L’Armoriale Répétition Mystérieuse

EMBARGO, December 2, 2024

“We created the Armoriale Répétition Mystérieuse to transcend the simple act of telling time, inviting its owner to connect with time purely through sound, honouring the original purpose of minute repeaters – to tell the time in the dark, long before electricity. While the ear listens, the eye is free to fully appreciate the beauty of the artistry of our master artisans. Each strike becomes a profound connection to the mystery of chiming watches in its purest form.”

Guido Terreni, CEO Parmigiani Fleurier

“In nature, every form, every pattern bears the imprint of perfection—a perfection found in the spirals of a pinecone, where the golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence intertwine to reveal the harmony of the world. With the Armoriale Répétition Mystérieuse, we wished to pay homage to these universal symmetries, to celebrate the natural elegance that inspires each of our creations, and to remind us that ultimate beauty lies in the timeless echo of nature’s laws.”

Michel Parmigiani, Founder

In keeping with tradition, Parmigiani Fleurier unveils an extraordinary horological creation on December 2nd, Michel Parmigiani’s birthday. This year, they present the Armoriale Répétition Mystérieuse, a ground-breaking masterpiece that merges artistic beauty with exceptional acoustic engineering, defying conventional norms. Designed in an ultra-limited edition, this masterpiece pays homage to Michel Parmigiani’s vision and the Maison’s expertise, combining magic and innovation within a white gold and enamel masterpiece. The first in a series of five unique pieces, each Armoriale Mysterious Repeater is meant to be different, personalized in its aesthetics, marking a milestone in the history of contemporary watchmaking.

Iconic by Nature: A New Parmigiani Fleurier Case

The Armoriale Répétition Mystérieuse features a meticulously crafted 42mm white gold case designed exclusively for this unique model. It celebrates the aesthetic principles cherished by Michel Parmigiani, with design elements inspired by Doric columns and the Golden Ratio, underscoring the geometric precision and timeless elegance of classical architecture. Every detail, from the case to the intricately engraved pin buckle, embodies the pursuit of harmony and aesthetic perfection that defines the Maison Parmigiani Fleurier.

The Mystery of the Secret Dial

The Armoriale Répétition Mystérieuse does not reveal its secrets at a glance. Unlike a traditional watch, the Armoriale conceals the time on its reverse side, dedicating its front surface entirely to artistic craftsmanship. The pastel green translucent enamel grand feu displays a finely guilloché pattern, further enhanced by delicate engravings of a pinecone, a symbol of inspiration for Michel Parmigiani and a metaphor for infinity. Upon turning the watch, the wearer discovers the rose gold hour and minute hands discreetly placed on the back of the case. This back dial, adorned with a disk of Guatemalan white jade and featuring circular indices, harmonizes with the jade’s natural elegance. The “secret” dial bestows an introspective and personal character to the watch, making checking the time an intimate and privileged experience.

Emotion and Intensity: The Power of the Cathedral Gong

Historically, the minute repeater provided a way to tell time in the dark before the advent of artificial lighting by chiming the hours and minutes on demand. This intricate mechanism, featuring a precise system of hammers and gongs, offers a sound-based method of telling time, embodying the highest refinement in watchmaking. By listening to each strike, the wearer can discern the hours, quarters, and minutes through distinct, precisely tuned sounds, each resonating with clarity and purity.

The Armoriale Répétition Mystérieuse is distinguished by its “cathedral” gongs, which are extra-long and wrap around the movement almost twice. This technical choice prolongs the resonance of each sound, delivering a rich and deep tone reminiscent of grand cathedral bells. Each hammer is engineered to strike with millimetric precision, ensuring optimal sound intensity. The cathedral sound amplifies the emotional impact, transforming each note into one filled with mystery and depth, an echo resonating beyond time.

Manually Wound Minute Repeater created for Michel Parmigiani

Inside the Armoriale Répétition Mystérieuse, a meticulously crafted manual winding movement by Renaud Papi powers the watch. Comprising 392 components and boasting a 72-hour power reserve, this movement ensures unparalleled clarity and tonal purity. The cathedral gongs, securely fixed to the case, enhance resonance, while the hollowed-out back and sides of the case naturally amplify the sound. Additionally, a striking regulator ensures smooth, uninterrupted sound, maintaining a steady rhythm in the chimes.

