Parmigiani Fleurier Unveils New Qualité Fleurier–Certified Toric Timepiece

Parmigiani Fleurier's first-ever timepiece created by watchmaker Michel Parmigiani, the Toric, has received a new stamp of approval Nestled in the scenic Swiss Alps in the idyllic town of Fleurier in Switzerland's Val-de-Travers, the Fleurier Quality Foundation, founded 14 years ago, rigorously tests the watch's movement and the reliability of its rate and certifies the high-quality craftsmanship of every single tiny component of the timepiece The Qualité Fleurier certification, a five-step process that takes up to six weeks, is a particular point of pride for Michel Parmigiani.

"Very few pieces receive the Qualité Fleurier certification because it's certifying quality the way a car manufacture like Ferrari would," says Parmigiani "The Qualité Fleurier is the F1 of watchmaking We do everything to assure a certain level of perfection.

But it's not possible to do it for the entire collection-it's too expensive because a certain number of watches must be sacrificed to do the crash tests Like the F1, we learn all the information we can about the watches through these tests, and ultimately it improves the quality of our timepieces in general." So what kind of assurances does the Qualité Fleurier certification offer the client? The first step is assuring that the timepiece is 100 percent manufactured in Switzerland, which means that every single tiny component must be sent for verification with a certificate of origin Some of the incredible craftsmanship on the Toric include its decorative knurling technique on its case, which has been created by hand by artisans on every Toric produced since 1997, and a hand-guillochéd dial that also highlights Parmigiani's superior craftsmanship through a rice grain pattern, which is enhanced by solid gold appliqués and javelin-shaped hands-all of which are now Qualité Fleurier certified. Source