In case you’ve ever attended Watches & Wonders (or any watch occasion, Windup Watch Gala’s included) you’re in all probability accustomed to the interval of reflection that occurs proper after. It normally includes opening up the Pictures app in your telephone and scrolling by means of all of the wrist pictures you took. As you do that, ideas about what you’ve simply skilled fall into place, and the ability of reminiscence that watches are so adept at exploiting has its first and earliest likelihood to take maintain. This yr, ready for my flight again to Boston to board, biking by means of the various, many images on my reminiscence card and digicam roll, I started to surprise if Parmigiani Fleurier had probably “gained” Watches & Wonders for me this yr.
By “successful” Watches & Wonders I don’t essentially imply that they’d the most effective watch (though they’ve one which’s within the operating, for positive) however reasonably, as a model, that they left the deepest impression on me. This was a considerably shocking revelation, as, if I’m being trustworthy, Parmigiani has continuously felt just like the model that I simply didn’t fairly get. A lot of my friends within the watch media house gush about Parmigiani the best way I advocate for Prometheus, a film I firmly imagine is an all-time basic however many insist is a serious Ridley Scott misstep. I’ve all the time felt like I’m on the skin with Parmigiani. I sort of choose the outdated design of the Tonda. The GMT Rattrapante is extra intelligent than sensible. And the sporty chronographs, to my eyes and on my wrist, lack the refinement the model claims to prize. My favourite Parmigiani items have all the time been from the early collections – the small, ornate gown watches that basically felt as if each element was crafted by hand.
The model’s new perpetual calendar, then, is an effective place to begin. Formally dubbed the Toric Quantieme Perpetual (in both rose gold or platinum) it’s among the finest watches I noticed throughout Watches & Wonders week. To me it felt like the right marriage of old-school Parmigiani with the subtle and understated luxurious that CEO Guido Terreni has infused into the model since he took the helm in 2021.
The case measures 40.6mm however wears a bit smaller ( factor, for my part) due to a midcase that slopes barely inward, towards the middle of the watch. This leaves a smaller footprint on the wrist and likewise locates the middle of gravity in probably the most opportune place – it’s comfy and appears nice on the wrist. And naturally the case is accented with the defining characteristic of the Toric line since its inception, a lovely, hand-finished fluted bezel with impossibly tight tolerances that’s spectacular as a craft object and can also be merely a lovely factor to have a look at.
The dial is remarkably easy, and designed with legibility and symmetry in thoughts. Hours and minutes, in fact, are learn through centrally mounted Alpha palms which have been brushed on one facet and polished on the opposite. A subdial between 8 and 9 gives a studying of the day of the week and date, whereas one other between 3 and 4 shows the month and the intercalary year. The “PF” brand hovers over each proper under 12. The dials (in “Morning Blue” for the platinum piece, and “Golden Hour” on the rose gold) have a grained end mentioned to be impressed by Michel Parmigiani’s restoration work. It’s a easy factor, in concept, however provides one thing additional to this watch that may be misplaced if the dial was flatter, or shiny. The mixture of the structure, which aided by the typeface feels rigorously fashionable to me, with the refined ending work on the dial and the case has the impact of creating the Quantieme Perpetual really feel fully faraway from an figuring out period. It feels much less like a brand new watch, and extra like one thing extremely uncommon that Michel may be tinkering with in his workshop.
Each watches are powered by the PF733 caliber, a manually wound perpetual calendar motion with 60 hours of energy reserve. It’s fairly skinny at simply 5.15mm tall, which permits for the case to return in at a top of 10.9mm. Each variations will likely be out there later this fall, with the rose gold’s retail value set at CHF 85,000, whereas the platinum will set you again CHF 92,000.
Parmigiani had different watches debut at Watches & Wonders final week as nicely (and we’ll get to these quickly) however the brand new perpetual actually stood out to me. Whereas it’s not a revolutionary new concept or a very radical design (the issues we all the time search for and have come to anticipate on the trade’s greatest commerce present) it’s a first-rate stunning object, and one which I’ll doubtless all the time keep in mind because the novelty that made Parmigiani Fleurier really click on for me. Parmigiani Fleurier
