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Watches and Wonders 2022: The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante

Parmigiani Fleurier debuts a terrific world-first complication within the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante that conveys flyback capability to a subtle GMT hand, all powered by a new in-house PF051 caliber with a 48-hour power reserve.

The Parmigiani Fleurier the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante with a world-first flyback complication re-engineered solely for a second time zone display.

As the watchmaker’s Watches and Wonders 2022 highlight, the new watch nicely extends the sartorial approach to dial and case design embodied within the entire Tonda PF collection, which Parmigiani Fleurier debuted last year to much acclaim.

The new complication makes it a simple task to set and read two time zones. With two hour hands initially superimposed, the wearer need only press the pusher at 8 o’clock to advance the upper rhodium-plated gold hand dedicated to local time. Each press moves the hand one hour forward. This action reveals the rose gold hour hand, which displays time in the wearer’s home time. The watch is then set, and both hour hands will convey the time in both locations with no additional intervention.

Once the wearer returns home, he or she simply presses the crown-integrated rose gold push button to instantly ‘fly’ the gold hand back underneath the rhodium-plated hand.

These simple gestures engage a sophisticated flyback mechanism that on most watches operates a chronograph seconds hand, which here does not exist. Instead of timing two separate events, the job of traditional flyback complications, this patented Parmigiani Fleurier invention is employed to clear the dial of its third hand.

This enables an even clearer view of the hand-wrought barleycorn guilloché pattern blue dial framed with a sandblasted minutes track. As with every steel-cased watch within the Tonda PF collection, this GMT is also further framed with a finely knurled single-piece platinum bezel.

For many at Watches and Wonders 2022, this Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante was among the show’s highlights. It is certainly the purest GMT we’ve seen and a welcome display of restraint amid a torrent of grander world-timers and dual-timers displayed across Geneva this week. Price: $26,800.

 

Also new from Parmigiani Fleurier at Watches and Wonders 2022:

Alongside the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante, Parmigiani Fleurier presented four more novelties. Two, the Tonda PF Skeleton and the Tonda PF Flying Tourbillon, display the same knurled bezel, teardrop-shaped lugs and clean Grain d’Orge guilloché pattern dial. The two others are the sporty Tonda GT Chronograph in Big Date and Annual Calendar in two new appealing new colors.

The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Skeleton, two new 40mm models in rose gold and steel/platinum (above), set with black rubies. Prices: $97,400 (steel with platinum bezel) and $63,300 (rose gold, pictured below).

The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Flying Tourbillon (above), a 40mm platinum-cased model with platinum micro-rotor. Price: $157,000.

 

The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda GT Chronograph with Big Date adds two dial options: Silver/grey (above) and pomegranate (below). Price: CHF 43,100.

 

The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda GT Chronograph with Big Date and annual calendar, also with same color options as above. Both are pictured below. Price: CHF 19,400.

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Watches and Wonders 2022: The Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Perpetual Calendar

Jaeger-LeCoultre introduces a perpetual calendar to its Polaris series, adding a classical calendar complication to the refined sporty collection. The debut anchors a wide-ranging set of Watches and Wonders 2022 debuts that reference the brand’s “Stellar Odyssey” theme for the year’s new releases.

The Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Perpetual Calendar, in steel.

Other debuts include a pair of new Atmos models, two impressive grand complications and two glittering additions to the Rendez-Vous collection.

You might recall that in 2018 Jaeger-LeCoultre revived the Polaris name, adding the collection named for the famed Memovox Polaris dive series of 1968.

The Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Perpetual Calendar, in pink gold.

With the new Polaris Perpetual Calendar, Jaeger-LeCoultre introduces Caliber 868AA, a new version of its existing perpetual calendar movement (first seen in 2013), here upgraded to create a retrograde display of Southern Hemisphere moon phases. The update also increases the caliber’s power reserve to a full seventy hours. Fewer power lapses makes any calendar watch is all the more practical.

Jaeger-LeCoultre colors the dial on the 42mm steel or pink gold Polaris Perpetual Calendar in a deep gradient-blue hue to suggest the transition from day to night.

Caliber 868AA powers the Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Perpetual Calendar.

To reference the origins of calendars within astronomical events, Jaeger-LeCoultre places the moon phases here at 6 o’clock, with a retrograde display for the Southern Hemisphere framing the display for its Northern counterpart. New skeleton hands allow greater visibility of the dial displays –and to maintain Polaris design codes.

All the Polaris codes are here, including a glass-box crystal, a mix of brushed and polished surfaces, and a top crown that rotates the inner bezel. The lower crown is for setting the time and winding the watch while calendar settings are adjusted via a single pusher.

Prices: $29,600 (steel) and $44,300 (pink gold).

