The truth about the Piaget Polo S

Picture fifteen people crammed into a tiny space at the back of an Italian deli. Wall-to-wall bottles of the Repubblica’s finest wines are quietly sleeping. Each lunchtime and evening, Saveurs d’Italie is host to a pop-up restaurant, La Cantina dei Vini. Joël Dicker is a regular. How anyone can eat so much tiramisu and stay so slim is a mystery.

The Swiss author has been invited by Piaget to talk about the new Piaget Polo S. He is one of the brand’s nine Game Changers. Men who are “ready to rewrite the rules”, notes the press release. Joël Dicker is wearing the Piaget Polo S steel chronograph whose cushion-shaped dial fits inside a 42mm round case. The collection, which debuted in New York in July, took everyone by surprise. Few people were expecting to see Piaget in this price segment: CHF 10,000 for the three hands-date and CHF 14,000 for the chronograph. A launch that clearly signals Piaget’s ambition to win over a younger clientele.

Dicker begins, sotto voce: “There’s a story I’d like to tell you…” Twelve pairs of eyes are hanging on his every word. For once, he begins his story at the beginning. His collaboration with Piaget and his role as a Game Changer in Switzerland come down to a meeting with Philippe Léopold-Metzger, CEO of Piaget, a few years earlier. As unlikely as it may seem today, Joël Dicker had doubts about his vocation. On a friend’s advice, he emailed Piaget’s chief executive. Who invited him to his office and urged him to follow his dreams and become a writer. Not long after, The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair was flying off bookshop shelves. End 2015, in a reversal of roles, Piaget contacted Joël Dicker inviting him to become one of its Game Changers. And now here we are, September 2016, in an Italian deli opposite a writer with a difficult task ahead, of the kind generally reserved for the characters in his novels: a confession.

An intimate connection

Dicker patiently answers the old chestnuts: are you a fan of watches? what was your first watch? He admits to having felt inordinately proud, age four, of his Flik-Flak. “Not just any watch, a watch with hands,” he declares. “Wearing a Flik-Flak means you’ve learned to tell the time. You’re a cut above!” Better even than knowing how to tie your laces? Dicker goes on: “Time is like the score to our lives, but we don’t know that when we’re kids. So much the better, but once you’ve learned to tell the time, you become privy to a form of knowledge.”

Later on, he was given a Swatch “with cute fish on it.” And now a Piaget. A female admirer points out that the dial of his Piaget Polo S chronograph matches his eyes. He likes that it’s “different” and that it can’t be assigned a label. “I like its Swiss side, its ‘Geneva-ness’. There’s nothing in-your-face about it. I like that.” If he had a time machine, a journalist asks, which era would he choose to live in? “I’d go way back in time. As far as possible. Back to the dinosaurs.” What does he enjoy doing in his spare time? A smile tickles his lips at the thought of choosing between life’s many pleasures. “Listening to music, I guess.”

"Piaget's philosophy appeals to me"

He’s leaving for Finland later that afternoon, where he’ll be promoting his new novel, Le Livre des Baltimore. Guests line up for a signed copy of his bestseller, The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair. Bolstered by such a surge of recognition, Joël Dicker feels legitimised in flying the Piaget flag. “Advertising is part and parcel of our society. It’s important for me to make art and writing a part of that world. Piaget’s philosophy appeals to me, too.” The brand is hoping to reach out to a new clientele with the five references in the collection: the Piaget Polo S automatic with the calibre 1110P movement, and the Piaget Polo S chronograph, driven by the calibre 1160P movement. The automatic comes with blue, silver and slate grey dial options; the chronograph is available with a silver or a blue dial.

It’s 2pm and the event is drawing to a close. Restaurateur Marie-France Isgro is sharpening her knives in the kitchen. Her husband, Salvatore, is seating some Italian friends over coffee. The journalists are discreetly tapping at their mobiles. It could be a scene from The Godfather. Joël Dicker has a plane to catch. “See you”, he calls as he leaves. Now there’s a man who’s going places…