Independents

This is a quick overview about the watch I've been searching for more than a year! All of us are in a constant quest for the grail(s), or onlywatch, but I would rather define this timepiece as a fits-for-all-occasions signature watch. (One might not wear a grail for everyday use, Greubel-Forsey comes to my mind...) To cut a long story short, I finally came to the conclusion that PARMIGIANI with its rather unique baroque style and vertically integrated manufacturing is an horological marvel. PARMIGIANI, or more precisely the five manufacturers that the brand consists of, produce everything in-house for their timepieces, except the straps. Those are produced by Hermés...

Mr. Franck Muller once said, that true luxury watchbands never offered their entry level models bellow the 7000 CHF list price, and that's true for PARMIGIANI. Fortunately World of Luxury US made that entry more accessible, and a week ago I got this timepiece with all its belongings. For this range PARM is supplying a leather travel pouch, with wallets, etc, they look great, I' never missed the usual wooden box, anyway. At first glance the case and dial have lots of interesting details, all of them carefully proportioned. For those, never heard of Fibonacci, 1.618 and Michel Parmigiani's own love for maths, this might be an interesting reading. Some elements of the design look truly great in the flash, the bigger date with its unique typography, the luggs and the smaller, understated brand name on the dial are just a few of them. Finish is top notch, I would say even better as one would expect in this price range! 

While the case and dial have an excellent symmetry in their style, the otherwise nicely finished and decorated double barrel manufacturer movement, the PF331 with sceletonized rotor is bit more simple, than the aforementioned parts. The Tonda's PF701 movement's style with microrotor could have been a better fit, in my opinion, and interestingly the PF701 in the Tonda 1950 case serves a more straightforward, less baroque design, but I could be wrong at this point, Mr. PARMIGIANI probably knows better how to make a watch...

Of course one week is a very short time to evaluate a watch, more to follow later, but in this short period I've been absolutely satisfied with its understated elegance and refined design. The latter also serves excellent comfort, while the brand's unique capabilities in movement production - PARM is also making movements for Patek, Chopard and earlier probably for Breguet- means, one shouldn't worry for accuracy, mine is running 5 secs fast a day. More pictures to come in the coming weeks, sorry for the official pics, but they really tell, how this watch looks like. 

Thank you for your precious time!