The seemingly annual competition of watch brands vying to produce the thinnest automatic timepiece on the market received another entrant this morning when Piaget teased its pre-SIHH novelties. The new Altiplano Ultimate Automatic collection ? which contains two 41 mm timepieces in 18k white gold and 18k rose gold ? is now the current record holder for the world’s thinnest automatic watch coming in at only 4.3 mm thick. The previous brand to hold the record was Bulgari with last year’s much-heralded Octo Finissimo Automatic.

Piaget isn’t new to the ultra-thin segment of the market; in fact, they could be considered trendsetters in this area. The brand has been associated with slim timepieces since Baselworld 1957 when it debuted its manual-winding 9P caliber that measured in at a jaw-dropping 2 mm. In the 1960s, Piaget continued focusing on ultra-thin watchmaking after releasing the 12P caliber that powered the world’s thinnest automatic watch. The Altiplano Ultimate Automatic collection has been in production for over three years as the brand’s watchmakers, designers, and engineers sought the perfect way to combine the movement and the case into a single entity. You saw this in 2014’s 900P caliber, but it’s been further developed here with the 910P caliber. The case back ends up supporting the entirety of the movement, which was a pretty groundbreaking step when it first appeared three years ago and it remains just as intriguing ...