Parmigiani Fleurier is considerably of a horological unicorn, with many lusting over the model, however few ever attending to see their items within the metallic. During the last 5 years, the brand has experienced massive growth, and now, with Guido Terreni on the helm bringing out one of the best of Michel Parmigiani’s imaginative and prescient, the maison’s meteoric rise to greatness appears unstoppable. Such is their success that the three,000-piece annual manufacturing restrict is falling properly in need of demand, with waitlists quickly rising.
This reputation implies that, sadly, few Aussies have been hands-on with a PF, not to mention had the power to buy one from a neighborhood retailer. Till Thursday night time, that’s, when Time+Tide had the pleasure of co-hosting an unique displaying of the Giorgio Armani x Parmigiani Fleurier Armani 11 at Melbourne’s Giorgio Armani boutique. Although champagne, scotch and mocktails are at all times crowd pleasers, the eye to element and high-level ending of the Armani 11 was the actual showstopper, leaving a few of our friends (together with myself) critically contemplating doubling down on their mortgages to safe one in every of solely three fashions obtainable in Australia.
So, what’s the Armani 11 and why ought to we have an interest? Because the story goes, Michel Parmigiani and Giorgio Armani met just a few years in the past and pursued the shared enterprise of making a timepiece that brings out one of the best of each homes. As watch lovers, many can be aware of Michel Parmigiani’s story – a passionate Swiss watchmaker recognized for engaged on and restoring a number of the most iconic museum and personal assortment watches and clocks in Europe, together with the storied Sandoz household collections. Parmigiani Fleurier was established in 1996 and has progressively grown in measurement and notoriety, now extensively considered one of many manufacturers on the haute horlogerie forefront.
Armani’s story is maybe much less well-known to us watch-o-philes. In actual fact, you may be skewed by the Fossil-produced Armani Trade quartz items obtainable at your native division retailer. So, let’s tackle the elephant within the room. The Armani Group is a big enterprise with numerous sub-brands very like Seiko – with Giorgio Armani the Credor of the group. As watch lovers, we’d know higher than to lump a Credor in with a Seiko 5, and the identical might be mentioned for the Armani 11, being created with the direct enter of Mr Armani himself and introduced beneath his flagship Giorgio Armani model.
Mr Armani, himself high fashion royalty and nonetheless on the helm of his model at 88 years of age, needed to create a timeless, refined and exquisitely crafted timepiece referencing his life’s work. His personal humble beginnings as a tailor kind a key a part of his model picture, strongly influencing the design which took over three years to finalise. The case and dial facet components are largely Armani’s making with help from Parmigiani Fleurier making up the 40mm diameter, 9.8mm thick cushion case. The lugs are normal in order that they don’t catch in your knitwear, with additional sartorial cues within the “stitched” minute observe, herringbone guilloché and handset paying homage to tailor’s scissors and a needle. After which there’s the matter of its title – the Armani 11. It seems on the dial as properly, embodying each the road variety of the maison’s Milan tackle and Giorgio Armani’s personal birthdate. All of this collectively could possibly be an excessive amount of if poorly executed, however the Armani 11 is refined and refined, with all these components co-existing in tasteful concord relatively than competitors.
The watches are manufactured by Parmigiani Fleurier with the identical excessive degree of expertise we’ve come to count on from the model. Although the dial facet is basically Armani in conception, the again could possibly be thought of the Parmigiani Fleurier facet and is exquisitely completed, that includes the handcrafted PF048 resplendent in Côtes de Genève on the plates, perlage on the baseplate and a case metal-matching rotor with chevron patterning. The time-only computerized motion gives an honest 50 hours of energy reserve.
Taken collectively, the Armani 11 is a superb expression of quiet luxurious that sits on the coronary heart of each manufacturers. In a world the place classic double-signed dials are fetching a premium and grand vogue maisons are dipping their collective toes into the watch market, this very unique and restricted run of items representing one of the best of design and craftsmanship from each homes sits on the pinnacle of what’s on supply.
Giorgio Armani x Parmigiani Fleurier Armani 11 pricing and availability:
There are three variations with all items numbered restricted editions; metal with blue dial (restricted to 50), metal with darkish gray/anthracite dial (restricted to 50), rose gold with ivory dial (restricted to 35), rose gold with gray dial (restricted to twenty) and yellow gold with black dial (restricted to twenty). All come on alligator straps with case metal-matching pin buckles. On the time of writing solely the metal/blue, metal/anthracite and rose gold/ivory variations can be found for buy in Australia.
Value: A$36,000 (metal), A$72,000 (gold)
