Piaget Just Launched a Colorful High Jewelry Collection with ’70s-Era Pizzazz

Set against the surrealist backdrop of the Casa di Xavier Corberó just outside Barcelona, Spain, Piaget unveiled a creative collection of new high jewelry dedicated to modern shapes. Guests entered through the concrete arches, voids, and interlock spaces of the sprawling complex, which was built over four decades by the Catalan sculptor of the same name, and headed up one of the Escher-like staircases to view the jewels. It was the perfect parallel: the house was intended to be a sculpture to be a sculptural masterpiece to be lived in, as are the Piaget designs.

The collection is a mix of pops of color, Piaget’s signature Palace Décor engraving, and designs inspired by the brand’s heyday in the ’60s and ’70s. Thanks in part to the renewed interest in that era and Piaget’s harnessing of its past to create new jewels inspired by its early spirit, the brand is once again having a moment in the spotlight. “I think we have momentum here, especially in the high-ticket [collections],” Piaget CEO, Benjamin Comar, tells Robb Report. “We don’t speak about figures and numbers but Richemont is also doing well and so, we are benefitting from it.” The company is capitalizing on a moment where collectors are increasingly interested in a strong visual identity—something that will set them apart from their peers. The brand has already seen a resurgence of interest in its watches from the ’60s and ’70s in the secondary market, which it wisely capitalized on by issuing modern timepieces based on popular models from those eras like the Andy Warhol and Polo 79 timepieces. Its jewelry, likewise, seems poised for the same renewed interest. “People are more and more interested in design,” says. “It’s not only that they like stones and want stones, but they also want a strong design that has character.”

Piaget has plenty to offer this year both in terms of a strong aesthetic and important stones, but also in technique. Some of the highlights of the Extraleganza collection included the one-of-a-kind necklace set with diamonds, 19 fancy-shaped black Australian opals totaling 26.39 carats, and 1 cushion-cut blue sapphire of 9.26 carats from Madagascar. The piece is executed in different finishes—partially diamond-set and the rest hammered white gold—to play with the light. Another was singular necklace set with a batch of round-cut emeralds, which are so rare it took the company over a year to source them. The stones top off a necklace mixed with hand-engraved gold, baguette-cut diamonds, brilliant-cut diamonds, and baguette-cut emeralds all arranged in a manner to play with shape and illusion. Meanwhile, a pair of Arty Pop earrings set with diamonds, chrysoprase, malachite, a 1.37-carat cushion-cut Colombian emerald, and a 1.28-carat Colombian emerald stood out in the vitrine and were swiftly being eyed by clients attending the event.

A few pieces played to the Maison‘s penchant for mixing precious and ornamental stones to stunning effect. A collar necklace in tiger eye, reverse-set tsavorites, and a tourmaline center stone surrounded by quartz utile had a simultaneous cool factor and timeless appeal. One of Comar’s favorites was the Kaleidoscope Lights necklace set with sodalite, jasper, ruby root, chrysoprase, sugilite, verdite, and 1 pear-shaped D-IF diamond of 3.01 carats. The Curved Artistry suite made with diamonds, cabochon chrysoprase, and troilite in graphic forms mimicked the rounded sculptural designs of ’60s and ’70s-era mod furniture. The necklace in the suite comes with a 10.91-carat octagonal-cut Sri Lankan natural yellow sapphire at the edge of the collar. All were bonafide conversation starters and interesting pieces for a savvy collector interested in pieces that feel a bit outside the high jewelry norm.

But amidst all of the high-impact design, one might have overlooked one very special piece. A collar necklace set with flat black opals that varied in size according to the flow and curves of the piece wrapped into a loop around a diamond of over 5 carats. It’s difficult just to find the opals in matching hues, but combine that with the fact that they all needed to be different sizes and re-cut and you have yourself a true masterpiece of craftsmanship. It took the atelier over 2.5 years to create.

Other pieces equally deserving of the spotlight were a selection of Piaget watches. They ranged from heavily gem-set men’s timepieces to a trio of stunning cuff watches. A couple of standouts included one with yellow-gold hand-engraved and polished scales and one in white gold with an engraving meant to evoke the pattern of frost on a window. And, of course, there were several sautoir timepiece necklaces (a signature of the house). One stunning example featuring ruby root, opals, spinel, and mandarin garnets was reportedly among the first pieces to sell.

These are, of course, only a handful of standouts that were shown. In a place where concrete arches meet the sky and sculptural ambition is achieved over years of painstaking work, Piaget’s latest high jewelry outing felt right at home. The Casa di Xavier Corberó—at once a dreamscape and a monument to artistic vision—offered the perfect metaphor for a brand rediscovering the boldness of its own identity. With its roots firmly planted in the radical elegance of its golden era, Piaget is no longer simply revisiting its past—it’s sculpting a future as vivid and imaginative as the house that set the stage.

For more images of the Extraleganza Collection, click here.