BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
This year marks 30 years since Michel Parmigiani set up his maison in the little Swiss village of Fleurier. Parmigiani Fleurier has made some of the most desirable and most different watches out there, and to mark its 30th birthday, it’s just released something that blows everything else away.
Michel Parmigiani
It’s no small secret that Parmigiani Fleurier has been on a roll these past few years, producing newer and cleaner designs under the direction of its CEO, Guido Terrini. Their watches feature very highly on our lists from Watches and Wonders Geneva, where they unveiled the Tonda PF Chronographe Mystérieux, which was my favourite piece from the whole show. They’ve also been having great success with the revised Toric line of watches, which I’d argue have influenced today’s piece: the Carillon Tourbillon 30th Anniversary watch.
Added to Parmigiani Fleurier’s growing “Objets d’Arts collection”, the Carillon Tourbillon is the brand’s way of flexing its muscles in the mirror and showing the horology world what it can really do. Parmigiani Fleurier is no stranger to making complicated watches; that said, most of its watches have stayed on the fairly conservative side when it comes to adding complications. Not the Carillon Tourbillon, though.
456 components make up the calibre PF950, which features a tourbillon and a minute repeater with four gongs. A traditional minute repeater usually consists of two gongs with two hammers and the mechanism that interprets the position of the hands into chimes. One of the gongs is tuned higher than the other, and the hammers strike the individual gongs to represent the time in hours and minutes.
They also usually chime the quarter hours using both hammers striking at once. The new Carillon Tourbillon also uses two gongs of different notes to chime the hours and the minutes; however, an extra two gongs join the chorus to chime the quarter hours, with four gongs chiming each quarter hour, giving the Carillon Tourbillon a unique chiming signature.
The serpentine gongs around the dial, made for the maison by Jämes Aubert Le Brassus SA and inspired by a historical Perrin Frères pocket watch that Parmigiani Fleurier restored in 2000, are unique in the watch world and are very beautiful under the glassbox-style sapphire crystal. The tourbillon adds complexity to the piece, yet it still has a 10-day power reserve, provided by two main spring barrels, with a third barrel dedicated to powering the minute repeater function to ensure the rest of the watch doesn’t suffer from the power drawn (and thus a loss in accuracy) by that mechanism.
Alongside the elegant movement, which looks fantastic through the caseback, particular attention was drawn to the watch’s case, which is made of white gold. Out of all the materials used to make wristwatch cases, gold has the best qualities for chiming watches, allowing them to produce l louder and clearer sounds than watches made of other materials. While we haven’t been able to see the Carillon Tourbillon in person, it should be fairly loud and clear. An audio sample is available on Parmigiani Fleurier’s website for listening. If you would prefer to read the time instead of hearing it, you’ll be treated to a very clear view of it with the clean ‘Morning Blue’ dial. As with some of the other watches revealed in 2026, this piece’s dial features a hand-hammered finish, unique to each piece, that catches the light beautifully. The case measures 41.6mm x 12.6mm and is officially 10m water resistant, although we would interpret that as “splash resistant”.
Presented on a hand-stitched alligator leather strap coloured in ‘Akoya Grey’, Parmigiani Fleurier’s Carillon Tourbillon is a marvellous piece. While I would never wish to diminish someone else’s achievements, it should be treated more as an example of what the brand can do rather than as an indication that the brand will move toward more complicated chiming wristwatches. With only 5 of these made and a price tag of ‘go and ask them if you dare’, I’ll likely never see one, and it’s likely you won’t either. And that’s a shame.
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