Independents

Michel Parmigiani is a watchmaker who grew up and worked in the Val de Travers.  When the crisis in the Swiss watch industry came in the 1970's he decided to set out on his own as a watch and clock restorer.  He made quite a name for himself restoring many important pieces including much in the Sandos collection in the horological museum Château des Monts in Le Locle.  This was the initial connection between Parmigiani and the Sandos Foundation which is now the owner of Parmigiani Fleurier.

Parmigiani Fleurier is located in downtown Fleurier in a stately old home.  The workshops are located just across the street.  We will now head across the street to the restoration workshop.





Restoration and one of a kind pieces continues to be an important part of Parmigiani's work.  On the day I visited they had recently finished the restoration of a magical snuff box.  An interesting mechanical toy, the magical snuff box will answer your questions, and answer them correctly.  In the little golden drawers are a collection of questions that you can ask the magician.  Place the fired enamel question in the central drawer and push it closed and the magician will start waving his wand.  When he has finally decided the answer to your question the tree lifts its branch just enough for you to read the answer in the window.  Conceptually not that difficult to do, but there is a wound up mechanism including a music box.  The piece was not working before restoration with one or more botched restorations earlier.  Care was taken as in all cases to restore in the same style as the original, to keep things reversible and to make replaced pieces obvious.












Look at the quality of the goldsmithing on this piece.


When new parts need to be made for a restoration or for one-of-a-kind pieces they are made in the small machine shop next to the restoration atelier.  This shop includes all the standard machines such as milling machines and lathes needed to make parts.  It is equipped for making single parts, no CNC to be seen.


After visiting the restoring shop we visited the workshop where the Parmigiani watches are completed.  The group Parmigiani includes Vaucher Manufacture which makes the Parmigiani movements and cases as well as Quadrance et Habillage making the dials.  The movement parts themselves are made in further group companies including even the simple parts like the screws.





The Bugatti Atalante fly-back chronograph


The Pershing Chronographe





Setting hands on the movement





For some watches some part assembly is still needed.  Here we see some parts lined up in preparation of their assembly.








Looking over shoulders as we move along reviels some interesting things.  For example a movement with engraved white gold bridges being assembled.  This is a very strong point of Parmigaini, special orders and one-of-a-kind pieces.








The last two workbenches in this room are dedicated to the high complications.  Here we see a series of 3 minute repeaters in platinum cases with animal motives in the dial piercing.











Another, minute repeater in assembly in a platinum case with baguette diamonds on the bezel.  The case is protected by a transparent film to prevent scratching.  It is interesting to note that for this movement with the moon phase on the dial it was necessary to move the repetition mechanism to the bridge side of the movement.








I am sure that the question of sound quality of the repeaters will come up.  These movements are made in the best traditional style.  They do not include any of the newly fashionable methods of producing a louder tone such as welding the mounting block of the gongs to the crystal.  As such these are not the loudest repeaters that I have ever heard.  They are, however, among the most melodious.  Is there a certain point where the volume of the gongs just makes the sound strident instead of melodious?  A direct comparison would be needed to really determine that, but repeaters do not need to be loud to make a beautiful sound and tell you the time.


In the next building we find the dial manufacturer Quadrance & Habillage.  They are equiped to do all the operations needed to make a dial in almost any material.  From the indexes and appliques as we see here to the subdials, decoration and printing.











The indexes and appliques are never glued, all have tiny feet which are then riveted on the back of the dial as we see here.  The feet are an integral part of the index and are made by milling the part out of material about 0.5mm too thick and then milling away the back to leave just the feet, tiny 0.2mm diameter wires protruding from the back.





While many of the operations are automated some can just not be done as well as by hand, such as here the circlage on an insert ring.


You are certainly wondering why the dearth of pictures from the dial manufacturing.  Quadrance & Habillage is one of the few companies specialised in making small quantities of very special high quality dials.  As such a large portion of their work is for 3rd parties.  No pictures please

We head back to the main building to take a closer look at some of the new models from Parmigiani.





The Bugatti Atalante fly-back chronograph dressed up in diamonds








The Bugatti Atalante fly-back chronograph in white gold








The Tonda Hemispheres GMT in rose gold with a "Havane" dail, this one I really like.








