PARMIGIANIParmigiani is a brand which seems not to have quite yet found its audience. Maybe the designs are not distinctive enough or there is not enough marketing around it, but absolutely all watchmakers and brands agree on one thing: Michel Parmigiani’s amazing talent. This is the man behind the Bugatti wrist watch, the first and only watch where the movement is horizontally implemented. This is also the only brand that has a Minute Repeater with Westminster chimes that actually sounds good! Anyway, this year Parmigiani was presenting a few Forma XL models with new dials and equipped with the inhouse 331 automatic caliber. I find the watches too big but really like their original shape and obviously a lot of thought and energy have been put in the case and dials.
Furthermore all of the Parmigiani watches are now supplied in exclusivity with straps made by the famous Parisian house of Hermes. The highlights were two complicated watches in the Forma line. This is the first time parmigiani Fleurier introduces complications in the Forma line. The first being a water resistant Forma XL minute repeater. Classical Forma case with a beautiful dial but unfortunately the water resistant case muffled the sound of the chimes, which were nevertheless very pleasant.
The second was what impressed me the most: a Forma 30 second Tourbillon with a superb tourbillon bridge and with the unusual feat of having a central seconds hand. An absolutely beautiful watch representing the incredible know-how of the house of Parmigiani but unfortunately limited to 25 pieces in rose gold and 25 in platinum.
Our day ended with Parmigiani’s masterpieces but the next day we were starting off with another extraordinary watchmaker, one of my favourites: Francois-Paul Journe. FRANCOIS-PAUL JOURNEThis talented watchmaker combines extraordinary skills, unusual complications with a rare sense of design, add in a dash of comprehension of the collector’s mentality and you get one of the most exciting modern watchmakers. Now this year the watchmaker doubles as an alchemist. On the morning of Tuesday April 20 we headed off to the Museum of Science located in a beautiful garden overlooking the Lake Leman, where Journe was presenting his new pieces. In fact this year FP Journe had one true novelty but lots of news. The big news was that all of Journe’s timepieces will from now on only feature 18k rose gold movements. This new path was first taken with the Tourbillon Souverain à Seconde Morte which was presented in November 2004. It will now equip all the Souverain and Octa timepieces. Furthermore, the Souverain models will only exist in 40mm cases and yellow gold dials will no longer be available. The concept behind this step is to enhance the idea of luxury in his timepieces, explains FP Journe. Why use precious metals in the dials and cases but not in movements? It took over two years of research and development of new machines to work gold but now this dream is possible.
The second news is that the workshops on the rue de l’Arquebuse in Geneva are being extended and renovated as to allow the setting of new machines permitting Journe to manufacture his own movements. One of the novelties presented was surprisingly the last timepiece still using brass parts: The Zodiac in platinum which is the first time Journe presents a man’s watch with central hours/minutes hands. The Zodiac also features a power reserve indicator, big date, month and zodiac indication. In the first photos I had seen the dial looked cluttered but in real the watch looks extremely good but only 150 lucky collectors will have access to this timepiece.
No sooner that the presentation finished that we had to hop in a bus and try to be on time for our next presentation at the SIHH from Roger Dubuis... ROGER DUBUISRoger Dubuis had set up a very funky 70s Austin Powerish booth to present their new SAW (Sports Activity Watches). The SAW are the first models of the Dubuis brand in steel cases and limited to 888 pieces in steel, 280 in steel/gold and of course 28 in gold. The concept behind these watches is to create a water resistant (300 meters) sports watch using the existing case shapes of the Dubuis brand. Three models are available: the Easy Diver in the Sympathie case, the Aqua Mare in the Golden Square case and the Sea More in the Hommage case.
My first reaction to these watches was SAW (Some Awful Watches) but they do have a certain something that prevents me from completely condemning them to the abyss of ugly designs where many models (which I prefer not to name here) rightly lie in the darkness where they should never have come out of. First of all, obviously a lot of effort has been put in to the dials and the cases, the Easy Diver case is a beefed up Sympathie with accents of carbon fibre. Secondly the movements in the time only models are (reportedly) in house calibres all bearing the Geneva Seal.
But still the SAW are not for me. Off to a favourite of mine, GP!
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