Key Signatures: Hands-On With Parmigiani Fleurier’s 2019 Novelties

Michel Parmigiani may have got his start restoring antique clocks and watches, but with his eponymous brand, he has been a bit of a maverick. At SIHH in Geneva, we got to peek into the future of Parmigiani Fleurier and discovered a dedication which heightens the luxury experience and explores new ways to express time and technology.

Here’s a roundup of some of the most interesting 2019 new releases from Parmigiani’s classic Toric and Tonda collections.

When it comes to absolute luxury, more manufacturers are giving precious metals and mètiers d'art a chance to shine in 2019.
 

The Toric was the first watch designed by Michael Parmigiani and this season the manufacture is revisiting the aesthetics of the first watch he designed by its founder. Reflecting on the past, the brand is also aesthetically looking to the future. The star of this season’s Toric collection is the Chronomètre Slate. The dial surface features a hand-engraved guilloché decoration that evokes the spiral structure of a pine cone – one of the innumerable examples of the Golden Ratio found in nature.
 

Just as beautiful is the hand decorated automatic, COSC certified movement cased in red gold (another significant trend for 2019). And, as it is for all Parmigianis, it comes on a Hermès-made leather strap.
 

2019 is shaping up to be the year of the perpetual calendar. And Parmigiani Fleurier is using this fine complication to show off its watchmaking savoir faire.

This model features a precision moon phase that is accurate for 122 years. And to ensure that it looks good in the future, it has a retrograde perpetual date (non-traditional ways to read a watch are also a thing).
 

Parmigiani has been killing it with its Aventurine dials and this piece uses the material for the sky disk in the moon phase complication, which displays the North and South hemispheres. The slate version also features hand-engraved guilloché decoration.

Another first for Parmigiani, the Hémisphères Rétrograde Slate unites the classic Toric design and adds a non-traditional display to create a watch that lets travelers better navigate the world.
 

This handsome watch features a retrograde date and adds a second-time-zone display to the mix. Its self-winding mechanical movement displays the time in any two locations, correct to the nearest minute, thanks to its two independent time indicators.
 

Tonda this year is mostly for the ladies, with beautiful dress watches featuring diamond-paved bezels and mother-of-pearl or blue dials, in addition to slate, which is turning out to be a strong hue this year. These watches are under the Tonda 1950 collection, which is incidentally named after the founder, Michel Parmigiani's year of birth.
 

First up is the Lune. Two years after it first appeared, Parmigiani Fleurier is refreshing the face of this watch with a new layout. The company has always been mindful that women collectors prize complications as much and the Lune's ultra-thin self-winding movement is an achievement in itself.