Michel Parmigiani's birthday presents on December 2 are the envy of the most tempted collector.

Parmigiani Fleurier has been creating true masterpieces with CEO Guido Terreni at the helm for the last four years. The birthday series began with a pocket watch called La Rose Carrée for Parmigiani Fleurier's 25th anniversary. 

It followed by a wristwatch called Les Roses Carrées “Collection Grand Feu” Rosa Celeste, introduced as the first of five special minute repeater wristwatches.

Both of these timepieces used a stylized square rose as their central decorative motif. Last year, the company presented L'Armoriale: a pocket watch with a cover decorated with an ornate pattern inspired by the floors of the Te Palace in Mantua.

 

The model was equipped with caliber PF993, made by A. Golay Leresche & Fils in 1890, and restored by Michel Parmigiani in 1985, who added a perpetual calendar to the minute repeating chronograph. The bar has been set high. So what did the watchmaker get for his birthday this year?

L’Armoriale Répétition Mystérieuse is a wristwatch minute repeater, where the geometric pattern has been rendered directly onto the dial. Or rather, this model has no dial.

To read the time, you need to turn 41.6-mm white-gold watch over. Then the watch owner will see an upper disk featuring exquisite guilloché and a lower disk behind it made of white jade. The markings for the hours and minutes can be found around the edge. 

This time, the guilloché under the Grand Feu enamel is pinecone-inspired. And the case middle is decorated with elements inspired by Doric columns. The same dream team worked on this watch.

The enamel is by Vanessa Lecci, who also created the enamel pattern with the square roses on the first model and the geometrical pattern on the cover of the L’Armoriale pocket watch. The engraver Eddy Jaquet who created the Rose Carrée motif engraved the center of the disk here.

The artist responsible for the guilloché work on the new project was Yann Von Kaenel. The watch houses a hand-wound movement by Renaud Papi. It comprises 392 components and has a 72-hour power reserve.