Watches have to be related to their supposed viewers; in any other case, they’re simply workout routines in vainness for each makers and patrons. If that occurs to any model, its future might be brief as a result of it is going to fall out of favour when the fickle tides of developments change. The best leaders in watchmaking perceive that Guido Terreni will get it.
As a quick recap, Terreni arrived on the Fleurier model to tackle the CEO position in 2021 and instantly did the unimaginable: reinvigorating the model with a brand new assortment that basically modified the watch world’s perceptions. The Tonda PF was a winner proper out of the gate. Greater than this, Terreni managed this feat whereas the world was nonetheless locked in a devastating battle with a pandemic. We proceed to be amazed by this bona fide achievement. In some ways, the Tonda PF assortment will ceaselessly be marked by the way of its creation and its debut.
Admittedly, all this makes for a dramatic story, however Terreni shouldn’t be an ultra-charismatic superhero, neither is he the recipient of unbelievable success. To be truthful, the person himself acknowledged that he was fortunate in a means, as a result of the producer had every thing in place for him to in a short time put his imaginative and prescient into movement. Not solely does Parmigiani Fleurier have the flexibility to make actions, due to the Vaucher manufacture, nevertheless it additionally has a casemaker and dial maker within the combine. Terreni knew that with all this manufacturing energy in place, he might get loads achieved in a short while. The Milan native additionally had one different ace: Parmigiani Fleurier founder Michel Parmigiani, one of many residing greats of latest watchmaking.
Terreni has at all times been clear that the spirit of Parmigiani Fleurier is certain up within the particular person of Michel, or slightly, his thoughts and sensibilities. Terreni informed us that he feels blessed to have Michel nonetheless lively within the enterprise, and properly that he ought to as a result of the compelling energy of the model could be very a lot tied to the founder.
Learn Extra: Guido Terreni, CEO of Parmigiani Fleurier Navigates The Way forward for Luxurious Watchmaking
Once more, Michel Parmigiani is much-admired within the commerce, particularly by watchmakers and people who are captivated with watchmaking. In our second interview with Terreni, he remarked that his former colleagues at Bvlgari – the place he was the top of watchmaking for 10 years – wished each him and Parmigiani Fleurier properly when he took up the CEO position.
“I don’t know if it’s as a result of Michel Parmigiani is so humble, and is a sort particular person, or perhaps as a result of we’re not smug in pushing the product and distribution. Parmigiani Fleurier is a delicate model.”
This gentleness – a way of understatement – is one thing Parmigiani Fleurier leans closely into, underneath Terreni. The Tonda PF was simply the vanguard in what has turned out to be a deeply vital product technique. This 12 months, everybody was shocked that the model launched a sporty extension to the Tonda PF. Even observers who enthusiastically embrace blended supplies and experiments with new supplies in watchmaking, like us, have been caught flat-footed. We thus start this dialog with Terreni on this notice…
“The Watch Is Like A Wedding ceremony Ring Between The Values Of The Model And The values Of The Values Of The Buyer”
Congratulations on the Tonda PF Sport! We actually didn’t see a sporty cermet watch within the combine for Parmigiani Fleurier! Why did you resolve to do it this manner?
Precisely for the rationale you prompt: at times, we now have to shock our clients, but doing it within the Parmigiani Fleurier means… So, high-tech supplies are gaining reputation within the watchmaking business. Now they account for round 11-12% of the worth of the exports from Switzerland and they’re very aggressive designs, often; they’re very daring. And so, we thought to deliver our refinement to this section, this class, and to supply Parmigiani Fleurier clients the pleasure of a high-tech materials watch achieved the Parmigiani Fleurier means.
The selection of the fabric is admittedly necessary as a result of we might by no means have achieved watches in plain ceramic
I received in contact with this materials in 2018 for the primary time. So, it’s one thing that I at all times checked out with curiosity. And this particular composition of cermet, which we name ultra-cermet to underline its technicality, has a specific capability to mirror the sunshine in a really highly effective means. (As you could have seen) it has a color which isn’t black (although it’d look it in footage). It’s gray and nuances of gray in response to the sunshine that’s mirrored.
If it’s a cloudy day with a white sky or you’re in a room with a white mild, like in case you are within the presentation room (at WWG), you’d see it as very white, virtually like steel. If it’s a sunny day with a blue sky, you’d see the blue mirrored within the case (and the case will thus embody the atmosphere that it’s reflecting).
Extra on cermet shortly, however the colors you’re enjoying with are thrilling, and maybe additionally shocking for a restrained model. Inform us in regards to the story right here.
This intriguing color transformation (as seen within the cermet materials) is inherent within the model’s id; it’s one thing that we like very a lot as a result of ultimately, it makes the product very vigorous. It’s additionally in our dials now when you could have the sienna, the golden sienna, that in response to the sunshine can go in the direction of a salmon (color) or extra of a sandy beige. It’s a part of how we play with colors.
You talked about the names of the colors
In our catalogue, we at all times write the title and a few names are (uncommon) and a results of brainstorming. We attempt to have references both to nature or to a palette of colors just like the Blue Milano, which comes from the sartorial world as a result of it’s a go well with’s color, or the Verzasca, which comes from Valle Verzasca in Switzerland, the place you could have this stunning river that has pure swimming swimming pools; it’s not a luxurious place. It’s simply plain nature the place folks in the summertime go to refresh themselves and dive into this stunning water that’s between inexperienced and blue. This gave me the inspiration for one in all my reminiscences from once I was residing in Como (on Lake Como in Italy).
