PIAGET AND POLO – 30 YEARS OF PASSION

For almost 30 years, the Piaget brand has been associated with polo, a milestone the brand is preparing to celebrate in 2009, the 30th anniversary of the legendary Piaget Polo watch.

To mark the event, Piaget has naturally created anniversary models that will pay tribute to the characteristic design of the collection. But the landmark is above all an opportunity to lend a new dimension to this line by launching a new sporting chic model that opens up a whole new segment for the watchmaker. These creations will be unveiled at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva next January.

To prepare this intense year, Piaget is treating itself to a prestigious “trial gallop” by making a noteworthy entrance into the ultimate international polo competition: the Triple Crown, currently taking place in Buenos Aires. The Swiss watchmaker and jeweller is supporting a new team which overturned established norms right from the start of the tournament.

The team with a 37-goal handicap plays under the Pilará Piaget colours. Headed by the legendary Marcos Heguy with a 10-goal handicap, it is composed of the following top-flight players: Agustìn Merlos (10 handicap), Sebastián Merlos (9 handicap) and Santiago Chavanne (8 handicap). This team distinguished itself right from the start of the Triple Crown. After a noteworthy debut in Tortugas, it played the final at Hurlingham and narrowly missed a win against La Aguada (37 goals). It has won the first match played in Palermo.

As part of its support for this prestigious team, Piaget has chosen to associated with Pilará, a booming luxury sports and real estate complex located 50 km from Buenos Aires. Featuring a polo club with 8 fields, the site will also house a polo school that will thus enable Piaget to pursue its involvement in the teaching of this sport. For 10 years already, the brand has been funding the Los Robles polo school and then that in Santa Rita, with a view to initiating young people to this discipline. Piaget can now rely on the acknowledged competence of the Pilará polo school to lend a new dimension to its pedagogical commitment to polo.
The Piaget brand pioneered sponsorship of elite sports under the impetus of Mr. Yves G. Piaget, by associating its name with the world of polo in the early 1980s. Dedicated to promoting this extreme sport which reflects its own values of bold daring, high standards and faultless accuracy – it has been involved in the world of polo at Palm Beach right from the start, initially by supporting the World Cup and now by sponsoring the famous USPA Gold Cup now named after it. It has also been present at Punta del Este for several years now, by supporting the tournament held at the prestigious Medellin club. Piaget has also succeeded in enriching the sport with its very own aura of glamour, its sense of generosity and its subtle art of transgressing conventions. In the 1980s, Chukkers for Charity, a team composed of movie and TV stars, was engaged in spectacular fund-raising efforts under the Piaget colours. This was a first in the polo world and has left an indelible imprint on the collective memory of the sport, including their surprising and unexpected horse-back appearance on New York’s 5th Avenue in 1985.

The ties between Piaget and the world of polo are both strong and historical. Piaget’s presence in Palermo with a talented team represents a natural culmination of the commitment consistently displayed by the prestigious brand. A new gem in the Triple Crown, the Pilará Piaget team involved in this top-flight tournament is not the only one to compete under the watchmaker’s colours. Both Pilará and Piaget are also determined to promote youthful talents, and in this spirit have formed a second 26-goal-handicap team that is taking part in the Chamber of Deputies Tournament from November 18th to December 7th. Polo is also about patron tournaments. So as to experience the passion for polo in glamorous, convivial style, Pilará Piaget has also put together a patrons team that plays matches in Argentina, of course, but also on other continents. This team is in particular playing in the Maharaja of Patiala Cup held in Pilará from November 21st to 23rd.

Piaget shares with Pilará a profound understanding of luxury based on a feel for differentiation, quality and authenticity. It is delighted to be promoting, in association with Pilará, a set of polo teams which, like itself, are driven by a determination to excel.
Since its founding in 1874, Piaget embodies a unique know-how combined with abundant creativity. From the famous ultra-thin Calibre 9P created in the 1950s to the world’s thinnest tourbillon movement, Calibre 600P, the exceptional talent of the Piaget craftsmen lies in their ability to reinvent time-honoured horological techniques. Originally a movement manufacturer, the House has not merely chosen to apply its rigorous quality criteria and its keen sense of innovation to the hidden part of timepieces. Instead, making a clean break with the accepted codes of its profession, it has made a major contribution to watchmaking by offering a new way of wearing time, endowing watches with a stunning array of precious and original cases, wristbands and dials. Piaget has patiently cultivated this jewellery expertise within its workshops over the decades, paving the way for some amazing projects – a true delight for the brand’s designers who express their boundless creativity through both watches and jewellery.

The famous Watchmaker and Jeweller has been distributed since 1965 by the Herkohn company in Argentina. The brand naturally relies on the longstanding experience of the Kohen family, which for three generations has been nurturing Piaget’s development within its territory. Herkohn SA has played a decisive role in the strong ties that have been woven between Piaget and polo in Argentina, particularly in relation to the top-tier sports events and the Piaget polo school. Today, it is accompanying Piaget towards the peak of international polo with the launch of one of the most exclusive clubs in Argentina, which will also fly the Pilará Piaget colours.