Parmigiani brings new precision to the dual time-zone watch
Imagined by Michel Parmigiani, the Kalpa Hemispheres is a dual time-zone watch whose second time zone can be adjusted to the minute. And if that weren’t enough of an achievement, the Manufacture is ready to start deliveries.
Christophe Roulet
Speaking at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), Michel Parmigiani explained the origins of the Kalpa Hemispheres watch: "I was talking to yachtsman Bernard Stamm. He told me how, as a navigator, he was always moving between time zones and that he found it hard to get his bearings using the existing watches on the market. He also wanted to adapt his body rhythm to these constant changes, i.e. the movement of the sun. I worked on this to come up with a dual time-zone watch whose second time zone can be set to the minute, with both hour hands synchronised to a 24-hour calendar. The idea wasn’t to make two watches in one but a single movement that would immediately give time in the second zone, whether it varies by an hour, a quarter-hour or a half-hour, as is more and more frequently the case. That is the whole beauty of this watch. We are the only ones to propose this very useful and I hope very aesthetic complication."
Two independent time zones
The wearer of the Kalpa Hemispheres can therefore change local time or destination time at will, as the hours and minutes of each one are entirely independent of the other. Parmigiani has fitted two crowns on the right of the case, one to set the second time zone and the other to wind the movement, adjust the date and set local time. All this thanks to a complex system of clutches and gears built on one of the Manufacture’s base movements.
"The major difficult with this calibre is the assembly," Michel Parmigiani explains, "as each part must be adjusted to obtain a reliable mechanism. Here we have an instrument which, characteristically, requires human input. You might think there was nothing left to invent in watchmaking, but there is always the potential to develop something new. The Kalpa Hemispheres watch is a concrete example of this, without heading off into extremely complex complications." First presented on the Indian market, whose time zones vary by half-hours, the Kalpa Hemispheres was immediately and enthusiastically welcomed. Many countries, such as Nepal, certain Pacific islands and more recently Venezuela, have adopted far more precise time zones than the usual one-hour slices, whereas China has a single nationwide time zone. The tendency, it seems, is therefore towards time zones that reflect geographic reality more than just political considerations.
Two years in the making
"Two years went by from the first pencil strokes to production of this watch, with its 300 parts," adds Michel Parmigiani. "We aim to start deliveries immediately after the SIHH. This is important from a commercial point of view and means we can take new orders the same year… a non-negligible detail as we want to step up production from the current level of 5,000 to 10,000 by 2010 and in doing so be present everywhere through some 300 points of sale." For Parmigiani to start deliveries so soon, it had to forward-plan production to the letter. Indeed, while movements, dials and even cases are very much vertically-integrated, supplier delivery times being what they are, the Manufacture often finds itself short on small parts.
"Careful though!" Michel Parmigiani warns, "there will be no cutting corners, something I see certain companies now doing. We mustn’t underestimate competition from watch-producing countries such as India and China. It’s in our own best interest to maintain a rigorous professional standard. Ultimately, we have just one card in hand: we can set people dreaming thanks to exceptional products. Now if we were to lose that through lack of care…" ■
