Piaget Polo’s cup-winning wizard
Piaget’s ambassador to the world of polo, superstar sportsman Marcos Heguy, is such a master of the game that his nickname in his native Argentina is El Mago – the Wizard.
Marcos, 42, comes from Argentina’s most famous polo dynasty, a family that has produced more 10-goal players than any other. Under polo’s handicap system, 10 goals is the maximum rating and there are usually less than a dozen players in the world so ranked in any one year.
He was first awarded his 10-goal rating in 1987. During his long career playing at home and abroad he has won most of the most important tournaments at the top end of the sport. His victories at home include six Argentine Opens, five Hurlingham Opens and three Tortugas Opens. In the US he has won two US Opens and three US Polo Association Gold Cups (a tournament now sponsored by Piaget). Wins in England have included a British Open, two Queen’s Cups and three Warwickshire Cups and Prince of Wales Trophies. In France he won the Deauville Gold Cup twice.
In addition to his role as Piaget polo ambassador, Marcos is captain of the Pilará-Piaget team in Argentina’s famous Triple Crown series. He also supervises the new Pilará-Piaget Polo School, a training centre that opened in October 2009 to give instruction and coaching to a new generation of players.
Argentina is the world’s leading polo-playing nation and each year its Triple Crown sees the highest-rated polo teams on the planet do battle in the country’s three top tournaments. The series, which runs from September to December, reaches its climax in the national polo stadium at Palermo in the heart of Buenos Aires in front of some 15,000 spectators.
Only the six best Argentine teams, rated at up to the sport’s maximum of 40-goal handicap, are allowed into all the Triple Crown tournaments: the Tortugas Open at Torgugas Country Club, the Hurlingham Open at the Hurlingham Club, and the Argentine Open Championship, the abierto, at Palermo.
For the second season, Piaget, whose involvement with polo dates back 30 years, is sponsoring one of those six top teams: Pilará-Piaget. To field the team Piaget has partnered with Pilará Polo Club, part of a luxury residential and sports complex that also includes a tennis club with Argentina’s national tennis academy and a golf club with courses designed by Jack Nicholas.
Joining captain Marcos Heguy on the squad is Agustin Merlos, another 10-goal star; Agustin’s brother Sebastian, a former 10-goal player now rated at 9; and Santiago Chavanne, handicap 8. Together they form a powerhouse 37-goal team that sports pundits say could well win one or more of the Triple Crown contests this year.
To celebrate its involvement at the pinnacle of the sport, earlier this year Piaget launched new models of its famous Piaget Polo wristwatch, a range first created in 1979. The sporty Piaget Polo FortyFive is the firm’s first Polo watch with a case made of titanium rather than gold or platinum. The backs of the cases are crystal giving a view of the movements. The chronograph version has a self-winding calibre 880P movement with a 50-hour power reserve. The automatic version has an 800P calibre movement.
With its name emblazoned across Pilará-Piaget team shirts in the world’s highest-rated polo series, the new polo school at Pilará, and sponsorship of the Piaget Gold Cup in the US, Piaget is now even more firmly established as one of the most prominent corporate supporters of the sport of polo, the world’s oldest and fastest team game.