PIAGET POLO 18K ONYX WITH DIAMONDS

The 1970s and ’80s were an era of extravagance and elegance, a time when art, music, and high society fused into a heady cultural cocktail. It was the age of disco and punk rock, of conceptual and performance art, of Warhol’s Factory and Studio 54, and of a new kind of glamour. In the orbit of these “beautiful people” was Yves Piaget, the fourth-generation scion of the Maison, a virtuoso of both horology and high society. A polo aficionado and a fixture at glittering soirées, he counted Gina Lollobrigida, Miles Davis, and Cary Grant among his circle.

It was this world of polo tournaments in Palm Beach, midnight parties in Paris, the blurred line between sport and spectacle hat inspired Yves Piaget to create something unprecedented. In 1979, he unveiled the Piaget Polo, the Maison’s first watch to bear a name rather than just a reference number. A full-gold, integrated bracelet watch that blurred the distinction between jewelry and horology. It was immediately embraced by icons of the era, Andy Warhol, Roger Moore, Nancy Sinatra, and Ursula Andress, who famously presented the Polo World Cup trophy wearing hers in 1980.

This particular Vintage Piaget Polo, crafted in the 1980s, embodies the height of that golden era. Weighing an opulent 69 grams of 18k yellow gold, it features the signature godroons—bold, sculptural horizontal lines that flow seamlessly across case and bracelet, creating the illusion of fluid metal. The dial, an exquisite interplay of onyx and diamonds, is pure Piaget—high contrast, high drama. The inky blackness of the onyx absorbs light, while brilliant diamonds scatter it in return, a dynamic tension that echoes the energy of the time. A diamond-set bezel frames the tableau, a final flourish of decadent precision.

Beneath this artistry lies Piaget’s own in-house quartz movement, an innovation that, in Piaget’s hands, was not merely about accuracy but about elevating the very concept of a luxury timepiece. Unlike conventional quartz calibers, Piaget’s ultra-thin movements were engineered to maintain the Maison’s legacy of elegance, ensuring that even the hum of modernity felt refined.

The Polo was never just a sports watch, nor simply a dress watch, it was something altogether new, a category unto itself. Yves Piaget famously declared that the Polo was “not a watch, but a watch bracelet,” designed to move effortlessly from polo field to penthouse. And move it did—on the wrists of those who defined an era, those who understood that true luxury is about presence, about confidence, about the seamless fusion of craft and charisma. A true collector’s treasure.