Limited Edition in Honor of Michel Parmigiani's 70th Birthday

A limited edition of 70 timepieces have been made to celebrate the watchmaker's 70th birthday.

The unique Pendule Sympathique table clock was developed by A.  L.  Breguet in 1793, which was able to wind up a wristwatch placed in its recess. This Breguet model was commissioned in 1842 by Napoleon I's niece Mathilde Bonaparte. So what does this timepiece have in common with the new one?

That would be the name Michel Parmigiani, whose restoration work was no less of an achievement. He managed to breathe new life into the mechanical masterpiece of the past. This year Michel Parmigiani celebrates his 70th birthday, whose brand and brainchild Parmigiani Fleurier is approaching its 25th anniversary, which it will mark in 2021.

What does the timepiece made to celebrate this special occasion look like? It wasn’t an easy task to create! A limited edition of 70 Toric Héritage pieces were released based on the canonical Toric Chronometre reinterpreted in 2017. The piece that paved the way for this family of watches was unveiled by the young watch brand in 1996.

This was after the graduate of the Val-De-Travers school of watchmaking and the watchmaking school in La Chaux-de-Fonds had already taken the first step towards making his dream a reality, when he decided to put his idea of excellent mechanical watchmaking into practice by creating his own watches built according to the "golden ratio" parameters.

You can see the same case used by these watches on the new watch, with a pattern reminiscent of ancient Greek columns, hands with the same shape, and the same date aperture positioned at 6 o'clock. However, many details have been changed.

For example, the dial is decorated with Grain d’Orge guilloché — a wavy  decorative "barley-grain" pattern. This is a reminder of just how important sources of inspiration from the natural world are for the master watchmaker. No less attention has been devoted to the movement's finishing. The COSC-certified Caliber PF441 has a double barrel, which offers a 55-hour power reserve, and can be viewed thanks to its see-through caseback.

The same pattern as the one used on the dial has been used for the rotor, while the movement itself catches the eye with a combination of various different finishing techniques. Michel Parmigiani launched his watchmaking career when he opened his traditional watch workshop in 1976.

With the aggressive pace at which quartz watches were being developed at the time, it seemed as if mechanical watches would be consigned to display cases as museum exhibits for good. In the 44 years that have since passed, the number of threats to the traditional model has only grown, yet it seems that some people still need a watch with a "beating heart".

This is especially true of such a sophisticated watch as Toric Héritage, which has been so meticulously thought-out, right down to the last detail.