The assembly of this movement into the case represents a technical challenge of the highest order. The precise, millimetric fitting ensures optimal tension and direct sound transmission, with each component calibrated to maximize sound quality and maintain precise timekeeping.

The watch box: A Resonance Amplifier

Parmigiani Fleurier has envisioned a bespoke watch box for the Armoriale, featuring a resonator crafted from Risoud spruce wood, renowned for its superior acoustic properties and beloved by luthiers worldwide. This elegant box enhances each chime, adding depth and richness to the Minute Repeater’s sound. By placing the watch at various points within the case, the owner can modulate the resonance, creating a tailored auditory experience that highlights the craftsmanship of the artisans and the horological mastery of Parmigiani Fleurier.

Parmigiani Fleurier offers owners of the Armoriale Mysterious Repeater a rare sensory experience, where the seen and unseen, the heard and felt, merge to celebrate time.

This Work of Art: The Result of Three Master Artisans

This work of art results from the labour of three Master Artisans, each contributing their unique expertise: Yann Von Kaenel for guilloché, Eddy Jaquet for the central engravings, and Vanessa Lecci for the enamelling.

Guilloché: A Dialogue Between Mathematics and Aesthetics

In the Armoriale Répétition Mystérieuse, Parmigiani Fleurier elevates the art of guilloché through a pattern inspired by the spiral of a pinecone, a symbol of harmony and perfection for Michel Parmigiani. This motif, reflecting the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio, embodies a mathematical beauty that resonates with nature. Created by Yann Von Kaenel, a master of guilloché, each line is meticulously engraved to capture light and reveal multifaceted details. Guilloché, an exceptional artisanal technique, transforms the metal surface into vibrant and evolving decor, playing with light to produce subtle reflections. This process begins with the preparation of the metal, followed by the engraving of a carefully chosen geometric pattern, where each detail is executed with absolute precision. This mastery creates a rich and delicate texture, transcending the purely horological function to offer a unique visual and sensory experience. In the Armoriale, guilloché becomes more than a decorative element; it pays homage to natural aesthetics and universal geometry. This expertise, combined with the other artistic disciplines of the Maison, elevates each piece of the Armoriale to the rank of a masterpiece, where rigour and inspiration unite for a contemporary interpretation of horological tradition.

Enamelling: Alchemy of Metal and Light

Parmigiani Fleurier transforms enamelling into an enchanting discipline where precision, patience, and passion intertwine to create something exceptional. This ancient craft comes to life through the unlikely fusion of two contrasting elements, metal and glass, united by the extreme heat of 800 °C. In this process, alchemy occurs—a subtle metamorphosis where raw materials become masterpieces, elevating both glass and metal to the realm of art.

Using ancient enamels, a palette of rare colours emerges, evoking the rich tones of Geneva’s historical crystal works, far beyond today’s technical capabilities. Each colour and shade presents unique technical challenges: ensuring the glass’s purity without a single bubble, achieving unparalleled luminosity, and applying ultra-thin layers. Some hues, like delicate lime green, require instinctive mastery, halting the process just before the final firing to capture perfect brilliance.

For this recent creation, up to eight layers of enamel were meticulously applied, each finely calibrated to control thickness and brightness. Once applied, these layers are carefully hand-polished, revealing hidden details and imbuing the material with rare depth. In this quest for perfection, each piece becomes an act of virtuosity, where craftsmanship transcends its boundaries to bring creations imbued with magic and timeless beauty to life.

The result is a visual landscape that captures light, playing with reflections to magnify each detail and awaken the senses. This visual and sensory homage transcends the simple reading of time.

Engraving: Beauty Engraved in Depth

Hand engraving is a discipline of absolute precision, where each gesture is measured and each pressure calibrated. Under the skilful strokes of the burin, the precious metal is adorned with refined details, transforming the dial into a tableau of unprecedented depth. Guided by a keen sense of harmony, the artisan plays with symmetry and proportions, creating subtle contrasts and delicate reliefs. Each minute variation of pressure and angle breathes unique energy into the motif, while the gold, demanding a steady hand and an intimate understanding of the material, reveals all its richness. Working this precious metal requires extreme sensitivity, where the slightest misstep could alter the purity of the surface, thus conferring an inestimable value to each gesture.