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Weird Watch Wednesday: The Parmigiani Toric Tourbillon
Image courtesy of TimeZone’s archives.
As a longtime fan of all things Parmigiani, I have always taken extra effort to follow the brand, and have been lucky enough to see its watches in person on two occasions. Independently owned and fiercely innovative, Parmigiani have spared no expense to secure itself and its reputation as a true Manufacture. The brand offers simple hand wound watches as well as exceptionally complex pieces.
In order to secure a position at the apex of Haute Horlogerie, Parmigiani have taken two major steps to become vertically integrated and to achieve high standards of quality in its products. In 2000, the company purchased a micro-mechanical engineering company and then spent the next five years setting it up.
The result is the ability of the company to produce its own complete Swiss Lever escapements. The escapement is the regulating organ of a mechanical watch, and is thus responsible for a watch’s timekeeping. The ‘tics and tocs’, so to speak, of a mechanical watch are due to the actions of the escapement.
In 2005, the company created its own criterion for performance and quality in its watches, called the Fleurier Quality Foundation. Parmigiani watches are subjected to many exhaustive tests with the end result always producing outstanding quality!
The Toric Tourbillon is without question a supreme aesthetic achievement. In production since at least as far back as 2004 and currently in production in different permutations, my favorite is pf000383 which is cased in rose gold. The case is 40mm in diameter which in humble opinion is just right! The hands are heat blued steel and the hour and minute hands are in the Javelot style. Bluing steel hands is its own specialty and to achieve the correct consistent color is a challenge. The result in this case is beyond compare. The movement is calibre 121/2, which is wound by hand and is capable of running for 75 hours between windings.
An even more complex variation, the Toric Westminister (above) was designed to reproduce the movement and chime of the famous Westminster Abbey clock – on a much smaller scale, of course!
Known as one of the most difficult complications in Haute Horlogerie, the tourbillon is actually a form of escapement. In a tourbillon, the entire escapement of the watch is itself held inside a “cage” and connected to the rest of the watch in such a way so as to allow the cage to revolve while the watch is in operation. In theory this revolving escapement will mitigate gravity’s influence on the watch and allow it to be more accurate.
Theory is theory and in practice it takes huge amounts of time and effort to produce such a mechanism and it takes even more effort to optimize its performance. As such, in today’s world, the tourbillon is usually not that much more functional in terms of accuracy than other more conventional designs!
In this case, the tourbillon is so pleasing to view in operation, and the overall timepiece is so well finished I feel it is without equal among tourbillons. In fact, this watch does without a dial completely, using indexes on the inner bezel to aid in reading off the time. The level of hand finishing required to make such a watch is top notch, and the end result is breathtaking!!
So, why then is this a weird watch? For some bizarre reason it seems to fly under the radar of collectors of tourbillons whereas in reality it should be the first one they acquire!
What do you think? Leave a comment. | Filed under Wow Watch Wednesday
Quality Redefined – The Patek Philippe Seal
Earlier this year Patek Philippe announced the introduction of their own Seal, the watch industry’s most exclusive and stringent hallmark of quality. According to the highly celebrated brand a new seal that defined all competencies and features of relevance to the manufacture, precision, and lifelong maintenance of a Patek Philippe timepiece was required (you can read the full press release here.)
I personally observed the introduction of this new Seal with great interest and so I was most fortunate then to receive a new book from the company explaining in photos and text the Patek Philippe Seal.
Published in 2009, and received Halloween week, this beautiful 45 page book explains a company’s decision to create its own quality criterion. This new in house seal replaces the Geneva Seal presumably from now on. This decision and its creation took several years to develop.
The Patek Seal is defined in both performance and aesthetic criterion. Text and unaltered photographs delve into these and other areas as well. While performance criterion are only partly explained, aesthetic ones are truly brought to life with very fine macro photography. The text uses the term Haute Horlogerie to explain what this entails.
What does this mean to the owner of the watch? It means the watch components are all smashing to see! One only need see pages 36 and 37 to understand how special a finish of a watch part can be. Using wooden wheels, the teeth of all steel wheels are treated to a perfect finish. Not simply amazing to see, this special finish improves performance and longevity of the watch.
It could be said this new seal is a response to the marketplace of today, one in which many more watches qualify for the Geneva Seal. It could also be said the Geneva Seal is too restrictive. In any event, this book is available at Patek retailers and is certainly a highly collectible one. After all, it truly
explains what will unfold into a historically significant moment in watchmaking history.
For more information check out the official Patek Philippe website.
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