First Impressions of the Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Quantieme Perpetual
If you’ve ever attended Watches & Wonders (or any watch event, Windup Watch Fairs included) you’re probably familiar with the period of reflection that happens right after. It usually involves opening up the Photos app on your phone and scrolling through all the wrist shots you took. As you do this, thoughts about what you’ve just experienced fall into place, and the power of memory that watches are so adept at exploiting has its first and earliest chance to take hold. This year, waiting for my flight back to Boston to board, cycling through the many, many photos on my memory card and camera roll, I began to wonder if Parmigiani Fleurier had possibly “won” Watches & Wonders for me this year.
By “winning” Watches & Wonders I don’t necessarily mean that they had the best watch (although they have one that’s in the running, for sure) but rather, as a brand, that they left the deepest impression on me. This was a somewhat surprising revelation, as, if I’m being honest, Parmigiani has frequently felt like the brand that I just didn’t quite get. Many of my peers in the watch media space gush about Parmigiani the way I advocate for Prometheus, a movie I firmly believe is an all-time classic but many insist is a major Ridley Scott misstep. I’ve always felt like I’m on the outside with Parmigiani. I kind of prefer the old design of the Tonda. The GMT Rattrapante is more clever than practical. And the sporty chronographs, to my eyes and on my wrist, lack the refinement the brand claims to prize. My favorite Parmigiani pieces have always been from the early collections – the small, ornate dress watches that really felt as if every component was crafted by hand.
The brand’s new perpetual calendar, then, is a good place to start. Officially dubbed the Toric Quantieme Perpetual (in either rose gold or platinum) it’s one of the best watches I saw during Watches & Wonders week. To me it felt like the perfect marriage of old-school Parmigiani with the sophisticated and understated luxury that CEO Guido Terreni has infused into the brand since he took the helm in 2021.
The case measures 40.6mm but wears a bit smaller (a good thing, in my opinion) thanks to a midcase that slopes slightly inward, toward the center of the watch. This leaves a smaller footprint on the wrist and also locates the center of gravity in the most opportune place – it’s comfortable and looks great on the wrist. And of course the case is accented with the defining feature of the Toric line since its inception, a beautiful, hand-finished fluted bezel with impossibly tight tolerances that is impressive as a craft object and is also simply a beautiful thing to look at.
The dial is remarkably simple, and designed with legibility and symmetry in mind. Hours and minutes, of course, are read via centrally mounted Alpha hands that have been brushed on one side and polished on the other. A subdial between 8 and 9 provides a reading of the day of the week and date, while another between 3 and 4 displays the month and the leap year. The “PF” logo hovers over both right below 12. The dials (in “Morning Blue” for the platinum piece, and “Golden Hour” on the rose gold) have a grained finish said to be inspired by Michel Parmigiani’s restoration work. It’s a simple thing, in theory, but adds something extra to this watch that would be lost if the dial was flatter, or glossy. The combination of the layout, which aided by the typeface feels rigorously modern to me, with the subtle finishing work on the dial and the case has the effect of making the Quantieme Perpetual feel completely removed from an identifying era. It feels less like a new watch, and more like something incredibly rare that Michel might be tinkering with in his workshop.
Both watches are powered by the PF733 caliber, a manually wound perpetual calendar movement with 60 hours of power reserve. It’s quite thin at just 5.15mm tall, which allows for the case to come in at a height of 10.9mm. Both versions will be available later this fall, with the rose gold’s retail price set at CHF 85,000, while the platinum will set you back CHF 92,000.
Parmigiani had other watches debut at Watches & Wonders last week as well (and we’ll get to those soon) but the new perpetual really stood out to me. While it’s not a revolutionary new idea or a particularly radical design (the things we always look for and have come to expect at the industry’s biggest trade show) it is a first-rate beautiful object, and one that I’ll likely always remember as the novelty that made Parmigiani Fleurier truly click for me. Parmigiani Fleurier
The post First Impressions of the Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Quantieme Perpetual appeared first on Worn & Wound.
Comments
Post a Comment