The Parmigiani Fleurier Ionica was Michel Parmigiani’s first fully in-house creation for the brand, introduced in the 1990s. With a tonneau case, the now iconic double stepped bezels, javelin hands and a hugely impressive (even by today’s standards) 8 days power reserve from the in-house calibre PF 110, the Ionica was a watch way ahead of it’s time.

It did not sell out easily at the time, likely because of the prices, close to 31,000 euros for the white gold variant and slightly lesser for rose gold. That being said, you’d be hard pressed to find a watch of similar quality and finishing retailing at below 50,000 euros today.

The eggshell coloured dial features a “barleycorn” guilloche dial (now more commonly seen on the Tonda collection) in 18k gold with rhodium-plated Arabic numerals.

The winding-crown in 18k white gold is also set with a genuine sapphire cabochon.

Taking a closer look at the movement, the bridges are shaped like flowers, with excellent hand finished Geneva stripes, and well rounded and highly polished anglage. The bridges covering the gear train display very sharp inward angles requiring considerable hand finishing, something you don’t even see from the holy trinity or Lange these days.

Whilst early Franck Muller, Daniel Roth, Roger Dubuis have all been widely appreciated and subsequently seen their values skyrocket, early Parmigiani, especially the Ionica, has remained relatively underrated and underappreciated.

This particular example from 2001 comes as a full set, with inner and outer boxes, warranty booklet, manual and white gold buckle. Now available, DM for enquiries.

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