All articles in: caliber

To make people dream, one usually puts a watch on the wrist of an athlete, an actor or a race car driver. If it looks like a token of efficiency to a public of laymen, connoisseurs make fun of it.

It has been ten years since the late Nicolas Hayek warned that he was going to cut the deliveries of ebauches to his competitors.

The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda 1950 fits into a big trend of the Sinophile watchmaking; the (colossal) Chinese market is fond of plain Hours-minute-second with a classic diameter. Yet, in this field, there were a tremendous number of reissues of pieces from the 50’-60’s; many brands merely reproduced these codes without the era’s magic. However, certain brands, like Lange & Söhne or Vacheron Constantin, make very fine things in this vein.

One of the watches which caught my jaded eyes last year (2011) was the Parmigiani Fleurier Pershing Tourbillon with open work dial. Beautifully finished, fully in-house production (movement, dial, case, finishing all done within the company)

Attend a Sandoz collection exhibition, one of the finest old automat & timepiece collections, is like transcending one’s horologic culture.