You’ll by no means see a flashy color (from us). Someone requested me (additionally in the course of the truthful), Do you say no, typically, to sure requests? After all, you say no as a result of to construct a model id, you need to be constant. Someone requested me a few years in the past, can we do a particular version with a Tiffany blue dial? No, you go to Tiffany for a Tiffany blue dial! After all, Patek Philippe can do it as a result of they’ve a historical past there, however not us. So we stated no to this request.
Backing as much as the Tonda PF Sport in cermet, inform us about working with this materials that you’ve got by no means used earlier than.
This (extremely cermet) was a problem; it took us three years to develop the case as a result of we wished a full cermet case; it’s a world first. No one ever did a full cermet case
From the primary day of WWG, we had nice emotional responses from our companions and the press.
Every part that’s within the composition of the ultra-cermet is making or offering the metallic lustre impact that you just see. So, you don’t have that color as a result of you could have put paint in it. You’ve got that color as a result of you could have 38% of atoms of titanium in that composition. After which there’s the method of ending it as a result of it’s laborious, however laborious like common cermet – sure, we now have to have the brushings and polishings. These are all issues which are achieved with diamond instruments as a result of these are the one ones capable of have an effect on this materials, which continues to be extraordinarily laborious; it’s successfully un-scratchable. And so that’s a part of the fantastic thing about the consequence. However with out the particular composition of the cermet we use, you wouldn’t be capable to have that impact.
Let’s return to these “feelings,” you talked about when folks noticed the Tonda PF Sport. How do you construct a product that may encourage such feelings as a result of we noticed it within the Tonda PF and the Toric too?
I feel it’s a query of understanding the why of issues. You need to go to the values of the model and (the product, which embodies these values) has to intersect with a shopper that shares these values. The watch is sort of a wedding ceremony ring between the values of the model and the values of the shopper. And you need to know very properly what the model is; examine the aesthetic codes of the model; and examine what’s recognisable of the model. However you need to then play with these components with a number of concord and a number of steadiness.
Within the philosophy of the model, there’s this obvious simplicity; this purity of the fashion, which is driving every thing we do. This implies every thing from the aesthetics to how we construct a complication and the way the expertise of carrying the watch (feels). It needs to be flawless; it needs to be fully intuitive. And this you see with the GMT Rattrapante, which is a novel interpretation of the GMT, which is (additionally) extraordinarily simplified.
In (one other instance), the Toric perpetual calendar that I’m carrying, it’s simple to learn; it’s the first diploma of data, the arms indicating hours and minutes, which are at all times the protagonists (with the remaining enjoying a supporting position). The show of the 2 (calendar) counters with the PF cartouche kinds an ideal triangle that tells you that the geometry of the development of the dial could be very balanced…very serene.
I really like that as a result of there’s additionally the impression of a triangle within the motion… How does all this relate to technical mastery although, as evident within the new cermet mannequin but additionally throughout the vary? I’m considering right here of the particular curved dial of the Toric and, after all, grenage?
So, (what I discussed earlier) are all sensitivities which are aesthetic but additionally technical as a result of with out the method, you don’t get there. After which there’s the world of ending as a result of Parmigiani Fleurier is about superior ending. This comes from Michel himself, from his life devoted to restoration (of watches from) historic occasions.
Finishings was a thousand occasions extra (spectacular) than right this moment as a result of we have been residing in a world pushed by aristocracy. Within the 18th century, there was no working class, so that you didn’t have the have to be sensible in your outfits and it was very Baroque in that interval. Till the watch exited the pocket (and morphed into the wristwatch), the watch, even within the nineteenth century, remained connected to that aristocratic really feel of an inventive and luxurious object.
At the moment, the wristwatch has to slot in with the practicality of contemporary occasions, and so it evolves in that course. So, you could have a number of issues that you need to contemplate and the palette of colors is one other one. Once you design (for) a branded entity, you need to be constant; you need to perceive that are the substances which are coherent all through the gathering. When you find yourself growing particular variations of any watch, whether or not it’s a complication, a skeleton, you need to be true to these ideas.
The truth that we took out the brand in writing (substituting with simply the image) is one other necessary a part of this creativity as a result of the brand is for (observers, not oneself). Now it’s extra like an ellipse; it’s way more subtle, and way more refined. So, these are all ways in which we play with design, method and watchmaking know-how; and there’s no magic rule in any other case all people might do it! Fortunately (for us), luxurious is about sensitivity; it’s about training; and it’s about cultural references. That’s what builds the fantastic thing about a mode. The extra educated the fashion, the extra subtle it’s and we attempt to serve that.
Learn Extra: Why the Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Petite Seconde Is the Connoisseur’s Selection
Let’s wrap up together with your ideas on a legible design versus one that’s placing.
Normally when it’s legible, it’s not placing! As a result of if you put an excessive amount of into the design, you’re overdoing it and doubtless you will be catchy, however then the design wears out on you. So, legibility and purity of design mean you can have a design that lasts longer. The icons of the business, often they’re all-time-only as a result of that’s only a much less invasive design; it’s the simplest. However ultimately, simplicity is essentially the most troublesome factor to attain in design as a result of you need to be true to the proportions. You’ve got to have the ability to specific one thing (sophisticated) with much less complexity, so you could have fewer substances to play with. And that is extraordinarily necessary for us as a result of that’s what we love to do. We wish to simplify issues for a really pure expertise.
This story was first seen as a part of the WOW #79 Summer season 2025 Situation
For extra on the newest in luxurious watch reads, click on right here.
