PARMIGIANI – Inspired by Bugatti

Parmigiani continues the creative cooperation with Bugatti, resulting in extraordinary design to go along with innovative mechanics.

WORLDTEMPUS - 20 January 2010

Elizabeth Doerr

During a year of economic crisis that left no brand and no country untouched, Fleurier-based watchmaker Parmigiani continued not only its creative vein, but its technical growth.
Last September, the brand’s technology partner Vaucher inaugurated new factory space totaling 6,700 square meters. Parmigiani’s case maker Les Artisans Boîtiers in La Chaux-de-Fonds also doubled its space, now boasting 1,261 square meters of production area.
Parmigiani expects to add fifty new points of sale worldwide in 2010.

Bugatti
With the limited edition of the Bugatti Type 370 nearing the end of its 200-piece production, Parmigiani now introduces a concept watch that can be worn in four different ways to its roster of Bugatti-inspired products: the Bugatti Galibier Tourbillon. The availability of this timepiece will depend on the release of the exclusive car of the same name. Parmigiani has been allied with the exclusive automobile brand since 2001.

The side of the case is reminicent of the car's air intakes © Parmigiani

Flyback
Particularly exciting is the introduction of Parmigiani’s first flyback chronograph, the Bugatti Atalante Flyback Chronograph. The aesthetics of this timepiece are also a new direction for the Fleurier-based watchmaker, inspired as they are by the Bugatti Atalante 57S Sport, one of the only private passenger cars of the 1930s, and embodied in the watch’s sporty character. Its round 43 mm case boasts an original dial styled like a Bugatti radiator grille, chronograph buttons on the left side of the case, and a side view highly reminiscent of the air intakes found on the sports vehicles’ side wings.

The dial of the Bugatti Atalante is inspired by a radiator grille © Parmigiani

Manufacture Caliber PF335 is based on the brand’s first in-house chronograph movement and now incorporates an added flyback mechanism. The chronograph also boasts two tachymeter displays, one allowing high-speed events to be timed (like automobile racing) and one for slower events (walking or running).

“I think this is a very elegant piece with a vintage feel to it, though it is certainly very contemporary as well,” says Michelle Veyna, president of Parmigiani USA.