Craftsman Georges-Édouard Piaget might have rivaled King Midas with his gold touch. Hailing from a family of watchmakers, Piaget began crafting watches in 1874. After committing to precious metals in 1957 and releasing his first high jewelry collection two years later, Piaget combined gold with masterful technology to create ornamental jewelry watches. His small, self-sufficient workshop in the Swiss mountains of La Côte-aux-Fées is now a designer Maison that’s celebrating its 150th anniversary this year.

With its signature ultra-thin movements, dexterous gold craftsmanship and high-spirited gemstones, Piaget’s commemorative collection is baptized The Essence of Extraleganza – a melding of extravagance and elegance. The collection, which revives Piaget’s golden years of the 1960s and 1970s, is released in three chapters today. Each assemblage has its own distinctive Piaget flair: “Extraleganza,” “Piaget Society” and “When Mastery Ignites Artistry.”

The “Extraleganza” chapter writes itself, characterized by classic pink gold necklace rings and earring sets. This collection features chains woven like gleaming braids into yellow sapphires, white opals and diamonds. Other pieces include a red-hot carnelian necklace and a titanium scarf necklace bedazzled in a sapphire rainbow. The pieces speak to what Stéphanie Sivrière, Piaget’s jewelry and watch artistic director, calls Piaget’s “soul at the dawn of modernity”: the realm where elegance meets playfulness.

Meanwhile, “Piaget Society” commemorates Piaget’s boldness in blue gems with coiled rose gold and opal necklaces, a fluid lasso necklace with 1,300 turquoise cabochons and wooden cuff watches. This chapter’s aesthetic seems to be pulled from the natural world, where its blue oceanic themes are countered by earrings adorned with pink feathers and gold cellular-looking ornaments with colored sapphires. Combining functionality with taste, several items are multi-purpose, such as a cuff that shapeshifts into a brooch.

It wouldn’t be Piaget without a fusion of the past. The last chapter, “When Mastery Ignites Artistry,” coalesces watchmaking and jewelry with items such as a gold watch set in emeralds and a diamond watch ring. With over a century behind it, Piaget’s newest tribute collection harnesses the power of gold while rekindling its founder’s motto: “Always strive to do better than necessary.” Emblematic of the Maison’s iconic artisanal history, The Essence of Extraleganza orbits around reimagined heritage pieces, which glisten to elevate Piaget’s generational tastes.

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