The Hegirian Calendar from Parmigiani
PARMIGIANI
WORLD PREMIERE
The clock
with a thirty-year continuous lunar calendar
 |
| Courtesy of Parmigiani "The calendar is an eminently fascinating watchmaking complication, as it really is the mirror of civilisations" Michel Parmigiani. |
Never
before in the history of watchmaking has a Hegirian mechanical continuous
calendar been invented by a Swiss Haute Horlogerie company. The only one of its
kind in the world and achieved after many years of research, the Parmigiani
thirty-year continuous lunar calendar clock indicates the time over a lunar
cycle lasting 30 years, alternating the 19 normal years with 11 leap years.
Based on the ephemerides from the Paris Observatory, Parmigiani Fleurier's
thirty-year lunar calendar is theoretical as it is based
on the observation of the celestial mechanical movement.
The lunar
or Hegirian calendar.
The lunar
calendar, a base shared by the Hegirian or Islamic calendar, is calculated on a
year of 12 lunar months, each alternating either 29 or 30 days. The Hegirian
year, shorter than the Gregorian year, has 354 or 355 days. This difference,
due to the last lunar month which contains 29 or 30 days, determines the years
known as "normal" years with 354 days and the 'leap' years which have
355 days. The most common thirty-year periodical lunar cycle alternates 19
normal years with 11 leap years. These leap years occur on years 2, 5, 7, 10,
13, 16, 18, 21, 24, 26, and 29.
The lunar
month starts when the moon is in line with the sun when seen from the earth,
known as the conjunction. The month is defined as the average duration of one
orbit of the moon around the earth (approximately 29.53 days). But to the naked
eye, the first crescent of the moon may be visible from Morocco but not from
Kuwait.
A technical
feat.
The first
studies and the registration of the patent for the continuous thirty-year
calendar had already been orchestrated by Michel Parmigiani and date back to
1993. Inspired by a restoration that he carried out on a simple Hegirian
calendar, Michel Parmigiani then successfully led this study which can now be
counted as an absolute world first, as no lunar calendar had ever been designed
to operate continuously. Requiring no intervention from the user, the
continuous calendar automatically corrects the lunar cycle. In addition, the
clock offers a choice of two leap year cycles. The user simply needs to know
the type of calendar used in the current location, and to set the clock
accordingly.
This
extraordinary invention is a milestone advancing the understanding and
development of a Hegirian calendar and paying tribute to the Islamic calendar.
The
Parmigiani clock, which has an autonomy of 30 days, has been produced
exclusively in the Haute Horlogerie brand's own workshops. Its dial shows the
hours and minutes, the date in Arabic numerals, the day of the week and the
month in Arabic calligraphy, the leap years in Arabic numerals and the normal
years in the form of indices, the precision moon phases and the power
reserve. The cabinet and base are
made from solid silver, with decorative details in black obsidian, quartz and
ruby. Ten of these clocks, all created with a unique finish and aesthetic, will
be available to the public.
Labels: Hegirian Calendar, Lunar, Parmigiani
posted by blog@chronometers.org
at
19:59
