In the Islamic calendar, chronology starts from the Hijra - the moment of the prophet Mohammed's resettlement from Mecca to Medina in 622. The calendar consists of 12 months with a duration of 20 or 30 days depending on the lunar fa and is designed to calculate the days of Islamic holidays. The length of the year in the lunar calendar is 10–12 days shorter than in the solar calendar, adopted in Western countries. At the same time, the months are not assigned to the seasons, as in the Gregorian calendar, but move through different seasons.
For the first time, the calendar system of the lunar cycles of the Hijri became a complication in a wristwatch. However, the Hijri Perpetual Calendar was preceded by a table clock by Michel Parmigiani in 2011. The watchmaker began developing the function of the perpetual lunar calendar back in 1993, three years before the founding of the Parmigiani Fleurier brand, during the restoration of a pocket watch with the Hijri calendar.
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On the slate-gray dial of the Hijri Perpetual Calendar, the house logo and the signature “Swiss made” are inscribed in Latin script - the rest of the inscriptions are in Arabic. The names and lengths of months are inscribed in knit, the numbers of the date indicator are indicated in Arabic letters. The 30-year cycle of the Islamic calendar includes 11 leap years, 355 days long and 19 usual 354 days long. This information is read in a window at 12 o'clock: leap years are marked with orange numbers, ordinary ones with white dots.
In addition to the current time and calendar function, the watch has a lunar phase indicator made of aventurine glass. The design of the automatic caliber PF009 is inspired by Arab architecture: the bridges are made in the form of crescents and the Rub al-Hizb symbol in the form of two squares superimposed on each other at an angle. The platinum case is complemented by a black Hermès alligator strap. The buyer has the opportunity to customize the purchased copy.>