Piaget Gouverneur watches

The Piaget Gouverneur is a gold dress watch whose name is simply French for "governor". Piaget presented the current collection in 2012 as part of its Black Tie line. The name goes back further: in the 1990s Piaget made a smaller Gouverneur, 33 to 35 mm, as a chronometer, chronograph and perpetual calendar. The modern watch is a restyled relaunch built on 43 mm cases in pink or white gold.

Its design rests on ellipses. A round case carries an oval bezel and an oval dial opening, with a round centre circle set inside the oval. Diamond versions set stones on that bezel.

The range splits by movement. The three-hand Gouverneur (G0A37110 in pink gold, G0A37111 in white gold with a diamond bezel) is 9 mm thick and runs on Piaget's in-house automatic 800P, with an 80-hour power reserve. The Chronograph (G0A37112, G0A37113 and G0A38112) is 10.4 mm thick around the automatic 882P, a reworked version of the calibre in the Polo Chronograph, with a flyback, two counters and a date at 6 o'clock. The Tourbillon Moonphase is 9.2 mm thick, little more than the three-hand model, because its hand-wound 642P is just 4 mm tall. It has a flying tourbillon bearing Piaget's stylised "P", a moon phase towards 6 o'clock and 40 hours of reserve.

Beyond the core three, the Perpetual Calendar (G0A40018 in pink gold, G0A40019 in white gold with diamonds) keeps the 43 mm case at 10.5 mm. Two tourbillons stand apart: the G0A38117 grows to 46 mm with a diamond-paved dial, and the Mythical Journey Venice (G0A40621) is a white gold tourbillon with a black enamel dial, limited to 8 pieces.