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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.

Meistersinger’s watches focus on one-hand time displays. The German-based watchmaker, founded twenty years ago, has become a favorite for those in search of an alternative wristwatch dial.

Meistersinger’s popularly priced collection offers a wide range of watches that feature one hand rotating over combined hour and minute markings around the dial – essentially echoing dials on many pre-eighteenth-century clocks.

Earlier this year, Meistersinger launched Bell Hora with another time-telling function deeply rooted in historical watchmaking and clock making: an hourly chime.

Meistersinger’s Edition Bell Hora is a limited edition of 100 units.

Today Meistersinger launches a new version of that chiming model, called Edition Bell Hora, as a limited edition of 100 units to celebrate the watchmaker’s twentieth anniversary. Where the premiere Meistersinger Bell Hora watch offered blue or white dials in an unlimited series, the latest model is designed in the style of many early pocket watches.  

The 43mm steel-cased Bell Hora features a ‘Sonnerie au passage’, which is the horological term for a chime heard as time proceeds. On the Bell Hora, the single chime activates at the start of each hour. This effectively, and pleasantly, alerts the wearer to the start of each new hour. 

If the wearer opts to turn the automatic chime off, he or she may simply press a pusher just above the crown to turn the function off.

To create the Bell Hora, Meistersinger fits its own chime module (a cleverly revised jump-hour gear configuration with its sound fork directly under the dial) atop a Sellita SW 200 automatic movement. Even with the chime function, the watch’s power reserve remains steady when worn, and will retain power off the wrist for thirty-eight hours.

The new dial is white, like many early clocks, with more distinct minute markers than found on the more contemporary dials on the Bell Hora editions seen earlier this year. A thinner numeral font and an italicized brand name also mark the new limited edition.

Price: 3,690 euro, or about $4,300. Expect availability in mid-September. 

 

Specifications: Meistersinger Edition Bell Hora

(Limited Edition of 100 pieces).

Movement: MS Bell (with Sellita SW 200 base), automatic, power reserve of 38 hours, hourly Sonnerie au Passage chime.

Case: 43 mm steel, sapphire crystal, 50 meters water resistance, four-screw exhibition back.

Dial: White with vintage-styled font. 

Bracelet: Brown leather.

Price: 3,690 euro, or about $4,300. 

After debuting its impressive Luna Magna earlier this year, Arnold & Son immediately started working on a high-carat version of the orb-set lunar phase watch.

You may recall that the premiere design features an eye-catching, extra-large 12mm spherical moon, with aventurine representing the moon’s ‘dark’ side with marble standing in for the illuminated side.

The new Arnold & Son Luna Magna Ultimate I.

Where that first model was crafted using a 44mm rose gold case, this new model, the Luna Magna Ultimate I, bases its jeweled interpretation in a white gold case of the same size. Instead a time-only dial of white lacquer, this jeweled edition features a white opal subdial the 12 o’clock position.

To represent the vastness of space Arnold & Son replaces the premiere edition’s aventurine with ruthenium crystals. Arnold & Son explains that ruthenium is an extremely hard metal that belongs to the platinum group. The Swiss watchmaker’s artisans reshape the ruthenium crystals, place them into the faceplate and then blue the plate–all to stunning effect.

Arnold & Son frames the light-refracting dial with a hefty row of 112 baguette diamonds (weighing nearly six carats), which also trail onto the watch’s lugs for extra effect.

The white-gold orb is divided into 161 brilliant-cut diamonds for daytime and as many blue sapphires for night-time.

Finally, on this Luna Magna Arnold & Son creates a new moon. Rather than the marble and aventurine lunar orb we’ve seen previously, this model glows with a three-dimensional moon paved with blue sapphires and diamonds set atop the same-sized white gold orb.

The Arnold & Son hand-wound caliber A&S1021 is designed around the lunar globe and has a power reserve of 90 hours. Note the second lunar phase display, for setting.

