Piaget leans into stone dials for Watches and Wonders 2026
Zach BlassPiaget is too classy and elegant for me to say the phrase hold my beer, but perhaps it is apt to say that Piaget’s ornamental stone dial lineup for Watches and Wonders is a hold my champagne kind of lineup. Yes, stone dials are ubiquitous today, but Piaget was long ahead of the curve and trend. And with many, many decades of experience mastering ornamental stone, the proof is in the horological pudding. Here are some of the key releases from Piaget at Watches and Wonders 2026.
Piaget Swinging Pebble
The new Swinging Pebble lineup perhaps best showcases Piaget’s stone mastery, because what other watchmaker in the world do you see working with ornamental stones in this way? Each piece is carved from a single slice of ornamental stone — your choice of tiger’s eye, verdite, or pietersite — hollowed out to house a Manufacture movement, then sealed to form a smooth, organic pebble-shaped case. The three stone choices each bring their own character: for example, you can see the warm, striated amber of the tiger’s eye variant we have here in-hand, or you can explore the deep, mottled green of verdite, or the stormy iridescent blues of pietersite.
Regardless of the stone you opt for, no two will be identical, which is precisely the point. It’s a deceptively simple idea that requires considerable craft to execute: the stone has to be worked precisely enough to contain a movement without compromising its structural integrity or natural beauty. Each pendant then hangs from a twisted gold chain, a nod to Piaget’s longstanding expertise in goldsmithing and chainmaking. I know in this day and age, most of you watching this want your watch on your wrist. But, there is a poetry here in that timekeeping objects are irrefutably near and dear to our hearts. Ok, now I want to turn my attention to the Polo.
Piaget Polo 79 Sodalite
The Polo has been thrust back into the limelight, and no, I am not referring to the Piaget Limelight Gala. Hype can be a bit of a derogatory word amongst purer watch circles, but a bit of hype is not a bad thing, especially when a broader audience is rediscovering one of an esteemed watchmaker’s most esteemed designs. The Polo 79, a revival and reinterpretation of the original Yves Piaget-designed Polo from 1979, brought the spotlight back onto Piaget’s sportiest collection.
However, being Piaget, a sporty edge does not come at the expense of a glamorous, jetsetting sense of style and aesthetic. Whereas most watch designs would be described as a watch with a bracelet, the Polo was born as the opposite – a bracelet with a watch. The result was a very fluid design, with fluid and continuous gadroons running across the bracelet, case, and dial. This signature design element and point of distinction was eventually phased out of the catalogue, but in 2024, it made its triumphant and unapologetic return with an 18k yellow gold model. We have since seen a full 18k white gold variant and a two-tone white and yellow gold variant.
But now we have our first Polo 79 to incorporate a stone dial, merging two strong essences of Piaget together. Piaget pairs the blue hue of sodalite with 18k white gold, the spaces between the gadroons on the dial housing slices of the ornamental stone that, with each slice, exhibits its own unique, natural pattern.
The blue is perhaps too dark to describe as faint cloudy swirls of white against the backdrop of the sky, but perhaps it’s almost like the foam of a wake in the sea. Neither image is spot on, but there is an undeniable natural quality to its look – and, again, no two dials will look exactly alike, making each piece truly the owner’s own. My last note on the dial is that, likely due to the usage of sodalite, you will notice this dial, unlike the full precious metal models, does not have a studded hours and minutes track. I think this was the right call as it ensures the natural beauty of the stone is left uninterrupted beyond the gadroons.
For those not as familiar with the Polo 79, the case was modernised with a 38mm diameter, a perfect sweet spot for many in this day and age, with a case thickness of just 7.45mm that continues to respect another longstanding signature of Piaget watches: ultra-thin cases. This slenderness is made possible due to its usage of the in-house automatic 44-hour 1200P1 calibre – its circular striping, thin bevelling, and golden micro-rotor all visible via the exhibition caseback.
Piaget Polo Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin Watch Onyx
Now the Polo 79, though complex in its construction of the case, dial, and bracelet, exhibits the hours and minutes strictly. But there are Polo watches that, mechanically speaking, are far more complicated. The Piaget Polo Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin made its debut at Watches and Wonders 2023 with a dark emerald green dial, was shortly followed up with an Obsidian dial variant not much later that year and a Green Obsidian dial last year in 2025.
For 2026, Piaget has elected to bring Onyx into the mix, its deep black hue far less bold in its colour expression. Though the dial is devoid of colour, it is not devoid of intrigue, its deep black perhaps contemplative instead of colourful. Personally, I find it makes the dial feel crisper and more legible, the indications of the perpetual calendar clearer to the eye to read. And to be clear, the design is by no means without colour. In fact, the stones set within the bezel are, if anything, accentuated further in their contrast – popping against the black backdrop.
Its 18k white gold case measures 42mm in diameter, and is very slender for a perpetual calendar at 8.65mm in thickness – only a little over a millimetre thicker than the hours and minutes only Polo 79. This is made possible by the in-house micro-rotor automatic calibre 1255P, which is just 4mm thick despite packing in a high-complication perpetual calendar that indicates the hours, minutes, day, date, month, leap year, and moonphase. The case is paired with a dial-matching black rubber strap, adding a casual yet suave edge to its look.
Piaget Andy Warhol Blue Quartz & Bullseye
Once known as the black tie watch, now formally and officially known as the Andy Warhol, Piaget has come to the fair with multiple new variants. We were able to get hands-on with two rose gold executions, one with a blue quartz dial and the other with a bullseye dial. If you’re seeing a similarity between tiger’s eye and bullseye, don’t worry – it makes complete sense. Bullseye, also known as red tiger’s eye, is a heat-treated or oxidised variety of golden Tiger’s Eye, which results in the deep red-brown colour you see on the dial. And because of this wood-like red-brown hue, it pairs excellently with the red hue of the rose gold case. I am glad Piaget took this extra step, rather than putting the tiger’s eye found in a previous white gold model into the rose.
Whereas the bullseye Andy Warhol case utilises a clous de Paris pattern, the blue quartz variant has thin polished steps. Both cases, however, measure 45mm in diameter, 8mm thick, and 43mm lug-to-lug, and inside each is driven by the in-house automatic 40-hour 501P1 movement.
Piaget Sixtie
Lastly, Piaget has debuted a new High Jewellery adaptation of the Sixtie – reinventing its legendary 1970s cuff watch using one of Yves Piaget’s favourite stones: opal. The opal is set within the softly contoured and playfully asymmetric trapezoid form of the Sixtie, beautifully hand-engraved with Piaget’s beloved Decor Palace finish. I fully expect to see this watch on a red carpet in 2026.
Final thoughts
In recent years, stone dials have become almost as much a must-have in a brand catalogue as a steel sports watch. With a dial being one of the most, if not the most, eye-grabbing elements of a watch, natural stone dials have become a go-to to get watch lovers to stop scrolling in their social feeds. It is a natural hook for the eye, innately intriguing with diverse colour and texture.
Many watchmakers are now just discovering the wonder of stone dials and the manner in which they can really liven up a catalogue, but then there is the king of stone dials, Piaget, who is looking at the current craze, probably thinking, these brands are only just discovering stone dials now?
Sure, we are seeing stone dials at a wide range of price points these days. But as these novelties show, it’s more than just the presence of the stone; it’s how you use it. Some watchmakers are kind of just forcing stone into the mix. Piaget, on the other hand, is building designs around them – not exploiting them, rather paying tribute to ornamental stone through exquisite artistry that can only be executed as a result of the accumulation of mastery and expertise over more than six decades of respecting the material.