An artistic masterpiece and one of mechanical genius

More than 2-billion people around the world will be celebrating the Chinese or Lunar New Year in some way this weekend. This is the Year of the Rabbit and as always there are special edition timepieces with exquisite handcrafted art dials to mark the occasion. Yet, the Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Xiali Calendar stands out as an artistic masterpiece and one of mechanical genius that acknowledges this new year as well as those for generations to come through the elegant Imperial red dial of what is the first complete Chinese calendar watch.

Our unhealthy relationship with the modern concept of time has made us slaves to global neoliberalism and caused us to be out of touch with nature and its cycles. According to Michel Parmigiani, founder and master watchmaker, the ancient clocks and calendars such as those from the Mayan or the Toltec cultures were created for a more harmonious existence, “to understand nature’s seasons, to plan the times for sowing seeds and harvesting crops, to anticipate and manage the winter’s cold and the summer’s heat. The calendar exists because we need to anticipate the phenomena of nature’s nurturing.”

While each animal sign of the Chinese zodiac has a perpetual element – wood for the rabbit this year – each year is also linked to an element: 2023 is water. Water is life, it makes up more than 50% of our body weight and connects us with all other living things. It also represents our moon and is the most yin in character. It is more feminine and grounded energy. Let’s hope that, combined with the yang energy of wood, the optimism, confidence and traditionally yin character of the rabbit will at the very least bring more balance to our world this year.

This is not the manufacture’s first horological interpretation of cultural calendars. The Xiali (a translation of Chinese Traditional Complete Calendar) forms an impressive trilogy with the Gregorian Annual Calendar and the Tonda Hijri Perpetual Calendar (Muslim calendar), which received the Grand Prix D’Horlogerie de Genève for Innovation in 2020.

“Calendars are a radiography of civilisations,” says Parmigiani. “It’s something magical because the calendar comes from the observation of humans as well as of nature. Nature is full of codes that are beautiful to discover. It’s always harder to talk about nature when you are in an urban area. It’s better to immerse oneself in nature and its rhythms in order to create and to stimulate creativity. By observing nature, one can travel through history and trace the development of civilisations.”

A calendar is one of the most high-end complications, a work of miniaturisation that requires the skill of master architects to create the extremely efficient, accurate movements that display date, day, month and sometimes moon phases, but which automatically take account of the various cycles. Unlike the Gregorian calendar, the Chinese calendar names the lunar years and numbers the months, which becomes even more complex given that the Chinese calendar is not cyclical. To account for this, the new Calibre PF008 movement has been mechanically programmed but must be reset every 12 years.

The Calibre PF008 also calculates and synchronises elements of the solar and lunar calendars. This is achieved by adding an extra lunar month, allowing the two cycles to coincide. The Chinese calendar also splits the solar year by 24, called solar terms or breaths, which represent the agricultural calendar. These are displayed around the outer circle of the dial.

The rabbit is the fourth of the 12 zodiac signs, which correspond to the 12 Earthly Branches. These in turn are paired with the Celestial Stems as a 60-year calendar cycle. The subdial at 12 o’clock displays the name of the year, 12 animals of the zodiac, and corresponding yin or yang elements. The months and days are found at 9 and 3 o’clock respectively, and a moon phase indication is positioned at 6 o’clock.

Its 42mm stainless steel case features the familiar Tonda-style knurled bezel in 950 platinum, and is paired with an elegant polished and satin-finished steel integrated bracelet. The open caseback shows off the incredible movement with its 18-carat pink gold skeletonised oscillating weight.

Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Xiali Calendar, POA; parmigiani.com or Picot & Moss 011 325 4119.