 

Specifications : Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Perpetual Calendar

Case: 42mm x 11.97mm steel or pink gold.

Movement: Automatic Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 868AA. Functions: hours, minutes, seconds, perpetual calendar with moon phases in two hemispheres and red security zone, inner rotating bezel. Power reserve is 70 hours, water resistance to 100 meters.

Dial: Lacquered blue gradient.

Strap: Ref. Q9088480 (steel) interchangeable steel bracelet and rubber strap.

Ref. Q9082480 (pink gold) interchangeable rubber strap and alligator leather strap.

 

Additional Highlights from Jaeger-LeCoultre at Watches and Wonders 2022

Master Hybris Artistica Calibre 945 Galaxia in pink gold (above) and Master Hybris Artistica Calibre 945 Atomium in white gold. Each offered in a limited edition of five pieces. Prices: $535,000 (white gold) and $515,000 (pink gold).

The Master Grande Tradition Calibre 948, with universal flying tourbillon, world-time display with 24-hour indication. A limited edition of twenty. Price: $227,000.

The new Atmos Tellurium with Zodiac calendar (above). A limited edition of ten pieces: Price: $570,000.

The Atmos Infinite, with the ‘almost-perpetual’ Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 570 (above). Price: $15,100.

Two additions to the Rendez-Vous collection call Rendez-Vous Star and Rendez-Vous Dazzling Star (pictured above).  In pink gold or white gold, the 36mm diamond-set watch hosts a unique complication in which a diamond-set ‘shooting star’ moves across the top of the dial at random moments during the day, typically four to six times per hour. The shooting star can also be activated on demand with several turns of the crown. Prices: $75,500 (Dazzling Star only).

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The Watches

Watches and Wonders 2022: Montblanc Flips a Minerva Chronograph

Montblanc has long taken full advantage of the inherent beauty of its historic Minerva caliber MB 16.29 monopusher chronograph, displaying the movement’s fluidly interconnected bridges, plates and gears to great advantage through the back of multiple limited edition watches.

The new Montblanc 1858 Unveiled Secret Minerva Monopusher Chronograph.

With the new 1858 Unveiled Secret Minerva Monopusher Chronograph, a 2022 debut highlight offered in a steel and a ‘lime’ gold case, Montblanc flips the movement over to display all its eye-catching curves and finishes directly on the dial side of the watch.

What might appear to be a skeletonized movement is actually the side of the caliber Montblanc has typically framed for the viewer in recent debuts via a clear sapphire caseback.

In order to reverse the caliber, Montblanc added twenty-one components while retaining the caliber’s familiar Minerva arrow and the V- shaped bridge. All the German silver components are intensely polished using Montblanc’s own special snailed diamantage coquille motif and methods. And echoing vintage movement design on display, Montblanc re-introduces a fluted bezel first seen in 1927 to frame the reversed caliber.

Montblanc fits both 1858 Unveiled Secret Minerva Monopusher Chronograph models with an engraved caseback with an image of the firm’s Villeret manufacture and the v-shaped mountains in the background.

The Caliber MB M16.29 inside the new Montblanc 1858 Unveiled Secret watch.

Montblanc will issue two limited editions of eighteen and fifty-eight pieces, in Lime Gold and stainless steel respectively. The Lime Gold version comes with green hands and numerals and is attached to the wrist with a green alligator leather strap with grey stitching. The stainless-steel edition, with its white gold fluted bezel, comes with a blue alligator leather strap with blue stitching. Prices: $33,500 (steel) and $48,000 (lime gold).

 

Also new for Montblanc, as seen at Watches & Wonders 2022:

 

The Montblanc 1858 Minerva Monopusher Chronograph Red Arrow, a 42mm steel-cased column-wheel chronograph (with Caliber MB M13.21), a limited edition of 88.   Price: $30,500.

The Montblanc 1858 GMT Automatic Date (above), a 42mm two-time-zone model. Price: Starting at $3,515 and up to $4,100 for model with personalized caseback.

The Montblanc 1858 Iced Sea Automatic Date (above), a steel Montblanc dive model (the brand’s first) with special glacier-effect dial in green, black or blue. Stunning dial. Prices: $2,975 to $3,190.

The Montblanc 1958 Geosphere Chronograph 0 Oxygen, a Zero Oxygen 44mm titanium adventure watch. Price: $8,600, limited to 290 pieces.

 

We’ll show you more about these debuts in future posts.

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The Watches

Watches and Wonders 2022: Zenith Chronomaster Open

Zenith modernizes its Chronomaster Open collection with a new El Primero movement, a hesalite seconds counter and a smaller case diameter.

The newest Zenith Chronomaster Open.

