Michel Parmigiani does not dwell in the past. Instead, he has utilized his considerable expertise to create a brand that is more focused on the future of watchmaking. The partnership between Bugatti and Parmigiani has led to some extraordinary timepieces, which not only embody the essence of Parmigiani but that of Bugatti as well.
One viewing of the Parmigiani Fleurier Hippologia in action is enough to confirm that its two horses’ gaits seem completely fluid and natural. The Hippologia displays two horses, a mare and a foal, taking a stroll around a Lalique glassware cabinet enclosing the highly complicated automaton and eight-day clock movement. This is an object that needs to be seen to be believed.
Parmigiani Fleurier, Vaucher Manufacture, and the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) have released a cased concept watch called the Senfine. The idea for this escapement concept came as a way to reduce friction and drastically extend the power reserve of the average watch. At this time, the Senfine boasts 70 hours of power reserve thanks to a modified “grasshopper.”
In the past, a skeletonizer would have taken many hours to saw and file away at an existing movement in order to remove all that is superfluous. Today, skeletonized movements are for the most part conceived to be such right from the start. At the 2015 edition of SIHH, we found five such skeletonized watches, all of which were designed as such from the get-go.