Onward, Upward

Michel Parmigiani marks a new milestone in his horological journey with the 20th anniversary of his eponymous watchmaking brand. Karishma Tulsidas discovers the brand’s highlights of the year

ack in 1976, when the Swiss watch industry was still reeling from the effects of the quartz watches that were flooding the market, one man remained steadfast in his belief that mechanical watchmaking was not a dying art. That man was Michel Parmigiani, who followed his passion to become a watchmaker and restorer. His faith was rewarded, as 20 years later, with the support of the Sandoz family, he established his namesake brand, Parmigiani Fleurier. It flourished successfully, as the watchmaker became integrated with Les Manufactures Horlogères de la Fondation, founded by the Sandoz family, enabling Parmigiani to create all of its watchmaking components internally. Qualitative movements made in-house became its calling card; its first in a line of many was the PF 110, a manual-winding movement with eight days of power reserve. Michel’s expertise in haute horlogerie generated a host of technically astute tourbillons, minute repeaters and perpetual calendars, but there was one glaring absentee from the repertoire of complicated watches made in-house: the integrated chronograph. It took the brand eight years to release the Tonda Chronor Anniversaire, just in time for its two-decade milestone. Says Michel, “We decided to create a chronograph because to truly qualify as a real manufacture, it’s good to have created a chronograph. It’s almost a rite of passage, and it’s really the crowning glory of our 20 years. To give you an idea, the tourbillon is delicate and refined, and it represents the first violin of an orchestra. The chronograph is the entire orchestra. It’s a scientific instrument that measures time and gives us the results. The hands advance and go back, and there are plenty of regulations that must be made and perfectly constructed before we can even produce the piece. That’s why when a manufacture produces an integrated chronograph, it can do anything after that.” Let’s be clear here: the chronograph features in most watchmaking line-ups, but is often a module that is built atop an existing