A Rose By Any Other Name

Parmigiani Fleurier's grand finale for its 25th anniversary year in 2021 is a unique piece that fuses its founder's legendary restoration prowess with an avant-garde decorative technique taking inspiration from nature.

- By Mark Bernardo

- Watch companies rarely let a major (or even a not-so-major) anniversary pass by without fanfare these days, so it was undoubtedly with great anticipation that fans of Parmigiani Fleurier - the high-horology maison founded and still guided creatively by its eponym, master watchmaker and restorer Michel Parmigiani — looked forward to seeing what exceptional timepieces would arise in celebration of its 25th anniversary in 2021. The first, which WatchTime covered in its December 2021 issue, was the Tonda PF collection, launched at last fall's Geneva Watch Days event. Following it up toward the end of the year was a timepiece that not only represents Parmigiani's most ambitious foray into high complication, but also pays tribute to its founder's revered history in watch restoration.

Named La Rose Carrée after the “squared rose pattern that adorns both its case and its movement, the timepiece that Parmigiani has touted as the grand finale” to its 25th anniversary year is a one-of-a-kind pocket watch whose 64mm, white-gold hunter-style case houses a true horological find: a meticulously restored movement created by watchmaking legend Louis-Elisée Piguet sometime between 1898 and 1904 and equipped with both a minute repeater and a grande sonnerie. Michel Parmigiani acquired the rare, grand complication caliber in the late 1990s and stashed it in a drawer, with the intention of applying his own renowned restoration expertise to it - where it then remained for more than 20 years while the Parmigiani Fleurier watch brand grew and thrived. How the historical movement found its way into a modern timepiece is a story on its own, best expressed by Parmigiani Fleurier CEO Guido Terreni, who came aboard right on the cusp of the anniversary year and was instrumental in initiating the project in concert with the company's founder.