The new version of the Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda Métrographe has a lot that is the same as the previous model. Same graceful case, same lugs, same pushers, same movement. The differences are all on the dial. The tachymeter scale suggests a move towards automotive sport that is very much a feature of the new watches…
The Ovale Pantographe by Parmigiani Fleurier is a watch unique in the world. Its hands change in length as they progress around the dial. Parmigiani first launched this concept in 2011 with the Parmigiani 114, later released as the Ovale Pantographe in 2013. This year, the Ovale Pantographe is available in two limited editions, in…
Parmigiani Fleurier’s Bugatti Aérolithe Performance has changed a lot. With a titanium case 41 mm in diameter and 12.77 mm thick, the new features are visible above all on the dial, with double tachymeter scales in km/h and mph, in red and blue respectively, providing a link to the Bugatti car’s signature colours. There are…
The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda Metrgraphe is part of the Métro collection. The names that Parmigiani gives to its watches are often rather unusual (different to the long succession of descriptive words that many brands use, such as “Master Ultra Thin Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon”), and “Metrographe” was coined to give the watch an urban, metropolitan,…
This 39mm piece by Parmigiani Fleurier is dominated by the poppy-red dial in aventurine, with rose gold case and bracelet, diamond-set bezel and lugs (in total 112 diamonds, 1 carat), and a single ruby cabochon set into the crown. Creating a dial from a stone such as aventurine is not simple: it has to be…
This is a 33mm watch by Parmigiani Fleurier with the favourite and most poetic complication for women, the moon phase. The poetry is combined with a mother-of-pearl dial, and by a lot of technical content, with a new in-house movement. At prices starting from 12,300 Swiss francs, this a piece offering good value. Dial Michel…
This 39mm watch takes Parmigiani’s diamond-setting to new levels, from the classic watch with diamond-set bezel to a piece in which the gems completely cover the dial. The round diamonds are in four sizes, decreasing from the centre to the outside of the dial. Smaller diamonds are used around the central pivot, and around the…
The Tonda Chronor Anniversaire by Parmigiani Fleurier celebrates the brand’s 20th anniversary, from its creation in 1996 by Michel Parmigiani with the Sandoz Family Foundation. It’s a very technical piece, with a clear and functional dial. Its utility is further enhanced by the big date. It is also exceptional in that the movement is entirely…
Company profile: “One of the problems we have,” said a Parmigiani PR staff member at Geneva fair SIHH, “is that sometimes people expect us to make cheese!” But Parmigiani Fleurier make beautiful watches, and the name is of its founder Michel Parmigiani. Michel Parmigiani joined the industry at a difficult moment. He finished his studies…
Watchmaking brand Parmigiani Fleurier revealed that it is working on a new watch movement that could produce a revolution in the mechanical watch industry. Normally a mechanical watch has a power reserve – the time that the watch will keep running from when its mainspring is fully wound – of about 40 hours, with some,…
This is a remarkable watch, a one-off piece by Parmigiani Fleurier that combines beautiful decorative techniques with a movement combining a minute repeater, a chronograph, a tourbillon and a perpetual calendar. Just one made. The artistic side, with the white gold sculpted carp on a grande feu enamelled dial, is a tribute to sculptor and…
One of the major themes at the watch fair SIHH 2015 was astronomy, the moon, and the earth seen from space. Two new watches made using a special material arriving from space were presented, pieces with meteorite dials. One was by Jaeger-LeCoultre, the other by Parmigiani Fleurier. The material consists of meteorite, and so these…
This article on the best minute repeater watches 2014 looks at timepieces that tell the time by chimes as well as by the usual hour and minute hands. They are complicated and very expensive. They are nearly always limited editions because, even though the luxury market continues to thrive and the number of millionaires in…
Apart from gold, silver, steel, titanium, aluminium, mother-of-pearl and precious stones, some watch brands feature materials that on the face of it don’t seem to have much to do with watchmaking. Usually the strange materials are included to provide a new talking-point and a theme that can be used for marketing the watch. Often the…
The Tonda 1950 Squelette by Parmigiani Fleurier is interesting because the same watch is made in two different versions for men and women. The men’s version has a completely transparent dial, revealing the skeletonized movement and even enabling the rotor on the back to be glimpsed, while the women’s version has a frosted dial so…
The Bugatti Veyron costs about $1.9 million, and so the co-branded watch made by Parmigiani Fleurier has to have an adequate price. The Bugatti Super Sport by Parmigiani Fleurier is priced at 285,000 Swiss francs before tax, and it is now available in a limited-edition red gold version. Just 30 pieces, available from now up…
The partnership between Parmigiani Fleurier and Pomellato, announced in November 2013, immediately produced a capsule collection of four women’s watches, the Parmigiani Pomellato Tonda, combining some of the characteristics of both the Swiss watchmaker and the Italian jewellery brand. Parmigiani Fleurier was founded in 1996 in Fleurier, where Michel Parmigiani had been working since 1976,…