Métiers d’Art For Michel - The Parmigiani Fleurier La Ravenale

I rarely show my wife watches these days.

Like a cat bringing a dead bird into the house, my horological enthusiasm is generally met with exasperation and eye rolls. At worst, I get, ‘I don’t care about watches, stop annoying me’, and at best I get ‘that’s nice honey’, as she continues to scroll TikTok. It’s disappointing to say the least. I would much rather ‘So cool!’, or ‘You have excellent taste!’, or the best response of all, ‘Oh wow I think you should buy that’. A man can only dream.

On a whim, however, last week I walked up to her, shoved my phone in between her face and her feed and said, ‘Look at this’.
“Oh, I really like this one” she said back.

I quickly checked if hell had frozen over… nope, this was really happening.

On the screen was the latest in Parmigiani Fleurier’s Objet d’Art Collection, La Ravenale. In my excitement for some attention I went on to explain what it was, who made it and why I liked it.

‘Oh that's the brand that sounds like cheese?, you know, Parmigiana?’
Yes, yes, that's the one… I almost asked her not to disrespect my beloved Parmigiani Fleurier, but in my infinite wisdom, I decided to restrain myself and take the win. She had liked a watch I showed her, and that was good enough for me.

The Objet d’Art Collection

Every year on the 2nd of December, Parmigiani Fleurier launches a special watch to celebrate the brand's founder, Michel Parmigiani’s birthday. These special pieces are a distillation of his philosophies of proportion, harmony, and patience and pay tribute to Michel’s contribution to the watch industry. Usually incorporating restoration and artistic craft, the brand works with partners to produce incredibly intricate and thoughtful watches and looking through the back catalogue, it’s clear that PF throws everything they have at Objet d’Art releases. Not that it holds back with any of its ‘regular’ watches, but they clearly don’t pull any punches when the birthday boy is involved.

Some of my favourites from the collection are the L’armoriale Répétition Mystérieuse, a minute repeating wristwatch with a Guilloché case and no dial from 2024, and the completely insane L’Armoriale, a pocket watch with a minute repeating movement from 1890 that Michel himself restored and modified in 1985. This is no holds barred, balls to the wall watchmaking and is, in my opinion, the only way to celebrate your birthday. My kids better up their game.

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The Parmigiani Fleurier La Ravenale

This year’s birthday celebration brings with it the Objet d’Art La Ravenale, a piece unique Lépine pocket watch powered by a 1920s vintage minute repeating movement. Side note, a ‘Lépine’ pocket watch is one that either has a gear train supported by only one plate (not sandwiched between two) or has the crown positioned at 12 and a small seconds at 6.

The Ravenala Madagascariensis (traveler’s palm of Madagascar) serves as the watch’s central theme. Lending its name, shape and natural patterns to the case, dial, and movement engravings. La Ravenale has a real sense of tension about it, in between the micro and the macro, there’s so much that draws you in. My eye loves to zoom to the details, but I keep having to pull myself back and look at it from a distance. It’s natural, solid, and monolithic. Almost as if it were grown, not made.

A restored movement by Koehn A GENEVE

At the heart of La Ravenale is a restored 1920s minute repeating pocket watch movement by one Edouard Koehn. The once technical director of Patek Philippe founded his manufacture in 1891 so he could explore his own ideas without the drawbacks of working within a large company. Imagine leaving Patek because it’s too restrictive, this is my kind of guy. His creations, used by many of the large brands at the time, are balanced and restrained with nothing superfluous to impede function. You’ve probably seen one of his minute repeaters in an Audemars Piguet Or Vacheron, they’re easy to spot thanks to their iconic ‘three finger’ style bridge architecture that supports part of the gear train.

But why use a vintage movement when there are plenty of modern minute repeating movements to choose from? Well, Our birthday boy Michel opened a restoration workshop called Mesure et Art du Temps in 1976, so there’s historical precedent for selecting vintage here. It’s in his DNA.

The movement has been worked on in Parmigiani Fleurier’s own internal restoration facility and brought back to life in a way that honours it’s history. The bevels have been softly retouched, and the dial side has been cleaned and refinished. Original engravings used to check the accuracy of the minute repeater have also been restored by gently re-working them by hand, a mind-blowing detail that will only be seen by the watchmakers servicing it in the future.

