Piaget Emperador watches

The Piaget Emperador is Piaget's gold men's watch, launched in 1957 and reinvented in 1999. A year after the relaunch, the Montres Passion jury named it Watch of the Year.

The range splits in two. The Emperador Coussin models are the large ones, from 42 to 49 mm, and carry the complications: a dual time zone, a moon phase, a perpetual calendar, tourbillons, many of them skeletonised, and a minute repeater. The plain Emperador is the smaller watch, at 32 or 36 mm, with a date, a power-reserve display or a skeletonised tourbillon, and many versions are set with diamonds. Cases are pink or white gold.

The Emperador Coussin Minute Repeater is built on calibre 1290P: Piaget's thin 1200P, designed to take complications, with a minute repeater added. The movement is 4.8 mm high and runs for 40 hours. Most of the inside of the 48 mm case is hollowed out to help the sound carry, and the movement is fixed to the case at four points rather than the usual two. SJX called it the world's thinnest minute repeater when it appeared in 2013. The gem-set white gold versions measure 49 mm.

The Mythical Journey pieces add enamel dials. The pink gold Coussin Moonphase Mythical Journey is limited to 8 pieces in each of its two versions, one with a diamond-set bezel, and the Emperador Tourbillon Mythical Journey Samarkand is a unique piece. A white gold Coussin Tourbillon was also made as a limited edition of 18.