The NEW Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Hemispheres Retrograde Watch

Parmigiani Fleurier extends its Toric Hemispheres Retrograde watch with a blue guilloche version crafted from stainless steel that enables local time to be set to the minute.

If you travel often for business but need to keep a check on prevailing time back at home, you may want to check out the new Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Hemispheres watch. It’s the answer to your troubles if you find it a challenge to strike the balance right between work and family. If not – you may want to check it out anyway, because it's just so neat.

If nothing else, it offers a quirky way to tell the time and let’s be honest here, unless you’re travelling for work right now, international flights for pleasure are a bit of a logistical nightmare. Still...no need to justify a reason to own this watch here. Above all, the Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Hemispheres Retrograde watch is an example of meticulous craftsmanship. It’s traditional watchmaking done the right way, with components all developed entirely from independent experts under the brand’s wing.

Refined time-zone tuning

Here’s food for thought - the Toric was actually designed back in 1996 but back then it was a popular dress watch. It was relaunched in the form of the Toric Hemisphere in 2017 where it won a pretty cool award – the ‘Travel Watch’ category at GPHG (Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève). It addressed the need to track two different time zones simultaneously and priced itself considerately, deeming itself a useful complication that enabled the wearer to pull the crown out and set the local time more accurately compared to a GMT watch. And that’s really why the Toric Hémisphères Rétrograde watch, in particular, is so genius. It enables the wearer to set local time to the nearest minute. This is great for locations across the world that have quarter-hour or half-hour offsets  That’s more than what the standard GMT complication can do.

Just a year later Parmigiani Fleurier released a stainless steel version of this former gold model, which proved equally as popular. The watch featured a classic black opaline dial with rose gold gilded indices and javelin-shaped hour and minute hands. Now it’s time to admire the new deep blue dialled version of the Toric Hemisphere Retrograde watch - an advancement of the brand’s prior simple three-handed Toric dress watch that is now available in a stunning guilloche blue. The collection grows once again to accommodate this stainless steel option with downward curving lugs and a bezel that alternates between gadroons and knurled finishes. The guilloche effect across the surface of this stealthy blue dial adds a three-dimensional effect and promotes a sense of depth across the display. The first thing to note about the said dial is the same spearhead-shaped hands. These instantly recognisable javelin sticks accompany a red-tipped pointer-style hand that works in conjunction with the Rétrograde date arch across the bottom half of the dial. In addition to this, the dial of the new Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Hemisphere Retrograde watch also features a 12-hour counter for home time at 12 o’clock accompanied by a legible day and night indicator. To the south of the dial, there’s another day and night indicator which works in conjunction with the local time on the dial. It provides intuitive timekeeping with its surrounding small second scale. Overall, both time zones and day & night indicators augment cohesion across the whole of the display.

Interestingly, the bezel of the watch has a backstory too. It was originally inspired by the structure of the Doric columns. Michel Parmigiani designed the bezel with hand-knurled indentations that create a toothed wheel. Each of the indentations on the original 1996 models varied from one watch to another, heightening the desirability to collect and own the watch despite, at first, looking identical under the naked eye.

But a complication watch is only as good as its beating heart, and in the case of the Toric Hemispheres Retrograde watch, it benefits from pure Parmigiani Fleurier mastery. The Calibre PF317 has a series-mounted barrel that allows it to store up to 50 hours of power reserve whilst away from the wrist. As explained, it features two time zones that can be independently adjusted down to the minute. When the crown at 2 o’clock is pulled out, the movement is disengaged and the home time can be set accurately. The lower crown located between the 3 and 4 o’clock hour markers not only winds the watch, but also sets the local time. The movement comprises 316 components which are put on display through a sapphire exhibition caseback feature. Its pendulum beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour and the movement boasts Côtes-de-Genève-decorated bridges and plates along with a 22k gold Parmigiani Fleurier-engraved rotor. Needless to say, the finishes of the Calibre PF317 are outstanding.

The three-part case construction of this Parmigiani Fleurier watch is crafted from stainless steel and integrated with 30-meter water resistance. The top of the case is sealed with a lens of sapphire crystal glass and the case measures a diameter of 42.8mm. The new Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Hemispheres Retrograde watch is finished on a deep blue alligator leather strap and secures to the wrist with a PF-engraved stainless steel folding buckle. You can check out further details of the watch here, or call our Jura Watches sales team on 01335 453453

Technical specifications of the Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Hemispheres Retrograde watch

• Case: 42.8mm – stainless steel – fully polished – 30-meter water-resistant – sapphire crystal glass front with anti-reflective properties – sapphire crystal glass exhibition caseback – hand-knurled bezel with gadroons – crown at 2 o’clock for adjusting home time – crown between 3 and 4 o’clock for adjusting local time
• Dial: Deep blue – guilloche – javelin-shaped central hands – red crescent-shaped date hand and date arc at the bottom of the dial – day and night indicator for local time with small second scale at 6 o’clock – day and night indicator at 1:30 for home time
• Movement; Calibre PF317 – self-winding – in-house manufactured – 50-hour power reserve – 28,800 v.p.h – 22 k gold rotor - Côtes-de-Genève-decorated bridges and plates – 316 components
• Strap: Dark blue – alligator leather – stainless steel folding buckle
• Reference: PFC901-1020001-300182
• Price: £16,000