The Tonda Hemispheres GMT in white gold with a "graphite" dial





The Tonda Hemispheres GMT in rose gold with a silvered dial





I think particularly noteworthy is the luxury feel of the Parmigiani cases. Just holding one in your hand for a moment with your eyes closed is a pleasure.

I would like to thank the poeple of Parmigiani for their kind reception.  I am looking forward to learning more about the Parmigiani watches in the near future, especially the new announcements for the SIHH in January.


This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2010-12-27 09:53:34 This message has been edited by DonCorson on 2011-01-03 11:38:27

but not so much their new style aesthetic for the dials and cases. I still like the fancy Baroque Ionica, Toric cases.

- SJX

brand like for all brands in that segment. Too large to be a single master AHCI watchmaker producer and too small to be a volume manufacturer.

The iconic case shapes like Toric and Kalpa with the Fibonacci Golden Ratio aesthetics are too expensive and niche to produce in mass manufacture.  The buyers are a bit confused with the product positioning with the designs of the super expensive Bugatti Type 370, Fibonacci Pocket and Bugatti Super Sport watches. The global recession has made buyers very selective.They are holding back to see what settles down in the 'regular' strata of the buying market.

We've loved the Toric case and Parmigiani movement finishing from early days.  They are so good that they make stuff for other brands.......shhhh.

Let's see what they can do to revive their fortunes in 2011.

 

Regards,

MTF

 

the pics--and the commentary with it--were illuminating.

Jason

they make very nice finishing watches

Looks like a fascinating visit.

An interesting and versatile manufacturer, and while not entirely to my tastes, your article shows their watches to be of very high quality.

Two comments, a silly one and a more serious.

The silly one is that this part makes me think about C3Po's head:



The more serious is about the new Tonda Hemispheres GMT: this watch allows you to set the second timezone display minute per minute and not hour per hour like it is mainly the case. We can now read the time in India or in Nepal !



Thanks a lot Don for this great report.

Fr.Xavier

that's hilarious, it does look like c3po.  yet one more reason for me to love Parmigiani.  These truly are wonderful watches to behold in person....beautiful finishing!

I appreciate the behind-the-scenes look at Parmigiani Fleurier.  One of my favorite watches currently is the Kalpa XL Hebdomadaire Skeleton in palladium.  I think it is a beautiful, sculptural watch.

Cheers,
Daos

As an owner, it really is nice to see more reports on this very under-appreciated manufacture.  I am one who really hopes they can exert a stronger presence in the market as this is a true collector's brand; given the vertical manufacture integration of dials, movements, cases, etc.  I don't know what the issue is in their lack of marketing in the U.S.   I really think they need to play up the unique attributes and top tier manufacture capabilities.  Too many claim to be manufactures, but do not have the internal pedigree and level of peer respect that Parmigiani commands.  I think the comment made that they are between an AHCI independent and a larger mass producer should be leveraged as a unique strength in future marketing.  The company would do well to revamp their strategy in this area and get some new blood in that can make that happen IMHO.

I totally agree.  I've been looking for my first purchase into the "next tier" level of timepieces for some time. My nicest timepiece currently is a Zenith Reserve de Marche.  I don't live in a very strong watch market, but of the 3 stores I've been too during my travels that carry Parmigiani, they've all had similar comments.  When I walked into Oster Jewelers in Denver for the first time(several years ago when I first started learning about watches), I asked about Breguet, and AP which they carried, and they said- they're wonderful timepieces, but let me show you these  Parmigiani pieces.  I was floored by the qaulity of the finishing, and the overall feel of these pieces in my hands.  Wonderfully beautiful watches.  All 3 dealers raved about the Hebdomadaire, and each said Parmigiani's quality is easily on par with AP.  Currently AP, Parmigiani, and Moser are at the top of my wish list...I really hope to see more posts about Parmigiani in the futre.  Now if I can just figure out if I want the Pershing, Kalpagraph, or Hebdomadaire!!!!  Thanks again for the wonderful report.  -Josh

thank you don

best

s

For a very interesting article.