Watches & Wonders Geneva is a haven for watch lovers, where the most renowned brands and manufacturers unveil their latest creations, technical innovations, and imaginative designs for the first time. As journalists, we frequently experience these premieres during exhibitors’ ‘Touch & Try’ sessions, which keep our schedules fully occupied throughout the watch industry’s flagship event at Palexpo.
As is so often the case, there are both highlights and lowpoints, strong and weak performances among presenting brands. In the case of Parmigiani Fleurier, however, there is a broad consensus among watch horological press: their timepieces consistently shine brightly – literally and metaphorically – eliciting unambiguously positive responses. Myself included, I’ ll confess: this year, the Toric Quantième Perpétuel particularly captured my imagination.
The secret behind Parmigiani Fleurier’s whispered ‘ahs’ and ‘ohs’
Sighs, spontaneous declarations of admiration, and murmured ‘ahs’ and ‘ohs’ form the tonal backdrop when the Swiss manufacturer first unveils its novelties to the curious eyes and hands of the international watch press.
The secret lies in an acute sensitivity to colour, the use of luxurious materials, meticulous surface finishing, and – paradoxically – the simplification of complications. While the latter might initially seem counterintuitive, it defines the distinctive appeal of Parmigiani Fleurier collections. However sophisticated the underlying mechanics of GMTs, tourbillons and perpetual calendars may be, neither their handling nor their design feel burdened by complexity.
Two ingenious minds and quiet luxury
Many luxury providers are currently championing quiet luxury. Parmigiani Fleurier, however, has truly embraced this mindset – long before quiet luxury became a kind of trend and marketing slogan. The Swiss manufacture from Fleurier prefers to let its watches speak for themselves rather than rely on empty phrases.
Since 2021, this discreet luxury has characterised the Tonda PF collection launched at the time and, since last year, the newly launched Toric collection. There were two people who played a crucial role in the development of this successful product strategy.
On the one hand, there is the brilliant watchmaker Michel Parmigiani, a living legend when it comes to restoring watches and the founder of the Parmigiani Fleurier brand in 1996. From the very beginning, his approach was always philosophical: ‘The art of watchmaking should be a window into the history, culture and philosophy of the peoples who have shaped our perception of time.’
Michel Parmigiani and Guido Terreni
Since 2021, Guido Terreni has been adding to this unique expertise and successfully focusing on top-class quiet luxury. ‘Over the past 25 years, Parmigiani Fleurier has succeeded in creating mechanical art at the highest level based on Michel Parmigiani’s unique expertise. We want future horological purists to benefit from this achievement,’ explained the CEO at the time.
Mission accomplished! Since then, Parmigiani Fleurier’s watchmaking expertise has continued to focus on sophisticated complications, but has ingeniously packaged them in a minimalist design that is not subordinate to functionality. Here, less is definitely more.
Functionality in its most beautiful form: Toric Quantième Perpétuel
The latest example is the Toric Quantième Perpétuel, which certainly prompted a few sighs of joy at this year’s Watches & Wonders. It was one of the many creations with a perpetual calendar to be marvelled at there. However, it was one of the few that managed to maintain an absolutely harmonious and clear design with flying colours despite the large number of necessary displays.
This is further enhanced by the colour combination, drawing attention towards the dial: radiant Morning Blue for the platinum version and warming Golden Hour for the rose-gold version adorn the dials of the 50 strictly limited-edition pieces of this new Toric model.
And on these dials, Parmigiani Fleurier is celebrating the art of omission – without compromising on design and certainly not on complex functionality. True to its name, the Toric Quantième Perpétuel features a Grand Complication, a perpetual calendar that takes the different lengths of the months up to the year 2100, including leap years, into account.
Incidentally, the limitation to the year 2100 has nothing to do with any inadequacy of this timepiece, but applies to all watches with a perpetual calendar. The reason for this is the calendar reform of 1582 and the transition to the Gregorian calendar. Accordingly, there are three leap years within a span of 400 years. The century years were chosen for this, but they are only considered leap years if they are divisible by 400. This is not the case with 2100, so there will remain 365 days and there will be no 29 February.
Michel Parmigiani has always been fascinated by calendars and quite poetically regards them as tamers of time. In the past, this has already been showcased by the three Cultural Calendars, which capture the Gregorian, Chinese and Muslim calendars.
With the Toric Quantième Perpétuel, Parmigiani Fleurier is now continuing the inherent human need to understand the passage of time in an elegant, stylish, and skilfully crafted manner.
Purism and legibility of the Toric Quantième Perpétuel
Due to the amount of information it displays, the dial of a watch with a perpetual calendar can often appear cluttered. A characteristic that runs contrary to Parmigiani Fleurier’s design philosophy.
In order to remain true to it, a sophisticated coaxial display mechanism was used: All the essential information – day and date on one side, month and leap years on the other – is harmoniously arranged in two sub-dials at 4 and 8 o’clock.
This configuration makes it easy to read the date, without the calendar overshadowing the dial. Instead, it forms a flawless triangle with the PF logo, resulting in a balanced and appealing look.
Incidentally, the brand has deliberately dispensed with a moon phase in favour of a minimalist design language. Thereby, there is ample space for the hours and minutes display as well as the clean dial’s surface finishing in white or rose gold.
The finishing particularly characterises Parmigiani Fleurier’s watches and in the case of the Toric Quantième Perpétuel, it is a velvety graining that is hand-crafted using the ancient grainé-main technique. The dial also features appliqués and hands made from 18-carat gold.
Rose-gold precision
Both versions are equipped with the PF733 hand-wound movement. This in-house calibre consists of 265 components and offers a power reserve of 60 hours when fully wound. A glance through the sapphire crystal caseback of this 40.6 mm watch stylishly displays the highest level of craftsmanship.
Large 18-karat rose-gold surfaces serve as bridges, arranged in a purely geometric manner and hand-decorated with the characteristic Côtes de Fleurier pattern. They form a shimmering contrast to the sandblasted mainplate and the hand-bevelled stainless steel bridges.
The novel movement architecture also celebrates understatement and does not disclose everything at once, but only showcases the two barrels and the regulating organ.
The new Toric Quantième Perpétuel models are worn on a hand-stitched nubuck alligator leather strap with a platinum pin buckle. The rose-gold version is secured by a beautiful Arctic Grey strap, while Akoya Grey complements the platinum version’s light Morning Blue dial.
The Toric Quantième Perpétuel in platinum costs 103,700 euros, while the rose-gold version is available for 95,800 euros.
