Having recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, Swiss watchmaker Parmigiani Fleurier has been rolling out a series of interesting timepieces to commemorate the occasion—but today it announced one watch to rule them all: the Kalpa XL Hebdomadaire Anniversaire.
This handsome watch is built with a simple steel case that contains a movement (the mechanism by which the watch keeps time) constructed from solid gold. It’s the second watch that Parmigiani has made with gold interior technology, but as beautiful as the first one (the Tonda Chronor Anniversaire chronograph) was, it can’t hold a candle to the spectacular detail work seen here. Visible though the Kalpa’s transparent sapphire caseback, the gold movement is covered from tip to tail in ornate dragon tail-shaped embellishment. This PF110 movement is the same as found in the rest of the Kalpa line of watches, but the finishing makes it truly special—not to mention that only one of these will be made. According to the company, it hasn’t been sold yet, so now’s the time to jump if this is something you’re looking for. The price is 70,000 Swiss francs (about $71,000, although the brand says a U.S. buyer can get it for $65,000).
If you miss this one, Parmigiani has said it will release in October a limited-edition series of 10 similar watches that will be “mechanically identical with certain aesthetical differences.”
Now this wasn’t the only bit of news to roll in from Parmigiani over the weekend. Following the lead taken by F.P. Journe, Parmigiani has just announced a series of ladies’ watches powered by its all new, in-house-developed quartz movement. (Rather than a mechanical watch that takes its power from manual winding or automatically charging itself through the movement of your wrist, a quartz watch relies on a battery. Luxury brands tend to value mechanical watches over quartz ones.)
Available in two different case sizes, the Kalpa Piccola and Kalpa Donna Anniversaire watches come in four different mother-of-pearl dial colors and have a limited production run of 96 pieces—a little nod to 1996, the brand’s year of inception. Rival F.P. Journe’s ladies’ Elegante series has become a huge success due to the pairing of quartz grab-and-go practicality with proper luxury watchmaking, and Parmigiani is hoping to find similar popularity at this lower price point. The watches, which will be available in the fall, will retail for 9,900 Swiss francs with a leather strap, and 10,500 Swiss francs with a steel bracelet.