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Parmigiani Fleurier’s ‘Tailored’ Design Highlights New Tonda PF

Parmigiani Fleurier updates its Tonda collection with a cleaner, pared-down sub-collection dubbed Tonda PF. The new line exhibits a less ornamented Tonda dial design, which the watchmaker attributes to a carefully considered ‘sartorial’ approach to the update.

The new Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF collection includes a chronograph, a split-seconds chronograph, an annual calendar and a two-hand, time and date model. With the exception of the split-seconds edition, the three new Tonda PF debuts are all available in steel with a platinum hand-knurled bezel or in a rose gold case.

It’s not just the wide-open dials that characterize the new Tonda PF. The newly designed, extra-long openwork hands are now made of solid gold. The new bezel echoes many of the brand’s original Tonda designs, but adds a subtle knurling that, surprise, is made by hand in luxurious platinum.

The bezel on each steel Tonda PF is hand-cut in platinum.

This rare combination speaks volumes about the details Parmigiani Fleurier has built into this handsome new collection. Ever modest, the watchmaker claims the platinum flourish is “Not for the sake of exclusivity, but because it provides a better, shinier play with light and a more artisanal feeling once polished by hand.”

In my mind the platinum bezel is a hidden treasure – not unlike Parmigiani Fleurier itself.

And finally, Parmigiani Fleurier has updated the bracelet for the new collection. Now wider near the bezel and narrower along the length, the bracelet exudes a tailored approach to watchmaking and likely feels slimmer when worn. The horizontal-satin-finished surface here perfectly echoes the upper surface of the lugs.

The new Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Micro-Rotor.

Tonda Automatic with PF Micro-Rotor

This slim 40mm by 7.8mm two-hander underscores its name with a luxurious platinum micro-rotor to echo the bezel (on the steel model).

The precious oscillating weight (pictured above) powers the latest iteration of Parmigiani Fleurier’s caliber PF703. The dressy date/time display offers a date disc colored to exactly matches the minute track, all placed within a matte guilloché dial, and cut to a turn. Prices: $22,900 (steel) and $53,900 (rose gold).

The new Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Micro-Rotor, in rose gold case and bracelet.

The Tonda PF Chronograph

With its integrated high-frequency (5 Hz, or 36,000 vph) Caliber PF070 movement, this 42mm model retains a clean two-register chronograph layout alongside a small seconds subdial. The new lightly guillochéd dial design extends to its bezel with a sandblasted minute track and counter edges.

The Tonda PF Chronograph

The case is dressy, with subtle teardrop pushers, and when turned over reveals a beautifully finished openwork rose gold rotor with a PF logo (pictured below). Prices: $31,000 (steel) and $69,700 (rose gold).

The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Chronograph, in rose gold.

Tonda PF Annual Calendar

In its 42mm case, Parmigiani Fleurier’s Caliber PF339 powers the Annual Calendar, which displays a retrograde date, day, month and a moon phase aperture, showing both hemispheres.

The new Tonda PF Annual Calendar.

New here is Parmigiani Fleurier’s placement of the date onto the minute track and a careful addition of subtle subdial outlines to a grey guilloché dial. The dial font is ultra clean and the moon phase indicators seem to glow against the dial. Prices: $38,700 (steel) and $77,500 (rose gold).

The new Tonda PF Annual Calendar, rose gold edition.

The Tonda PF Split Seconds Chronograph

At the top of the collection’s price range, this complicated model is offered as a limited series of twenty-five, meant to celebrate the brand’s twenty-fifth birthday.

The watch offers a dial, case and bracelet made of platinum and a stunningly beautiful high frequency, open-worked movement built from gold. The watch’s integrated split-seconds chronograph allows the user to time two events starting at the same time, down to the tenth of a second.

The Tonda PF Split Seconds Chronograph.

If a gold movement and platinum case aren’t luxurious enough, add on the platinum bracelet to match the case and you have a genuine high-end offering in every sense of the word.

