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Michael Thompson

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When Parmigiani Fleurier debuted its first set of Tonda PF watches just a few years ago, the watchmaker called the then-new series sartorial, with a look inspired by fine clothing design.

Wearing one of the earliest models to emerge from the collection, the Tonda PF Micro-Rotor Steel Slate, gave me a new appreciation of that reference and a clearer idea of why the description so aptly applies.

The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Micro-Rotor Steel Slate.

On the wrist the watch feels lighter than you might expect from a solid steel bracelet watch, especially one with a relatively weighty platinum bezel and a solid platinum micro-rotor. Both these flourishes of high-end watchmaking weighed more on my psyche than on my wrist.

Knowing that this rare and highly coveted element was built in to my (borrowed) timepiece conveyed a warm feeling of luxury. This is in part intended I presume, considering Parmigiani Fleurier rightfully humble brags about using platinum on and within the Tonda PF series.

Notes of the precious metal enhanced my enjoyment of the many details Parmigiani Fleurier builds into its watches. Wearing the Tonda PF Micro-Rotor for a week, I also enjoyed other built-in details, some sartorial and some technical, that added to the pleasure.

For instance, after staring at the slate-colored matte guilloché dial for some time I was delighted to realize that the date window perfectly matches the dial’s minute track. The longish hands, cut from real gold, are open-worked to nicely expose the slate dial.

The watch’s gently knurled platinum bezel reflects the ambient light and provides a distinctive yet subtle  – yes, sartorial frame for the hands, date and dial.  

As the 40mm watch is only 7.8mm thick thanks to the space saving micro-rotor powering its automatic Caliber PF703, the Tonda PF Micro-Rotor Steel Slate slips easily under a long sleeve. (Note that even the newer, smaller (36mm) steel Tonda PF Automatic 36, at 8.6mm thick with a traditional full-size rotor, rests slightly higher on the wrist than this earlier example.)

Wearing the watch during a warm summer, I didn’t quite try out this particular attribute, but I’m confident that the Tonda PF Micro-Rotor Steel Slate would slide nicely under even a tight-fitting cuff. 

Parmigiani Fleurier updated the Tonda bracelet when introducing the new Tonda PF collection two years ago. Now wider near the bezel and narrower along the length, the bracelet is silky smooth and feels slimmer than it appears. It offers an eye-catching horizontal-satin-finished surface that perfectly echoes the upper surface of the lugs.

I enjoyed wearing the Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Micro-Rotor Steel Slate very much and would happily recommend it to any collector in search of a comfortable steel dress watch with loads of genuine luxury detail. Price: $22,900.

Specifications: Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Micro-Rotor Steel Slate

Movement: Automatic Caliber PF703 with platinum micro-rotor and 48-hour power reserve, 21,600 vph.

Case: 40mm by 7.8mm steel with platinum bezel, anti-reflective sapphire crystal and sapphire back. Water resistance to 100 meters. 

Dial: Slate grey Guilloché Grain d’orge, delta-shaped custom hands, rhodium plated applique markers. 

Bracelet: Steel with horizontal satin finish.

Price: $22,900. 

Grand Seiko continues to commemorate the quarter-century anniversary of its excellent Caliber 9S mechanical movement series with a new release of two GMT watches —one sporty model and one dressy edition—each powered by a specific edition of the caliber.

The new Grand Seiko Sport Collection GMT Caliber 9S 25th Anniversary Limited Edition SBGJ275.

Both watches feature dials that echo the skies over Mt. Iwate, in the Iwate Prefecture in Japan, where Grand Seiko hand-assembles its watches.

One model, the Sport Collection GMT Caliber 9S 25th Anniversary Limited Edition SBGJ275, underscores its artistic source of inspiration with a dial specifically meant to mimic the dense clouds at daybreak over Mt. Iwate, when humid air creates a blue and white tapestry.

Grand Seiko of course also provides a terrific view on the back of the new watch. Through the clear sapphire crystal case back you’ll see the movement’s titanium rotor, which the watchmaker has tinted light blue by using an anodic oxidation process.

The back of the sporty SBGJ275 GMT.

Not only is the back design noteworthy aesthetically and technically, it marks the first time Grand Seiko has placed a clear caseback on a mechanical watch with water resistance of 200 meters.

Back on the front, you’ll see a sapphire blue and white rotating bezel marked to indicate three time zones. Grand Seiko fits its Hi-Beat GMT Caliber 9S86 to power the watch, providing a frequency of 36,000 vph and very stable  precision. The 2,000-piece limited edition is priced at $7,600. 

Dressy model

On the dressier side of the debuts is the new Grand Seiko Elegance Collection Caliber 9S 25th Anniversary Limited Edition SBGM253.

The new Grand Seiko Elegance Collection Caliber 9S 25th Anniversary Limited Edition SBGM253.

This model is certainly more classical than the sporty debut, and its dial presents a more serene sunray finished blue dial depicting the sky over Mt. Iwate on a clear day.

Without the sporty bezel, this debut instead boasts a dressy mirror-finished bezel and case with curved lugs with a Zaratsu mirror finish and box-shaped sapphire crystal.

Like the sporty model, the model SBGM253 also clears a view to its movement, here a Caliber 9S66 GMT set with a titanium rotor also colored blue using the same anodic oxidation treatment as used on SBGJ275.

Caseback view of the new Grand Seiko SBGM253.

Like the sports model, the dressy debut allows for multiple timezone display, here two zones rather than three.

The movement allows the wearer to adjust the local hour hand independently while the tempered blue GMT hand can be aligned to a second time zone as indicated on the blue 24-hour scale.

A limited edition of 1,700, the watch is priced at $5,600.

