Reviews
SIHH 2018: Parmigiani’s New Kalpa Collection
It would take another 20 years before Michel Parmigiani turned his focus away from restoration and preservation, to creation through a brand bearing his name – although restoration remains close to his heart today and is still a key service provided by his atelier. With the support of the Sandoz Foundation, whose priceless historic collection he had been restoring, Parmigiani Fleurier would launch in 1996, but it’s not until 1998 that the first timepiece would be unveiled, the Kalpa Hebdomadaire. From the onset, Parmigiani sought to marry technical excellence and aesthetic balance, imbuing his timepieces with the finest calibers, and designs that had to be just right. He often mentions the Golden Ratio – if you must know, it’s approximately 1.618 – that you may not be always aware of but that surrounds us, in architecture, art, geometry, and even nature. He respects those proportions in his watches, and it’s what led to the Kalpa’s tonneau-shaped case. It has remained in his collection to this day, and it’s revisited with more contemporary lines for the 2018 collection with three new exquisite timepieces.