The Caliber PF361 inside the watch is a new version of Parmigiani Fleurier’s most high-end caliber, namely the inspired and GPHG-award winning ChronOr. In addition to a solid rose gold mainplate we see extensively open-worked, satin-finished and beveled bridges. Exquisite. $171,600.

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The Watches

TAG Heuer Re-Lights Night Diver

TAG Heuer today expands its Aquaracer Professional 300 collection with three new watches. Two models with blue and black dials, first seen in April as steel bracelet models when TAG Heuer upgraded the deep-diving collection, are now offered with matching rubber strap options.

A third debut echoes a favorite bright-dialed TAG Heuer dive watch from the past.

TAG Heuer re-introduces an old favorite with Aquaracer Professional 300 Night Diver.

Return of the Night Diver

TAG Heuer’s highlight fall 2021 Aquaracer Professional 300 debut is the all-black, lume-dialed Aquaracer Professional 300 Night Diver. The watch recalls the TAG Heuer “Night Diver” first seen in the mid-1980s and re-introduced in numerous guises in the years since, most recently in 2018.

The Night Diver’s standout feature, then and today, is its fully luminescent dial, which TAG Heuer coats in green SuperLuminova. This is truly non-subtle lume, which may be too bright for some desk divers, but for others hits home.

TAG Heuer seemingly overfills the watch’s minute and central seconds with blue lume to clearly contrast with the green dial. That bright green color also appears on the hour hand and four primary hour markers. And critically, TAG Heuer fills the triangle at the top of the unidirectional rotating bezel with blue lume to match the blue of the minute and central seconds hands.

To emphasize the ‘night’ in the watch’s nickname, TAG Heuer coats the watch’s 43mm stainless steel case, bezel, crown, caseback and clasp with matte black diamond-like carbon. The bezel insert is black ceramic.

TAG Heuer’s ETA-based (or Sellita-based) Caliber 5 automatic movement powers all references in the new Aquaracer Professional 300 collection.

TAG Heuer fits the Night Diver with a black rubber strap
 with a black DLC steel folding clasp with double safety push buttons with fine adjustment system.

Full collection

You might recall that earlier this year TAG Heuer revamped its Aquaracer collection, displaying models with a more refined twelve-sided bezel, shorter lugs, slightly wider hour hands and more prominent horizontal engraved dial lines. The three new models debuting today expand the new Aquaracer collection to eleven references.

All three new Aquaracer models feature a unidirectional rotating bezel, a screw-down crown, are water resistance to 300 meters, feature a sapphire crystal and a double safety clasp. And they all have solid casebacks stamped with a diving suit sporting a twelve-sided faceplate.

Prices: $3,350 (Night Diver) and $2,700 (Aquaracer with blue or black dial with new rubber strap).

The new Aquaracer Professional 300 collection now includes blue or black-dialed models with matching straps. These models debuted in April with steel bracelets only.

 

 

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Featured News

Ulysse Nardin Celebrates 175 Years with New Chronometers

Ulysse Nardin focuses on its rich history as a premier manufacturer of marine chronometers as it debuts seven new models within its Marine Torpilleur chronometer collection.

All of the debuts feature in-house calibers with silicon balance spring, and most also feature the brand’s Diamonsil (a silicon and diamond mix) escapement wheel and anchor. Among the offerings are two new movements, and all seven models are offered as numbered and limited editions.

Ulysse Nardin chronometers, new and old.

To signify the LeLocle watchmaker’s 175th anniversary, each model will feature “Chronometry since 1846” printed at 6 o’clock on the small seconds counter.

Marine Torpilleur Panda

For Panda dial enthusiasts Ulysse Nardin adds this variation of its Marine Torpilleur sporting two small dark blue dials. One at the top of the dial displays the power reserve indicator and the other shows the second hand and date. ) The watch is Ulysse Nardin’s first panda-style display.

The new Ulysse Nardin Marine Torpilleur Panda.

So-called ‘panda’ displays, which feature solid-colored subdials placed amid a light-colored primary dial, were given their moniker decades ago when early dials with the design were said to recall the face of a panda bear.

