Hands-on with the Parmigiani Toric Resonance 3 with Instantanious Outsized Date and Snake-Shaped Gongs

Just look at the mere size of that outsized date, that is rightfully called “outsized”. The sheer forces needed to make it change INSTANTANEOUS at midnight, are simply enormous – relatively of course – and it also looks great. Add to that two huge snake-shaped cathedral gongs and that’s what we call a horological masterpiece.

The new Toric Résonance 3 isn’t the first Parmigiani timepiece with a large date and a minute repeater. However it is the first to feature an instantaneous rotation of the colossal date. While the forces needed to the date disks to instantaneously change, might seem small of men, relatively speaking they are HUGE inside the movement. The main focus with such complication, is that these forces may not influence the timepiece’s chronometric performance.

Suppose the power needed for the date change, was restrained from the main spring, through the gear train, all at once. That would cause a huge fluctuation of power in the gear train that also drives the escapement, and therefore influence the timekeeping performance negatively. The solution is to build up that power gradually, over the 24 hours of a day.

The mechanism to build up that power, comprises a double cam system and a large lever. One of the cams accumulates energy during 24 hours. This arms the large lever continuously, releasing it every 24 hours onto a 31-tooth wheel. The second cam plays the crucial role of a brake, by controlling a spring-mounted lever. This device keeps the large date discs permanently immobile, releasing them for just a fraction of a second every 24 hours to allow the instantaneous jump. The result is the biggest instantaneous large date and it changes within 1/100th of a second.

The outsized instantaneous date might look simple, however technically it’s very complex. Another thing that is rather complex, is the minute repeater of the Toric Résonance 3. Again, far from the ordinary, because Parmigiani choose for an unusual, but much more beautiful chiming, gong.

A normal minute repeater gong covers up to 1,5 times the perimeter of the movement. When the gong exceeds that and goes around the movement more than 1,5 times, it is called a cathedral gong. Cathedral gongs have a louder and richer sound, and are thus more desirable. The cathedral gong of the Toric Résonance 3 goes around the movement 2 times and Parmigiani shaped the gong snake-like. Because of this rather unusual shape, the total length of the gong is even longer, and the sound even richer and louder.

The Toric Résonance 3 comes in a 45mm white gold case and features a classic and clean dial, that features a gorgeous hand-made guilloche decoration. Everything, case, dial, all movement parts, visible or not visible, is finished to the max and that is done by hand. It’s a hefty, but oh so beautiful timepiece. A superb chiming timepiece that can rightfully be called a horological masterpiece.

Some specifications:

• Case: 3-part round case, 18 karat white gold, 45 mm in diameter, 14.1 mm in height, water-resistance 10 m (which means it’s not water resistant at all), front sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating
• Movement: calibre PF359, manual winding, outsized date, minute repeater, sounding the hours, quarter-hours and minutes, 48 hours of power reserve, 18,000 vph (2.5 Hz), 33 jewels, 459 components, entirely hand finished
• Functions: hours, minutes, minute repeater, instantaneous big date