Parmigiani Fleurier has reason to celebrate going into its 20th Anniversary marking not only impressive growth of its UK retail network but also by smashing sales targets at its London boutique.
Exhibiting at SIHH this week, the Swiss brand’s UK general manager Matthew Cundy reported that the brand had enjoyed a ‘record year’ in 2015 and that its Mount Street boutique in London’s Mayfair had reached its sales targets halfway through the year.
Cundy stated that the extraordinary performance of the boutique was down to continuing sales of expensive, high complication watches.
Parmigiani also reported successful growth of its UK retailer network, increasing the number of point of sales from three to 20 in the space of a year.
The presentation at SIHH 2016 in Geneva, where Parmigiani was one of 24 luxury watch brands exhibiting to the global watch industry, also witnessed two developments that were the talk of the show.
The first was the Tonda Chronor Anniversaire, a traditional split-second chronograph with grande date and a solid gold movement. The six-figure watch from a brand that is universally respected gives Parmigiani a product that can go toe-to-toe with the traditional king of the split-second chronograph, Patek Philippe.
Parmigiani’s second announcement heralded the arrival of a new and exclusive low power consumption silicon escapement, the Senfine (pictured), which is being developed by Parmigiani’s movement house Vaucher. The invention reduces the traditional friction points of the escapement to almost nothing through the use of silicon and a radically different architecture. The system also replaces the traditional low-speed, high amplitude balance wheel model with a silicon wheel beating at 16hz and travelling through just 16 degrees.
When ready in a projected two years, the Sefine escapement will allow for the creation of watches with 70-day power reserves and the technology is exclusive to Parmigiani Fleurier.
