Piaget

This is a Piaget antique gold watch, it was inherited from my wife’s mother; the precise history of this watch is unknown, but it is definitely prior to 1970.  It is solid  14kt. gold, with approximately 35 diamonds of various sizes.  The watch band and clasp are in excellent working order. The watch itself does not work but the hands will turn; also the watch crystal is missing.  Six of the diamonds have been removed from two different mounts located at the end of each row of diamonds, three diamonds on each end (shown in pics), but all the diamonds are with the watch. 

We are interested in selling the watch in its current condition without investing in restoring it to proper working condition.  Can you please recommend to us the best course to achieve this (auction, sale, etc.) If interested, we would appreciate if you could give us an initial estimate based on the attached photos.  We had one jeweler look at the watch, he was completely unfamiliar with Piaget watches, but he valued just the raw materials of the watch in the neighborhood of $4000......and I believe that was just a guess.

This watch is very unique and we are at a loss of knowledge to accurately describe it to give it justice........If anyone can provide a jewelers description of this watch, it may be very helpful. 

We wanted to sell this watch to someone that appreciates the Piaget quality; we recently took this watch to the Piaget store in New York and they were very impressed with the watch; but they do not purchase any jewelry. They recommended bringing the watch to either Christie’s or Sotheby’s for auction or to Windsor Jewelers.  We wanted to find out as much info as possible such as history/era of the watch.......from my online research it appears to be before the era of the 1957 slim line watches introduced.  The Piaget store tried to read the serial but they said it was worn off.  The only thing readable of the back is  "4 kt. G"

Please let us know if you can provide info on the history and approximate worth of this Piaget watch or other pertinent info that will be helpful in selling this watch …..

kirkdj,

There was no specific model name from that decade in Piaget history. Descriptive words would have stated the gender, materials used viz. gold, diamonds (carat, cut, colour, clarity), metalwork pattern and watch size.

This item is currently valued as scrap material because without restoration, it is neither a complete watch nor jewelry.

The watch does not work.

The watch-glass is missing.

The dial is damaged.

The gem stones are loose and the settings damaged.

CONCERNS

One concern is your description as 14K gold because Piaget does not usually make 'high jewelry watch' with 14K gold.

Piaget is also known for the baton hour markings on their dials rather than dots.

See other examples of Piaget Secret Watches for finger and wrist but in 18K gold..... 

Regards,

MTF

Dear kirkdj,

The watch shown CANNOT BE AUTHENTICATED by Piaget.

The history department recognised your images from a set of 8 photos they also received in 2011.

We tracked down the retired Piaget sales director who worked for 40 years on secret watches and none of the components shown are consistent with his recollection of Piaget secret watches. I will not go into the specific details (case, dial, metal weave, gem-setting, cover, logo) are all NOT Piaget.

Piaget never sold 14K gold watches in their high jewelry secret watch collections.

It would be of course very interesting to have a picture of the movement to see if it is engraved as "PIAGET"...

I am sorry to bring this information.

Regards,

MTF