18ct white gold and diamond set Piaget ref. 14105 BETA 21 wristwatch. Made 1971

Information

• Brand: Piaget
• Made: 1971
• Model: BETA 21
• Reference: 14105
• Calibre: B 21
• Movement: Quartz
• Material: 18ct white gold
• Features/complications: Cushion shaped diamond stepped stepped case set with 441 brilliant cut diamonds weighing 1.96 carats
• Dial: Pavé diamond dial set with 156 brilliant cut diamonds weighing 1.86 carats featuring sapphire quarter hour markers set with 8 sapphires weighing 0.14 carats with baton hour and minute hands
• Case dimensions: 33 x 40mm
• Bracelet/strap: Leather strap 
• Accessories: N/A
• SKU: 3048

Essay

The BETA 21 was created in 1969 and it was agreed by the 20 Swiss houses to produce 6,000 of these movements. Later that year, a few hundred of the BETA 21 watches were released at Basel, setting a new record at the Fair. The BETA 21 movement was accurate to 5 seconds per month, which was far superior to any automatic and manual-winding watch at the time. The design for the BETA 21 watches were also very characteristic of the era --they were generally thick, angular, and even chunky (partly out of necessity as the first generation of quartz movements were comparatively large.)