Inside Ulysse Nardin fits its own UN-118 movement, a solid caliber made even more precise and efficient with silicon and Diamonsil components. Limited to 300 pieces, the 42mm diameter steel-cased Marine Torpilleur Panda comes with a choice of either a brown or blue leather alligator strap, metal bracelet, a rubber strap or a R-Strap. Price: $8,200.

The new Marine Torpilleur Annual Chronograph.

Marine Torpilleur Annual Chronograph

With a dial design inspired by Ulysse Nardin pocket watch chronometers produced from 1936 to 1980, this eye-catching two-register 44mm steel chronograph also features a second useful function: annual calendar.

Ulysse Nardin is widely known for its mastery of the annual calendar, a function Ludwig Oechslin brought to the brand’s wristwatches within his perpetual calendar from 1996. With all settings adjustable both forward and backward by using the crown, the Ulysse Nardin annual calendar offered easy time-setting capability. This feature, initially found on very few wristwatches, remains a strong selling point throughout Ulysse Nardin’s collections.

Up close on the dial of the Marine Torpilleur Annual Chronograph.

The newest inclusion of that function in this Torpilleur Annual Chronograph finds the date at 6 o’clock with months indicated at 9 o’clock. Powered by the UN-153, an evolution of the earlier UN-150 movement, the debut offers a varnished white or a matte blue dial. Three hundred pieces will be made. Price: $12,100.

The Ulysse Nardin Marine Torpilleur Moonphase with a Grand Complication Pocket Watch from 1920.

The Marine Torpilleur Moonphase

As critical to sailors as a precise chronometer, a moonphase indicator can be found on late 19th century Ulysse Nardin timepieces. When used together with a sextant, the lunar indication allowed sailors to devise more detailed navigation. In more recent years, the watchmaker has launched numerous high-profile astronomic-centered watches, notably the Ludwig Oechslin-devised Trilogy of Time series in the 1990s.

While the new Marine Torpilleur Moonphase is hardly as complex as any of those specialty items, the moonphase display reminds collectors of this brand’s deep history of creating astronomical displays, which likely spurred the inclusion of a moonphase model within this 175th anniversary collection. When adding the moonphase function to this watch, Ulysse Nardin creates UN-119, a variation of its UN-118 movement.

This new 42mm steel-cased watch comes with either a blue or white dial and will be offered as a limited edition of 300. Price: $9,900.

Ulysse Nardin chronometers, like this one from 1919, could be found on U.S. Navy ships.
Ulysse Nardin sold deck chronometers until 1980.

Two additional debuts

We’ll feature the remaining two models in the new Ulysse Nardin Marine Torpilleur collection in an upcoming post.

The two models each feature an enamel dial. One is a stunning blue-enamel-dial edition of the power reserve model with the panda dial (noted above) and the Marine Torpilleur Tourbillon Grand Feu. The latter, a rose-gold watch with a black enamel dial, is powered by caliber UN-128 Constant Manufacture with a flying tourbillon that features the technically advanced and patented Ulysse Nardin Escapement.

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The Watches

Norqain’s New Neverest Sales to Assist Sherpa Families

Swiss watchmaker Norqain expands its sporty Adventure collection with Neverest, three steel-cased 40mm watches equipped with the brand’s own COSC-certified automatic movement. Sales from all three models will benefit the Butterfly Help Project, which helps families of sherpas who have lost their lives in the Himalayan mountains and gives their children access to education.

The Norqain Glacier

The Glacier

The first debut, called Adventure Neverest 40mm Glacier, features a silvered dial with a brushed steel case and a grey bezel and dial.

The Glacier’s greys are punctuated with a few red accents on the central seconds hand and the Chronometer inscription. The dial pattern here is meant to resemble “the jagged crevasses of Khumbu Icefall, the most dangerous stage of the climb to Everest’s summit,” according to Norqain.

