of Yves Piaget since 1980. Merger The luxury Vendôme group, now Richemont, purchased the Piaget manufacture in 1988. In the 1990s, several new collections were launched: Possession, Tanagra, Limelight and Miss Protocole with its interchangeable straps. Piaget brought out the Altiplano watch and in 1999 reinvented one of their classics, the Emperador line. Watchmaking was regrouped in one collection: Black Tie. 21st century In 2001, a Piaget Haute Horlogerie manufacture was opened in Plan-les-Ouates, just outside Geneva. The movements continued to be produced at La Côte-aux-Fées, the family's birthplace. The new building grouped together over 40 professions in the fields of watchmaking and jewellery. The manufacture developed mechanical movements and in 2002 brought out the first Piaget Manufacture tourbillon movement, the Calibre 600P, the thinnest tourbillon in the world with 3.5 mm thickness. In 2004, Piaget celebrated their 130th anniversary. Watch and jewelry manufacturing Ultra-thin movement The brand is one of the forerunners in the creation of ultra-thin movements with the manual 9P and automatic 12P movements, respectively the thinnest in their category in the world in 1957 and 1960. This has led in more recent years to the modern developments 430P, 450P and 438P, with a thickness of only 2.1 millimetres. These latest innovations are used in the Altiplano line, the most recent of which is the Altiplano 900P. At 3.65 millimeter it is the world's thinnest hand-wound mechanical watch. Tourbillon movement The Tourbillon movement was developed over a period of three years. Resulting from this research is the calibre 600P, the thinnest tourbillon movement in the world (3.5 mm). Its frame is composed of 42 minuscule parts, including three titanium bridges, it weighs just 0.2 grams. The flying tourbillon – mounted on a single axis – is topped by the initial “P”, which adds to the complexity of the poising. Tourbillon skeleton movement Piaget's flying tourbillon movement is the thinnest of its kind in the world (3.5 mm). It is divided into segments corresponding to each of the 60 seconds, a sunburst guilloche decoration shines out from the tourbillon's frame. The model is in gold and set with precious stones. Retrograde movement The Calibre 560P is a self-winding mechanical movement, designed, developed and built at the heart of Manufacture Piaget, and boasting a complex retrograde seconds mechanism. The hand traces an arc from 0 to 30 at 12 o’clock, then jumps back to its starting point. The design