Parmigiani Fleurier

In the 1990s and 2000s, Haute Horlogerie experienced a renaissance, to which creative small brands and independent watchmakers made an important contribution. Some releases from these years are already considered outstanding and arouse great interest in the collectors community. It is no wonder that collectors’ interest in watches from independent watchmakers and small creative brands is currently on the rise. For many of these brands, including Parmigiani Fleurier, the initial phase of their activity is particularly interesting. During this period, the founders of a brand usually implement their own preconceived and often unique concepts. Later on, factors such as customer wishes become increasingly important, which, although inevitable, often leads to a significant correction of the original concept or even to its complete abandonment – which is exactly what happened with the Parmigiani Fleurier collection. In the early days of this brand under the direction of its founder Michel Parmigiani, a famous watch and clock restorer, the brand mainly offered collector-oriented watches. They are characterized by a special aura, which we prefer to call ‘museum spirit’ and which was cultivated in the brand’s collection thanks to Michel Parmigiani’s fine esthetic sense. His background as a restorer brought a collector’s approach to the design of the brand’s watches, which played an important role in the design of the early collection.

In our opinion, the Toric Tourbillon is the rare watch that marked the history of collector’s watches in the early 2000s. The ‘museum spirit’ best expressed in the early Parmigiani Fleurier watches is clearly much in this watch. The memorable design with the openworked dial, which reveals the absolutely symmetrical design of a magnificently decorated movement, logically leads us to the continuously rotating tourbillon, the king of complications. The design was created by the brand’s founder, Michel Parmigiani, according to the classic recipe where it is impossible to leave out anything superfluous – as the famous composer Brahms said: ‘‘It is not hard to compose, but what is fabulously hard is to leave the superfluous notes under the table.’ A sophisticated tourbillon complication is complemented by high-quality traditional finishing and decoration, conveying a sense of high quality that is only enhanced by the weight and magnificent shape of the 40 mm platinum case. This is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful pages in the brand’s history.