Before Michel Parmigiani released his first line of Parmigiani watches in 1996, his chief renown was for his work in timepiece restoration. Inspired by his earlier work, the master watchmaker and president of Parmigiani created two exquisite timepieces that were showcased at the SIHH fair this year.
Visitors to the fair in January were treated to an exhibition of masterpieces from the Sandoz collection.
The 20 historic pieces from the 19th century were restored by Parmigiani himself, and among the selection were the Peacock Egg automaton and Yousoupoff Egg, both by Faberge, La Cueillette des Cerises chiming pocket watch and the Mirror with songbird by Freres Rochat.
His experience restoring the pieces inspired the watchmaker to develop two timepieces that would reflect the beauty and intricate detail seen in those works of art.
In honour of Leonardo Pisano, who was nicknamed 'Fibonacci' and recognised by many as the greatest mathematician of the Middle Ages, Parmigiani created a pocket watch that pays tribute to his work on the Fibonacci sequence and the resulting golden ratio.
The Fibonacci sequence starts with 0 and 1, with each subsequent number being the sum of the previous two.
As the sequence lengthens, the ratio between the neighbouring numbers approaches 1.618, otherwise known as the golden ratio.
