Name of the game – Ultra-thin watches at SIHH 2018

Watch & Bullion

16 January 2018 | 2 min read

Whether knowingly coordinated or not, there is usually always a theme to be spotted for new releases at conventions like SIHH. This year ultra-thin watches seem to be particularly hot, with several major brands releasing timepieces which seem to test our understanding of what is physically possible.

Things started off fairly calm, with Vacheron Constantin adding a new pink gold version to their Overseas Ultra-Thin Perpetual Calendar. This makes a welcome addition adding some colour to their 2-year-old range originally introduced at SIHH 2016. The automatic watch comes along with a sporty thickness of 8.1mm making it one of the most wearable watches of the brands current lineup.

What would the watch world be though without a little bit of competition? At least that’s what Audemars Piguet must have thought when releasing the Royal Oak RD#2 Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin. At 6.3mm this watch sets the new standard for the thinnest automatic perpetual calendar timepiece in the world. Made out of platinum this concept watch will unfortunately not hit the shelves of your local AP dealer, but make no mistake about it AP is sure to eventually release a commercial version of this timepiece (at least I really really hope so).

So what does the king of ultra-thin decide to do? That’s right, Piaget had to steal the spotlight again. If you ever had the fortune to handle the already incredible altiplano 900p you can relate to the sensation of it feeling almost impossibly thin at 3.65 mm. Imagine our amazement in hearing that the new Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept Watch is almost half of that, blasting all records at 2 mm. Most excitingly though it poses the question, how much further can we even go in this field?