TIME SET TO MUSIC
The first two weeks of July are a musical landmark each year with the arrival of the Montreux Jazz Festival, an essential event for music-lovers, including for Parmigiani, which has dedicated two exclusive watches to the festival.
You don’t need to be a music fan to have heard of the Montreux Jazz Festival at least once in your life (even though you might not actually have been there). This unique event, created in 1967 and taking place in the first two weeks of July in Montreux, Switzerland, brings together highly diverse musical styles on its three stages. The programme for 2018 is a skilfull blend of genres, ranging from the UK group Massive Attack, the founders of trip-hop in the 1990s, to the Brazilian Gilberto Gil via N.E.R.D, the launchpad for Pharrell Williams, and not forgetting some icons from the 1970s (Deep Purple, Iggy Pop) and 1980s (Etienne Daho, Billy Idol), to name but a few. This year, for the 11th time in a row, the event is being marked by the collaboration of Parmigiani, which has seized the chance to design two Special Edition Montreux Jazz Festival Kalpa 2018 watches: the Kalpa Grande and the Kalparisma. The exclusive duo is limited to just five pieces each and has the words “Montreux Jazz Festival 2018“ engraved on the back.
The barrel-shaped cases are made of steel and measure 40.8 x 34mm for the Kalpa Grande and 37.5 x 31.2mm for the Kalparisma, which is also coated in 46 diamonds. The cases house the PF331 calibre, a self-winding movement providing 55 hours of power reserve.
Each silvery dial is decorated with a piano-keyboard pattern and gilded triangular hour markers with delta-shaped hour and minute hands above. The seconds are off-centred and shown in a blued sub-dial that also features the date in a fan-shaped window.
Price: 12,000 CHF (Kalpa Grande) – 15,000 CHF (Kalparisma)
By Sharmila Bertin