Maurice Lacroix expands its Aikon series with a model sporting the collection’s first-ever matte-black DLC case. The case, in combination with a new light blue strap (made of wear-resistant rubber) and a truly eye-catching sunray brushed gunmetal dial with embossed square pattern, creates one of this popular collection’s freshest looks since its debut in 2016.
The new Maurice Lacroix Aikon Chronograph Sprint.
Despite the new livery, the new 44mm Aikon Automatic Chronograph Sprint retains the collection’s distinctive six ‘arms’ across its bezel and an M-logo on its strap. But here Maurice Lacroix has delivered those arms in a polished gunmetal finish, adding dimension to the bezel while also matching the dial.
The watchmaker combines snailing and a slight opaline finish to the darkened subdials at 6 and 12 o’clock and then colors the small seconds indicator in a shade of blue matching the strap. That same blue hue also livens the central chronograph seconds hand.
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.
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.
Tutima recently added a green dial to its M2 Chronograph Commando collection. When it debuted late last year, this watch was available only with a black dial.
The relatively new addition to this serious aviation chronograph collection veers from conventional pilot colors with a stylish yet still subtle green dégradé dial.
Around the dial however Tutima retains its solid 46mm cushion-shaped titanium case, sapphire crystal and Caliber Tutima 521, a highly customized ETA Valjoux 7750.
Tutima has re-engineered the sturdy caliber to track minutes and seconds via a large center sweep hand, and hours with a subdial. The modified dial train, a proprietary Tutima development, offers a cleaner alternative to more traditional two-subdial or three-subdial chronographs.
Even less conventional are the two chronograph pushers, which lie fairly hidden in their otherwise usual locations astride the crown. The design emphasizes its overall sleek profile. From a distance one might not identify the M2 Commando as a chronograph, a characteristic not lost on Tutima as it so successfully pairs real function with its own somewhat minimalist style.
Prices: $4,900 on a Kevlar strap with titanium clasp; $5,300 on a solid titanium bracelet with folding clasp.
IWC expands its Portofino collection this week with the Portofino Chronograph 39 (Ref. IW3914), a new design debuting as a set of three 39mm steel-cased chronographs.
One of three 39mm steel-cased references in the new IWC Portofino Chronograph 39 collection.
The new, smaller-cased models complement IWC’s existing 42mm Portofino Chronograph. The new trio’s dial design emphasizes Portofino’s minimalistic layout with an even cleaner look than previous chronographs in the collection. With a smaller dial, the new models do not include the day/date display at 3 o’clock or the seconds subdial at 9 o’clock found on the larger chronographs.
The elegant Portofino often flies under the radar at IWC, which is best known for its technical focus (Ingenieur and Da Vinci), its range of larger aviation collections (Pilot and Big Pilot) and its nautical (Aquatimer and Portugieser) collections.
IWC has enriched Portofino in recent years to extend the collection’s unisex appeal, notably with an attractive series of Portofino Automatic models offered in 34mm, 37mm and 40mm cases. Throughout the Portofino collection IWC maintains a clean dial design characterized by the spare use of Roman numerals set between simple applied hour markers.
Here two totalizers (at 6 o’clock and 12 o’clock) balance the dial, each partially hiding the display’s only two Roman numerals. A very thin seconds track frames the dial’s primary elongated markers. Inside IWC fits its Caliber 79350, built by IWC from a very highly modified ETA Valjoux 7750.
IWC offers three steel-cased references in the new Portofino Chronograph 39 collection. Dial options are black, green or silver-plate. All models are fitted with top-notch alligator straps. Price: $5,900.
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).