The movement

Underneath the newly jeweled Luna Magna Ultimate I is Arnold & Son’s own manual-wind A&S1021 caliber. Designed to propel the lunar globe, the movement has an impressive 90-hour power reserve. And luckily, all of the eight owners of this watch will be able to view the movement through a sapphire caseback, which also offers a second lunar phase display with easy-to-read graduations for correcting the globe setting.

Price: CHF 169,000, or about $184,000. The Arnold & Son Luna Magna Ultimate I is a limited edition of eight pieces.

 

The Paul Forrest Heart’s Passion collection features a patented Magnificent Motion complication that causes the small heart motif on the pendant to “beat.” The high-carat kinetic jewelry incorporates a high-tech complication—much like the mechanical movement of a watch—inside a piece of jewelry.

Heart’s Passion, model HR-01, from Paul Forrest. The gem-encrusted heart appears to beat thanks to a mechanical movement inside.

Paul Forrest places an exclusive 145-piece movement, which is crafted in Fleurier, Switzerland, inside the case. The movement offers eight hours of power reserve and is wound by a small key that also serves as part of the pendant chain’s clasp. Paul Forrest refers to the one-way ratcheting winding system as the “key to your heart.”

It took nearly two years to develop this movement, which is built completely for Paul Forrest from the ground up.

“Many women are becoming increasingly aware of mechanical complications as seen on many high level watches in recent times,” says company founder and CEO Paul Forrest Hartzband, who is based in Connecticut. “Heart’s Passion is for women who appreciate beautiful and elegant jewelry, as well as its sophisticated inner life.”

There are currently two Heart’s Passion collections, Heart and Medallion, and each is presented in 18-karat white, rose or yellow gold embellished with various gemstone options including diamonds, rubies and sapphires. Pictured is model HR-01. Price: $46,000.

Specifications: Paul Forrest Heart’s Passion HR-01 (above)

Movement: Caliber PF-001, made in Fleurier, manual winding, eight-hour power reserve,145 total parts. Winding clasp in rose gold with fused titanium mechanical winding system.

Case: 18-karat rose gold, pendant set with 248 white brilliant-cut diamonds (2.406 carats), heart set with 27 pink brilliant-cut diamonds (0.351 carats), pavè dial set with 341 white brilliant-cut diamonds (0.962 Carats). Total carat weight: 3.719. Double curved sapphire crystal. Water resistant to 50 meters.

A Paul Forrest pendant from the Medallion collection.

Chain: Adjustable length from 24” to 18”

 

 

We’ve seen open-worked designs among Hermès watch collections in the past, most notably with the recent, very sexy smoked-dial Arceau Squelette. But until this month, this famed luxury house hadn’t offered a skeletonized version of either its superb in-house movements, namely Caliber H1837 or Caliber H1950, each made with its partner Vaucher.

The new Hermès Slim d’Hermès Squelette Lune.

That omission changes with the recent announcement of the Slim d’Hermès Squelette Lune, Hermès’ first skeleton timepiece with a manufacture movement. Hermès has created Caliber H1953 from its thin H1950, the movement underneath the highly successful Slim d’Hermès collection first debuted in 2015.

Hermès cleverly mixes its metals with this release, combining a bead-blasted 39.5mm titanium case with a platinum bezel and a white gold crown. The mixture allows light to dance across the airy dial and bezel, aided by alternating matte and glossy finishes.

Equally interesting is the double moonphase display at the 6 o’clock position. As the sunray-patterned linked orbs rotate, they expose two moon images, marking the satellite’s position in both hemispheres. Very cool, and superbly executed. Price: $20,550.

 

Specifications: Hermès Slim d’Hermès Squelette Lune

Case: 39.5 mm bead-blasted grade-5 titanium middle and back, bezel in platinum with white gold crown and pusher. 
Anti-glare sapphire crystal and caseback.

Dial: Skeletonized, black gold sunburst flange and grey-transferred minutes track, blue PVD-coated hands. Hours, minutes, double moon-phase at 6 o’clock

Movement: Ultra-thin H1953 Manufacture Hermes self-winding movement.

Strap: Matt graphite alligator leather with grade-2 titanium (Ti 99%) pin buckle.

Price: $20,550.