 

Specifications: Grand Seiko Sport Collection Caliber 9S 25th Anniversary Limited Edition: SBGJ275 

(Limited edition of 2,000) 

Movement: Automatic Caliber 9S86, frequency: 36,000 vibrations per hour (10 beats per second) Accuracy (mean daily rate): +5 to –3 seconds per day, power reserve: 55 hours, GMT hand. Water resistance is 200 meters and magnetic resistance to 4,800 A/m.

Dial: Blue and white cloud pattern.

Case: 44.2mm by 14.8mm stainless steel, dual-curved sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating See-through screw case back.

Bracelet: Three-fold clasp with push-button release.
Price: $7,600.

 

Specifications: Grand Seiko Elegance Collection
Caliber 9S 25th Anniversary Limited Edition: SBGM253 

(Limited edition of 1,700)

Movement: Automatic Caliber 9S66, frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour, accuracy (mean daily rate): +5 to –3 seconds per day, power reserve: 72 hours, GMT hand.

Case: 39.5mm by 13.7mm stainless steel, box-shaped sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating, see-through screw case back, water resistance to 30 meters, magnetic resistance to 4,800 A/m.

Dial: Sunray blue.
Bracelet: Three-fold clasp with push-button release.
Price: $5,600 

Swiss watchmaker Cvstos has been making avant-garde mechanical watches for eighteen years at workshops in the center of Geneva, with production facilities just outside the city. 

Specializing in bold, tonneau-shaped watches, Cvstos reports that it concentrates primarily on creating an “ultra-contemporary, yet sporty dimension to the most sophisticated complications.”

The Cvstos Challenge Sealiner PS.

Among the latest set of Cvstos debuts, the Challenge Sealiner PS certainly embodies all those descriptions. At 41mm by 54mm, the watch’s impressive sapphire case is endowed with a non-reflective coating on both sides and is affixed with specialized Cvstos polished titanium screws.

And while the sapphire case allows a clear view of the movement from the back, it’s the teak dial that really sets the watch apart from other nautically themed models.

Just below the stylized luminous hands (including a very cool propeller-shaped small-seconds hand) lies a teak-wood plate, echoing the woodwork found on many an ocean-cruising yacht.

Additional Challenge models include examples with colorful sapphires set in titanium framing the teak plate.

Cvstos will make twenty-five examples of the Challenge Sealiner PS with orange or turquoise dial and crown accents and matching rubber strap.  Price: $49,500. 

Specifications: Cvstos Challenge Sealiner PS

 (A limited edition of 25 in each of two colors) 

Case: Tonneau-shaped 53.7 x 41 mm sapphire crystal with non-reflective coating on both sides.

Caseback is open with sapphire crystal. Crown is screw-down with polished titanium Grade 5 or 5N rose gold rubber insert. Polished titanium (grade 5) screws in exclusive pattern.

Dial: Teak wood plate, rhodium-plated or golden decorative applique polished with Côte de Genève finish. Colorful sapphire indexes and Super-Luminova treated hands.

Movement: Skeletonized Cvstos CVS410, self-winding mechanical with 42-hour power reserve. 

Bracelet/Strap: Rubber, alligator leather or Alcantara with folding clasp.

Price: $49,500. 

Bell & Ross introduces a new size to its BR 03 ‘circle-within-a square’ series, adding six models with a 41mm square case size.

Among the debuts is this model with an attractive copper dial, achieved through a galvanization process and enhanced by engraved black numerals and indexes.

Smaller by 1mm, watches in the new series also include a slimmer strap, narrower lug distance (from 4.5mm to 4.0mm) and a new automatic movement, BR-CAL.302, a Sellita-based caliber with an extended power reserve of fifty-four hours. All remain water resistant to 100 meters.

For the first time Bell & Ross combines a matte black ceramic case with a khaki dial on this new BR 03 Military Ceramic.

“With the new BR03, we modified the proportions of the collection by respecting its canons,” explains Bruno Belamich, Bell & Ross’ co-founder and Creative Director. “Our goal was to preserve the identity that has made the BR03 so successful, while adapting it to the new times and maintaining its allure.”

Look for three new models in a black case: Black Matte, Phantom and Heritage, as well as three new versions in polished steel – Black Steel, Blue Steel and Golden Heritage.

The latter feature truly retro black, blue and brown dials. Among the debuts is a models sporting a distinctive new copper dial model and another in a sharp-looking khaki-colored ceramic case.

Prices: $3,600 to $4,300.

Citizen marks its ongoing partnership with ispace’s Hakuto-R space program with a new Attesa Eco-Drive watch encased in 42mm of Super Titanium, which Hakuto-R also uses on the legs of the project’s lunar lander.

The latest Citizen Attesa Hakuto-R Collaboration includes a galaxy-styled dial.

Citizen then treats the case and the matching Super Titanium bracelet with Duratect DLC to both darken and protect them.  

The glittery dial on the new Attesa underscores the watch’s galactic theme. Citizen has devised a beautiful purple and blue hue, which it created from recycled polycarbonate printed with structural color ink developed by the FujiFilm Corporation.

The dial reflects and refracts light and features silvery accents that echo the look of glittering stars and nebulae.

To emphasize the limited edition nature of the watch, Citizen engraves the Hakuto-R logo on the back of the all-black case back.

As the Citizen Attesa Hakuto-R is a radio-controlled watch powered by light, it is among the most user friendly analog world timer/perpetual calendars available. Adding to that ease is Citizen’s “Direct Flight,” a name for the easy adjustment of the time and date in twenty-six times zones with just a turn of the crown. 

Citizen will make 2,700 Attesa Hakuto-R Collaboration watches, each priced at $1,495.