Hands-On: The Parmigiani Fleurier 30th Anniversary Carillon Tourbillon

Parmigiani Fleurier is a brand that has long embodied the idea of quiet luxury — or "private luxury," as Parmigiani CEO Guido Terrini asserts — frankly, sometimes to a fault. Many of its models pair spectacular watchmaking with a radically simplified design language, and the unique execution of a mechanical chronograph in the brand's Tonda Chronograph Mystérieux earlier this spring quite literally hides its mechanical extravagance as part of the complication. We'll have more on the Chronograph Mystérieux soon, but there's another watch launched this year that also feels unmistakably Parmigiani in execution—the Carillon Tourbillon 30th Anniversary in white gold.

To celebrate the brand's 30th anniversary this year, Parmigiani Fleurier launched a trio of limited-edition Toric models at Watches and Wonders, featuring hand-hammered gold dials. The Toric Petite Seconde in platinum, a Toric Quantième Perpétuel in rose gold, and a Toric Chronographe Rattrapante in platinum all got the new dial treatment. Then, a few months after the show, Parmigiani dropped this whopper of a watch. Let's get the not-so-fun part out of the way first—the Carillon Tourbillon 30th Anniversary is limited to 5 pieces, and priced at CHF 490,000. To most collectors, it might be an unobtainium watch in so many aspects, but that doesn't stop this thing from being an absolute joy to see in person.

At a glance, the overall silhouette of the Carillon Tourbillon fits into the classic Parmigiani playbook, and despite the complexity of the movement, actually appears even more reductive due to the absence of the typical wide, knurled bezel seen on other Torics. The crystal extends all the way to the edge of the 41.6mm case, amplifying the expansiveness of the dial, but for good reason, as the extra space gives room for the wavy lines of the four gongs surrounding the center blue dial. Paired with the two hammers on display at ten o'clock, those gongs represent a glorious movement hiding underneath the otherwise rather sparse dial. It also serves as an homage to the watch's original inspiration—an early-nineteenth-century Perrin Frères-signed pocket watch restored in the Parmigiani workshops in 2000, which featured serpentine gongs that have been translated in a more abstract form to the Carillon Tourbillon today.

The remaining negative space, as with the models in the trio from Watches and Wonders, is wonderfully filled out with a gold dial that has been hammered by hand. This means that each of the five dials will be unique in its final result, and when paired with the light "Morning Blue" hue, evokes the soft rippling of a lake in a very pleasing tone. There is zero printing on the dial (no paragraph of text to be found, to the relief of many), rather just a single Parmigiani Fleurier logo applique seemingly floating on the dial surface.

The side of the white gold case offers a bit more visual flair, while yet again departing from the more standard Toric case design, thanks to its vertical gadroons. On the right side of the case, those prominent vertical lines give it a nice texture beneath the signed crown, while on the left side, they frame the large mechanical slide for the minute repeater. Even though this watch is part of Parmigiani's Toric collection, its case design is heavily borrowed from the brand's 2024 L'Armoriale Répétition Mysérieuse. While 12.6mm of thickness is quite significant for what appears to be "merely" a two-hander on the front, a quick look from the side also shows how much of the height is taken up by that glassbox crystal. But once you turn the watch over to the back and see what's in store, it's hard to scrutinize the watch over a few millimeters.

Through the caseback, the new manually-winding PF950 caliber, with its carillon minute repeater, one-minute tourbillon, and a whopping power reserve of ten days at 21,600 VpH (3 Hz), is an absolute party. In contrast to most Parmigiani calibers, there is an organic energy to the layered architecture of the PF950, with the large stacked barrels on display up top, the tourbillon spinning away at the bottom, and the repeater's rack system seemingly connecting both in a flow of motion when the repeater is activated. Additionally, the bridges of the PF950 are hand-engraved with a "mezzo vibrato" decoration, thematically appropriate for a chiming watch and adding a bit of additional character to the back, even if it may seem a bit visually overwhelming at times.

To the left of the tourbillon bridge sits a diminutive power reserve indicator, with a scale infilled in a light blue to match the dial. That ten-day-minimum power reserve should be pretty consistent no matter how many times you activate the repeater, as the repeater itself doesn't actually draw from the main barrel powering the timekeeping portion of the watch. Rather, one of those two stacked barrels is dedicated to the repeater, which is charged by pushing the repeater's striking slide against the case. In the few times that I was able to run the repeater, I found the chime to be wonderfully pleasing, especially thanks to the four-note chime achieved through the gongs for the quarter chimes. The five lucky owners of the Carillon Tourbillon will not be disappointed in this aspect.

But once you get fully absorbed—perhaps even overwhelmed—by this caliber, flipping the watch around and putting it on your wrist makes you appreciate Parmigiani's simplicity when it comes to dials. All of a sudden, the evidence of painstaking construction in the carillon repeater and tourbillon disappears, leaving the calm ocean-like dial and only the waves of the gongs and the two hammers to hint at what lies underneath. I find many of Parmigiani's dials a bit too clean in execution, but here, the subtle asymmetrical offset of the gongs and the hammered dial texture balance the empty space incredibly well. And while the case is getting close to 42mm, the short lugs ensure a balance in wearability that keeps it in the large-but-wearable watch territory.

Aside from my brief time with the prototype of the Carillon Tourbillon, I've come to accept that this watch probably won't be seen all that much out in the wild. Prototype aside, it's hard to imagine this watch making it to many watch meetups, though I'll certainly have my fingers crossed. It's a wonderful showcase of Parmigiani Fleurier's complicated watchmaking in a year that the brand has already received much fanfare, and rightfully so.

from Hodinkee https://ift.tt/6Xqhpz9