Norqain is quick to note that it has coated all the watch’s markers and hands with a supercharged version of SuperLuminova said to be 60% stronger than the standard stuff.  And appropriate to the watch’s sporty profile, Norqain has also nicely knurled the bezel’s edges to make rotating the unidirectional bezel a simpler chore.

Look for the Glacier on a steel bracelet ($3,250), a textured rubber strap ($3,050) or a flexible fabric strap (also $3,050).

The Norqain Adventure Neverest 40mm Limited Edition.

The Bi-Color

The remaining two debuts sport Norqain’s own block-link pattern dial with different color schemes and framed by a choice of a steel case or a steel case with red gold bezel.

The latter model, with a slightly dressier steel and gold combination, is limited to 100 pieces, which Norqain has engraved on the watch’s caseback. The watch’s red gold bezel is topped with a black ceramic ring. Options here include a textured black rubber strap with the same knurled style as the bezel ($4,380), a steel bracelet with an additional security clasp ($4,580), or a flexible fabric strap ($4,380).

The Norqain Adventure Neverest 40mm.

Finally Norqain offers a sportier version of the watch with an outdoor-themed forest green and black patterned dial.

The watch’s steel bezel also offers a black ceramic ring. Like its limited edition counterpart, this model is available with a stainless steel bracelet ($3,190), a black rubber strap ($2,990) or a flexible fabric strap ($2,990).

Inside all three Neverest watches Norqain places its superb Manufacture Calibre NN20/1.

Given this brand’s pedigree, with executive links to both Breitling and Tudor, we’d expect a focus on serious caliber technology, and that’s what Norqain delivered in February 2020 when it launched Calibers NN20/1 and NN20/2. Both calibers are being produced in partnership with Kenissi, a mechanical movement manufacturer founded by Tudor.

Inside all three Neverest watches Norqain places its Manufacture Caliber NN20/1.

The movements are extra shock resistant, COSC-certified and offer a power reserve of seventy hours. All three Neverest models are water resistant to 200 meters.  

 

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The Watches

Doxa Polishes a White Pearl

In case you missed the unveiling last month, Doxa has added white to the six existing colors within the Swiss dive-watch maker’s classic SUB 200 collection.

The new Doxa Whitepearl.

The new Doxa Whitepearl will be the only all-white model throughout the SUB family, which also includes the SUB 300 and SUB 1500T collections. Existing options range from classic black dial (Sharkhunter) to silver (Searambler) and even Aquamarine, to the original emblematic orange dial, which Doxa first launched in 1967.

The Doxa Whitepearl retains the SUB 200’s 42mm steel case with its handsome domed ‘glass box’ sapphire crystal, unidirectional rotating bezel and screw-down crown.

As you might expect, the SUB 200 is water-resistant to 200 meters and features a generous dollop of white SuperLuminova coating on all dive-related displays. Equipped with an ETA automatic movement, the SUB 200 offers a power reserve of approximately 38 hours.

Doxa offers the SUB 200 Whitepearl either with its excellent stainless steel ‘rice bead’ mesh bracelet with folding clasp, or with a sporty white rubber strap. Doxa now offers the strap in two sizes, standard and small, perhaps to underscore a unisex vibe for this fashionable and technically proficient dive watch.

Price: $990 (bracelet) and $950 (rubber strap).

Specifications: Doxa SUB 200 Whitepearl

Case: 42mm by 14mm steel, glass box sapphire crystal, unidirectional rotating bezel, 19mm lug width, steel screw-down case back, screw-down crown, water resistance to 200 meters.

Dial: Painted indices and hands treated with a SuperLuminova luminescent coating, painted outer minute track.

Movement: Automatic ETA 2824-2 with a 38-hour power reserve.

Bracelet: Options: Stainless steel ‘rice bead’ bracelet with a folding buckle featuring a diver’s extension and the Doxa fish symbol.

Or: White rubber strap, two sizes available (Standard and Small) to match the dial color. Pin buckle featuring the Doxa fish symbol.

Price: $990 (bracelet) and $950 (rubber strap).

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