Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Hijri Perpetual Calendar

In 2011, the inception of the Hijri Calendar Table Clock by Michel Parmigiani, inspired by the meticulous restoration of a pocket watch featuring an Arabic calendar, marked a significant milestone. This innovation reached a pinnacle when it transitioned into the compact form of the Hijri Perpetual Calendar, clinching the 2020 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) Innovation Prize. Advancing its legacy, Parmigiani Fleurier unveiled the Tonda PF Hijri Perpetual Calendar in 2023, showcasing a reimagined design ethos encased in platinum, distinguished by its streamlined dial.

Expanding its horological repertoire, Parmigiani Fleurier now presents the latest iteration of the Tonda PF Hijri Perpetual Calendar, this time encased in stainless steel and adorned with a striking Viridian green dial. This timepiece serves as a modern chronicle of the Tabular Islamic calendar, a legacy of the 8th-century Muslim scholars and astronomers. It enables the translation of Islamic dates to their Gregorian counterparts, anchored in the year 622 CE by the Prophet Muhammad’s migration, an event pivotal to the Hijri calendar.

Differing from the solar and lunisolar calendars, the Hijri calendar’s lunar basis orchestrates a 30-year cycle, with each year spanning 12 months of 29 or 30 days, resulting in a blend of common and abundant years. The calendar also delineates four sacred months, fostering a time of peace, reflection, and heightened piety, including the consecutively occurring Dhul-Qa’dah, Dhul-Hijjah, and Muharram, with Rajab positioned at the year’s mid-point, leading up to Ramadan, the ninth month marked by fasting from dawn until dusk.

The Tonda PF Hijri Perpetual Calendar manifests these temporal intricacies within its 100m water-resistant stainless-steel architecture, featuring a harmonious interplay of satin and polished finishes. Its 950 platinum fluted bezel complements the stainless-steel bracelet, while the viridian green dial boasts a hand-finished Grain d’Orge guilloché, illuminated by 18k gold applied hour markers and skeletonized hands, accented with rhodium plating.

At its heart, the Caliber PF009 automatic movement pulsates, distinguished by its beveled bridges and a skeletonized platinum rotor, adorned with Côtes de Genève and perlage. This movement informs the watch’s complex dial layout, which intelligently displays the 30-year cycle, numbered months with Ramadan in vivid red, days of the month, and a moon phase display, elegantly rendered in blue aventurine, showcasing the moon’s position in both hemispheres.