Each December, Parmigiani Fleurier celebrates its founder, Michel Parmigiani, with a unique creation. And this year, to honour his 75th birthday, the maison revealed La Ravenale.
The name derives from the Ravenala Madagascariensis – Madagascar’s Traveller’s Palm – whose perfect fan symmetry follows the laws of the Golden Ratio.
This spirit informs the engraving that animates the case, dial and bridges, as well as the opal-andjade marquetry adorning the caseback, a composition that balances reflection and stillness, sky and earth.
More than a visual creation, La Ravenale is a timepiece that speaks. Its minute repeater – restored from a historical Ed. Koehn calibre numbered 78708, dating back to the 1920s – conveys time through sound. On demand, the watch strikes the hours, quarters and minutes on two distinct tones: a low note for the hours, a high note for the minutes and a blend of both for the quarters. Two precisely tuned gongs give the timepiece its acoustic identity, carefully refined to regain the clarity and balance of its original voice.
The ultra-thin Ed. Koehn movement – with central hours, minutes, and small seconds at six o’clock – has been revived through a process where time itself becomes material. Its bridges, engraved with palm-inspired motifs, unite mechanical structure with natural geometry, turning precision into ornament.
Michel Parmigiani’s private reserve of antique movements, nearly 30 calibres gathered over decades, is the source of this mechanism.
Each was safeguarded for the day it could return to life; La Ravenale fulfils that long held intention.
Restoration required intuition, patience and an uncompromising respect for authenticity. With no spare components available, every original part was preserved. Jewels frictionset into the bridges and mainplate, remained in place during engraving; anglage and découvertes were finished with traditional wooden-peg tools; historical calibration-marks were re-established by hand, renewing a dialogue that began a century ago.
The repeater mechanism remains discreetly integrated. Nothing on the dial reveals its presence; the slide activating the chiming sequence blends seamlessly into the case architecture.
The white-gold case reveals a double back adorned with opal and jade marquetry.
The dial displays a deep blue achieved through a calibrated PVD treatment, depositing an ultra-thin layer of colour in a vacuum to create exceptional chromatic depth, a contemporary gesture within an object shaped by ancestral craft.
Master artisans were used to translate Parmigiani Fleurier’s ideals into form. Their work spans engraved bridges, sculpted gold, stone marquetry and a hand-forged chain requiring nearly one hundred hours to complete by Switzerland’s last master chainmaker.
La Ravenale reflects the discipline and grace that have defined Michel Parmigiani’s journey, a creation where time, craft, and proportion converge.
Please visit parmigiani.com for more information.
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