decision to invest not only our efforts but also to invest capital in this common research laboratory that is still operating as a National Institute and of which we are still part along with several other private companies. Three watch groups are represented - Rolex, SMH - of which Omega is a part, and ourselves.

The Institute works exclusively on research, employing some two hundred university people to study and develop electronics, monitoring the industry and allowing us the benefits of their advancements. I can say with pride that still in the Institute's files are several products that are far in advance of anything that is being produced today anywhere. It proves that we have the application, means and the finances to put on the market very sophisticated products that are able to measure the time with ever greater accuracy, amongst other developments.

VIVE: In regards to watches, there seems to be two very distinct phenomenon; namely the aesthetic and, of course the measurement of time. What is man's fascination with time, and why do you think it is so important for watch companies to pinpoint that last second, to develop accuracy to hundreds maybe thousands of years?

YVES: Let us say, that from the earliest time human beings have always wanted to measure time. I think that motivation comes from way, way back in history and still today that desire is strong. In that light we apply new technologies to make that measurement as accurate as we possible can - it is a stimulant for the industry. I am sure though, that most of our clientele are not completely absorbed by the absolute accuracy of the timepiece, they may not use it, they don't need it even at our level. The best example that I can give you is that on our quartz watches which are supremely accurate - between 20-30 seconds a year - there is simply just two hands, keeping beautiful time without the day or the date. It has been fascinating for both myself and on a larger scale, the company, to apply the technology - in terms of the engineering of today to our watches.

VIVE: What position did you hold with the business initially?

YVES: I was a salesman in my father's store in Geneva. This was one of the best experiences for me because I was in direct contact with our customers. I had a better grasp of their tastes, I was able to take keen notice of their remarks and that was the most direct and effective impression that I could gauge from our consumers. I could then report this information to the company.

From this I moved into management looking after scientific research by virtue of my own studies. However, I was still keeping close contact with our Sales Managers and in fact I became immediately fascinated by the marketing side of the business - in that I could visualise the passage of our product from its conception, to the engineering, to the way that it was presented to our customers - the life of our product. I knew to listen to the demands of the marketplace, to be able even to anticipate their desires and to have the right product in the right market at the right time.

VIVE: When you were positioned at this level of the company, what do you perceive as having been the elements of design that customers were expressing interest in and perhaps had not been fully developed by others?

YVES: I believe that I could see clearly what was the demand in terms of fashion of the time because there is a very real fashion in watches and I think that Piaget from the beginning has lead the fashion. We really gave great importance to the design and we have spend tremendous time and effort in this area, and when we really came onto the targets all over the world, our strength was in the wide range that we were able to present. To give satisfaction in so many areas, to cater for so many varied tastes on each continent because as you imagine, taste differs from country to country. So, it was very important to me also, to personalise our product, personalise our enterprise and our name. Previously, Piaget, for most of our customers was a trade name and we wanted to take full opportunity of the fact that Piaget is a family name. To prove to our customers that there are still people behind the product not just manufacturers. To this end, I adopted this project as my challenge and did it we achieved what we set out to do! Funnily enough, I was caught out by this game, and as a result I am now forced to spend most of my time outside of Europe, presenting our ranges and being 'Mr Piaget' all over the world!

VIVE: Obviously in terms of catering for fashion, it can place considerable pressure on the craftsmen given that movement of the watch must be adapted to the size and the shape of the casing, be it square, thin, round or long.

YVES: My forerunners actually spent a lot of time and effort in reducing the dimensions of our movements so they always were specialists in thin movements. Even in the early Fifties we produced the thinnest watch in the world. Then again in 1961, we produced the thinnest automatic watch in the world which was only 2.3mm in width including all the movements. This is difficult to imagine but thanks to our craftsmen we were able to do it. This delicate and precise craftsmanship limits our output, but this is not a problem because the craftsmanship is all important to us.

VIVE: How would you compare watches throughout the decade of your career?

YVES: Firstly I would say that in the Fifties, the dimensions of the movements had great importance and Piaget were already the forerunner in thin movements as I have mentioned. In the sixties, watches were dictated by fashion styles, perhaps too much, but then again Piaget was a leader in that we decorated our faces and dials with semi-precious stones and this is still a Piaget speciality. We developed the idea of making a timepiece a piece of jewellery that men can wear. We were very fortunate in that we were able to employ very highly-skilled jewellers, settlers even cutters, goldsmiths whose tasks was to create a piece of beautiful jewellery from a watch. I am pleased to say that our artisans still consider their work as art - in turn I consider them to be artists - and the result is that still today. Piaget are THE jeweller in watchmaking and we are able to present to the market a very large, very rich collection of haute joaillerie watches. You know, these watches appeal to our clientele on various levels - there are those who will purchase a Piaget timepiece as a piece of jewellery, others look at our watches from a collectors point of view, they come to us to buy a work of art and they treat it as such' still others treat a Piaget watch as an investment, they of course there are customers who merely want to know the time.

Then in the seventies, came the application of electronics which was a very important evolution in watchmaking and there we felt the competition of the Japanese producers very strongly. As I remember, we were only able to sell electronic quartz movement to the Japanese market which is exactly the opposite today where we can sell mechanical movements to the them exclusively. They also appreciate the tradition of our company - skill and craftsmanship that have been transferred from generation to generation. And they are a very important market for us.