While doing my research for this article, I couldn’t help but think of the Ship of Theseus problem. It’s the Idea that If you were to rebuild a ship, plank by plank, until none of the original wood remains, is it still be the same ship? This idea rings true with the movement here. At what point does a movement by Koehn A GENEVE start to become just a movement blank like any other ébauche?  It’s an interesting question, although I think PF have really nailed it with this one. Looking at it, to me, it still feels very much of the period and retains its vintage charm.

Once the functional restoration has been completed, the movement is handed over to Atelier Blandenier, in Neuchâtel, one of the very last traditional hand engravers in the industry. They take the traveller's palm motif and precisely remove metal from the bridges until it looks like any light that hits their surface is trapped for an eternity before it bounces back to your eyes. It’s truly breathtaking. Even more impressive, is that they have engraved the non-visible bridges too, those that are on the dial side of the movement. You will never see them, but you will know that an extremely talented craftsperson has poured hours into what lesser brands wouldn’t bother with. This watch glows with unseen effort and attention.

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Métiers d’Art Meets Nature

Looking at the movement of La Ravenale, it would be difficult to imagine any other part of the watch being more impressive, but I must say, the case just might take the cake.
An engraved dial is flanked by a bezel adorned with shapes of the traveller's palm. This in itself is beautiful, but turn the watch over, and you’re welcomed by a case back of luminescent opal and jade marquetry created by the wizards at LM Cadrans, a dial specialist based in a small town called Gland just north of Geneva.

The opal sections bring a dynamic green and blue flame effect that looks like it’s backlit by the sun. Seriously. When I was a young, my parents had a little box of rough opals in our garage that they had dug up in the Kimberly Ranges in Western Australia. I remember sitting with the box on my lap and staring at their little windows of fire. It’s an incredibly emotional stone, and one that you don’t see often in watchmaking.

The jade sections are a little more opaque and ground the marquetry with their earthy greens. Note the subtle radiating engravings on the stone that add depth and detail.

Something I missed about the opening case back at first was the scalloping around its edges. It means the case back is almost octagonal but looks perfectly round when closed. I’ll say it again, it’s the tension between the micro and macro that makes this watch so special.

La Ravenale Is All About The Chain

The white gold chain included with La Ravenale was crafted by the one and only Laurent Jolliet, one of the last chaînistes or traditional chain makers left in Switzerland. Laurent was responsible for crafting the beautiful gold bracelet for the Polerouter tribute released in 2025 and is one of the few people on the planet skilled enough to create something of this elegance and sophistication.

The alternating links, one hexagonal and one oval (to mirror the shape of the Parmigiani Fleurier logo) are made by working gold wire by hand, but not in the usual sense. The shape of each link means that repetition cannot be relied upon when working the wire. Each link has to be created separately, and the fact that they alternate in their shape also means that this chain would be impossible to create in any form of industrial process. Being the only piece of the watch visible when used as intended (in the pocket), the chain is arguably one of the most important aesthetic elements of a piece like this. Obviously, Laurent Jolliet didn’t disappoint in this department.

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A Pièce Unique For Everyone

The Objet d’Art Collection is an exercise in bringing people together from the past and the present to create truly unique watches. Unique not just because they are singular, but unique because only this specific group of people could have made them happen. Edouard Koehn, Laurent Jolliet, Atelier Blandenier, the team at LM Cadrans and of course Parmigiani Fleurier have all put their fingerprints on this special project for Michel. The effort is palpable.

La Ravenale, and the entire The Objet d’Art Collection, is a testament to Michel’s philosophy, warmth in design, human centred details and an openness to accept help from others. This is where Parmigiani Fleurier is unique as a brand. There’s very little ego, and creating things ‘in house’ for the sake of it isn’t as important as creating something with incredible people. La Ravenale isn’t just a gift for Parmigiani Fleurier’s founder, it’s a gift to an industry that desperately needs his attitude, individualism, freedom, warmth, and creativity.

Happy Birthday Mr Parmigiani!

Cya in the next one X