How do you redefine the modern dress watch? Guido Terreni, CEO of Parmigiani Fleurier, starts with a keen and complete understanding of the evolution of modern menswear. It is rooted in the rise of the bourgeoisie during the Industrial Revolution, when new avenues of wealth creation created a rapidly expanding middle class—and with it, stylistic codes that were sensitive to elegance and luxury, but without the aristocratic extravagance. It gave rise to concepts such as black tie and suits, the basic structure of which has persisted until today. When watches left the pocket for the wrist, they became a visible accessory, and were hence designed to complement these styles of dress.
The world is a lot more informal today and, for a while, the suit looked like an endangered species. But Terreni has observed that a younger generation has started to re-embrace the art of dressing well. “The sartorial business is booming. There are a lot of people who are not following brands any more. They want their own outfit, to rediscover the pleasure of what a sartorial suit is about,” he explains. These might now be paired with sneakers instead of dress shoes, and there is still a focus on elegance and the appreciation of craftsmanship. “So you have a wealthy customer who is deep in this sort of knowledge,” Terreni says. “And what watch do we put on that wrist? The response is the Toric.” Indeed, the revamped Toric collection was Parmigiani Fleurier’s big launch earlier this year, unveiled at Geneva at the Watches and Wonders trade show.
The Toric has been a lynchpin of Parmigiani Fleurier since 1996, when it was founded by the highly regarded restoration specialist Michel Parmigiani. It was a classically inclined collection and, thus, perceived as closest to the soul of the brand. Its relaunch is part of a resurgent period for Parmigiani Fleurier—though the quality of its craftsmanship has never been in doubt, the brand had in the past lacked focus and identity. This began changing in 2021, the year Terreni was appointed CEO and when the brand launched the Tonda PF collection. A braceleted sports-chic watch with an understated approach and focus on fine details, the Tonda PF suitably championed the Parmigiani Fleurier ideals and is the principal force behind its recent success. In fact, the brand is coming off its best-ever year.
Just shy of three years later, and the 2024 Toric is maintaining the same philosophy that served the Tonda PF so well. “You have two big macro segments in the watch industry: one is a sports-chic watch and the other one is a dressy watch. And being Parmigiani, we are more into the elegant side of a dress watch, so we had to ask ourselves what a dress watch was today, and that was a much more difficult exercise,” Terreni relates.
The new Toric is definitively a dress watch, and an extremely elevated one at that: only manual-winding movements, which are fashioned from gold (something very rare even for high-end watches); only gold or platinum for case materials; gold dials; and only pin buckle straps to make it easier to inspect the movement through the display caseback. There is a softness to the case design, with the knurled bezel a delicate, almost incidental flourish rather than an attempt at pointed showmanship. Like the Tonda PF, dial elements are very restrained—the hour markers are short, the logo is a small seal rather than full signature, and the dial bears a subtle grained texture that invites up-close inspection. This texture is created by hand-brushing with a specific compound; it is an old technique and Michel Parmigiani himself was involved in its development.
“I wanted a texture that was artisanal and not invasive to the reading. So, I asked Michel what could be an execution of that style. And he suggested the grené (grained) dial,” Terreni says. “It gives you this matte finishing, a sort of granulated texture. Michel really explained it—spent a full day with our dialmaker to teach this technique, which is artisanal and not industrial. It’s quite scary for an industrial culture to go back and do these things.”
The new Toric had a launch line-up consisting of three references: the Petite Seconde is 40.6mm in diameter and is only 8.8mm thick, and has rose gold and platinum versions. The Toric Chronograph Rattrapante is limited to 30 pieces and has a rose gold case 42.5mm in diameter. The dial colours have been carefully chosen—a green-tinged grey and sandy gold for the Petite Seconde, and umber for the Chronograph—to be somewhat unusual and yet extremely versatile, to go with today’s sense of lighter colours and casual luxury. “Very Parmigiani and passe-partout”, Terreni calls it. They are paired with nubuck leather straps, with a punto a mano sartorial stitch used by certain Neapolitan tailors.
The movements are part of the overall expression as well. As seen through the display caseback, the PF780 calibre of the Petite Seconde has an unusual layout, dominated by its rose gold plates with a striking Côtes de Fleurier finish. Of the mechanics, only the twin barrels and regulating organ are visible. The Chronograph Rattrapante, meanwhile, is a tasteful, curvaceous display of exquisitely finished rose gold bridges. Calibre PF361 is a double-column wheel movement and beats at 5Hz.
“It’s the maximum expression of watchmaking. The highest level of horology is on a dress watch,” Terreni muses. “While the sports watch, especially sports-chic watch, is the everyday watch, a dress watch allows you to be more precise in what you’re conveying on the wrist. It’s an important way of complementing yourself. Apart from how he dresses and his behaviour that defines his elegance, the watch is the only accessory a man has to express his persona.”