VIVE: Do you visualise a major swing back to mechanical watches, now that quartz has become so commonplace?

YVES: I feel that we are still masters of the mechanical watch and we still place enormous emphasis on improving the traditional movements. We will continue to train our young craftsmen in this area so we will have to maintain two divisions within the company - electronic and mechanical, but the latter will be further improved and volume increased. In the area of prestigious watches I think that the consumer now considers electronics in terms of mass-production and they don't understand really what is contained in their watch and even if the technology is extremely advanced, they don't really appreciate it. What they can and do appreciate is craftsmanship and the skill involved in the watches making which is expressed much more in the mechanical and traditional movements. The other element to consider is that the life of a quartz watch is quite limited in that if you have twenty watches, you may put one aside for two or three years and if it is a quartz, the battery will die. That is particularly distressing if you have paid $20,000 for that timepiece - you have to go out and find a watchmaker, who in turn has to find the correct battery and this can be very difficult if you live in a small town in Brazil for instance! With a mechanical movement, you simply pick up the watch, wind it and it is ready.

VIVE: Dealing with this exclusive realm of timepieces, you must have come into contact with some remarkable characters and personalities.

YVES: Of Course! As you can imagine, people who are buying the most expensive watches in the world as Piaget are, they are most of the time very interesting people and in my capacity I have been fortunate enough to meet many of them. There was, for example, a very important collector of watches who asked us to add something brown to all the watches he ordered from us - for instance he asked us to change the colour of a dial to tigers eye just so that he would have brown on his watch, or there was the time that he asked us to change the diamonds set around the face of the watch to cognac and champagne diamonds, he never wanted black crocodile straps on his watches - always a band in brown. Finally, I met him - and he has at least one hundred Piaget watches in his collection - and I discovered that everything in his house, office, his clothes, the ink in his pens, his stationery, the Rolls Royce that he rents when he comes to Europe - everything when he comes to Europe - everything that surrounds him, is brown!

His name is not Mr. Brown but I will give you a hind as to his identity - he made most of fortune from a brown, fizzy drink in Puerto Rico and Mexico[ Coca-Cola?- Ed.]

He became a good friend of ours, and in fact I remember driving with him through Switzerland doing some sight-seeing when all of a sudden he stopped the car, leaped out with his camera because he had spotted some brown sheep!

Then there was the late showman Liberace who came to us in Lausanne about twenty-five years ago to have watch made in the shape of what else... a grand piano custom made. He gave us incredible publicity all over the world because he was always talking about his famous watch and showing it to people

Maurice Chevalier, Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren... many, many famous people - Chiefs of States, Sheiks...have been Piaget customers. In fact one of the more interesting stories involves Gina Lollobrigida. She took a watch we made for her to Cuba, where Fidel Castro was so taken with it, always talking about her beautiful watch, that she was obliged to give it to him in exchange for a very cheap watch. Of course, we replaced it for her - she was a very good customer and she has become a very good friend of mine. In fact, the press has married and divorced us several times!

VIVE: Are there particular people in your industry that you admire?

YVES: I am friends with several of the other watchmakers like ourselves - Patek Phillipe, for instance and so I don't really like to consider them my competitors because we are all under the same flag so to speak, doing similar work and driving the Swiss industry. It is really thanks to the top four or five manufacturers that the industry in general is supported. I am impressed by the strategies that Rolex have implemented at the instigation of the Chairman of the company. Similarly, I have a certain admiration for a marketing strategies of Cartier which have created tremendous global awareness.
The people that personally impress me are not in watches. I much admire that President of the Ivory Coast who is a man I've known now for more than 20 years. It used to be a French colony but was granted independence in 1960.

The president is almost ninety years old and he has really built up his nation since that time and I admire him for that. He is a great man and many influential people around the world listen to what he has to say. I have learned a great deal from him through our discussions.

VIVE: You have gone out of your way to promote the Piaget image and the people behind your Watches. Have people ever been surprised to meet you after hearing so much about you and the company?

YVES: Most people are surprised that I am so young in comparison with the image they have of the man behind Piaget. Others are surprised to learn that Piaget is still a family name. In Japan, people bring their Piaget presentation box so that I might autograph it for them. Sometimes however the attention is a little more than I would like.

Not long ago I travelled the world showing off one of our most famous watches with 87 carats of diamonds one of which was a flawless 3.85 carat blue diamond set at 12 o'clock. That watch was so valuable that I spent many nights sleeping with it at my side rather than putting it in the hotel's safe-deposit box. People knew who I was from seeing me on television in many different countries promoting it as the star of the collection we had at the time.

VIVE: Obviously you are a very busy man but what do you do when you are not working at promoting Piaget around the world!

YVES: Well, up to now I have invested most of my time and my life in the enterprise, but apart from this main interest, I love horses and try to ride once a month if I can. I am fascinated by polo but I own only jumping horses since we don't have enough land for polo fields in Switzerland unfortunately.

One thing I would like to do more of is get to know the various countries I visit a lot better than I have in the past. Usually I am in these countries for only a very short time as a consequence of the work I do and the limited time I have to do it all. I usually only get to know the hotel rooms, offices and the cities. I would very much like to explore the countryside of various places.