Veteran collectors might remember the Chronomaster Open’s 2003 debut, which featured a larger case and a multi-aperture view into an earlier El Primero movement. The new watch, which is Zenith’s Watches and Wonders 2022 highlight, is lighter in several ways when compared to its forebears and the previous Chronomaster Open collection.

Now presented in a more wrist-friendly 39.5mm steel or rose gold case, the new Chronomaster Open revisits the well-known three-color Zenith Chronomaster layout but with several new elements added.

Here, Zenith retains the small seconds counter at 9 o’clock (which was absent in the original Chronomaster Open), remaking it with a clear hesalite crystal. The transparency of the crystal allows the viewer to see into purple silicon star-shaped escape wheel.

In addition, Zenith has altered the shape of the dial opening, adding circular openings with chamfered edges instead of the former version’s applied metallic frame with blued screws. The results expose the new El Primero 3604 in its more contemporary grey hue.

Zenith wisely based the new caliber on the recently debuted El Primero 3600 1/10th of a second automatic high-frequency caliber. The new design, which replaces the existing Chronomaster Open collection,  is a nice mid-way point between Zenith’s Chronomaster Sport and its vintage-tinged Chronomaster Original.

Zenith’s El Primero 3604, front view.

With its new diameter (current collection models are 42mm), cleaner dial and explicit 1/10th of a second display, the new Chronomaster Open hits all the updates required for a truly contemporary collection.

Price: $10,000 (steel on bracelet) and $21,300 (rose gold on strap).

 

Gold Chronomaster Sport

In addition, Zenith adds a gold edition of its very hot Chronomaster Sport, which has become a top seller for the brand since its introduction last year. Zenith now offers the Chronomaster Sport in rose gold (including the bracelet and engraved bezel with 1/10th of a second scale.)

Available with either a black or white dial with the signature El Primero three-color counters, golden hands and applied markers. Price: $38,200.

A boutique-only steel version sports a unique, three-color bezel (see below, $11,900).

Also look for a two-tone Chronomaster Sport  (below) in rose gold and steel ($17,000).

 

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Oris

Watches and Wonders 2022: The Oris ProPilotX Caliber 400

Oris for 2022 expands its wide-ranging ProPilot collection with a titanium-cased model powered by Caliber 400, the watchmaker’s excellent in-house automatic caliber that boasts a five-day power reserve.

The new Oris ProPilot X Caliber 400.

The new Oris ProPilot X Caliber 400 emphasizes its titanium build with a satin and sand-blasted 39mm titanium case—the smallest in the ProPilot range – matched with the familiar ProPilot bezel and a sculpted titanium bracelet. The large protected crown is also titanium.

Of the three dial options, salmon, blue and grey, it’s the latter hue that best accentuates the clean metallic look of this sleek debut. But if you’re looking for color, either of the two additional options will undoubtedly turn heads.

Flipping the watch over reveals the titanium case back and clear sapphire crystal that frames the Oris Calibre 400, the five-day automatic movement, itself a much-discussed technical achievement from this independent watchmaker after its debut two years ago.

The in-house Oris Caliber 400 is an automatic movement with a five-day power reserve.

You might be aware already that this movement is both highly precise and strongly anti-magnetic. Oris checks it as accurate to -3 to +5 seconds a day (within chronometer certification standards). Its anti-magnetism stems from more than thirty non-ferrous and anti-magnetic parts (including a silicon escape wheel and a silicon anchor).

Combined with twin barrels and an innovative rotor with a low-friction slide bearing system that replaces the traditional rotor ball bearings, the caliber offers the wearer a liberating five-day power reserve.

Oris underscores its Caliber 400 Series watches with ten-
year warranties and ten-year recommended service intervals, a combination Oris dubs “The New Standard.” If you’re waiting for other brands to catch up, you might be waiting quite a while.

Price: $4,300.

 

Specifications: Oris ProPilot X Caliber 400

Case: 39mm multi-piece titanium with satin and sandblasted finishes. Titanium back with satin and sandblasted finishes, screwed, see-through sapphire glass, titanium screw-in security crown with protection. Water resistance to 100 meters.

Dial: Grey, blue or salmon. Indices and hour and minute hands with SuperLumiNova. 
Crystal is sapphire, domed on both sides, double-sided anti-reflective coating.

Bracelet Titanium with folding clasp with Oris-patented ‘LIFT’ system.

Movement:

Movement: Oris Calibre 400 with center hands for hours, minutes and seconds, date window at 6 o’clock, date corrector, fine timing device and stop-second. Accuracy -3/+5 seconds a day (within COSC tolerances)
. Highly anti-magnetic with a power reserve of 120 hours.

Price: $4,300.

 

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