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The Watches

Parmigiani Fleurier Expands Unisex Tonda PF Series  

Parmigiani Fleurier adds two new models to its award-winning Tonda PF Automatic 36mm collection, expanding the series with a two-tone gold and steel bracelet model as well as a rose gold version on an alligator strap.

One of two additions to the Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Automatic 36mm collection.

Both debuts extend the unisex collection, which in 2022 was awarded the Women’s Watch Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. 

Echoing the initial 40mm Tonda PF Micro-Rotor series, the 36mm models also feature stunning Grain d’Orge hand-guilloché dials but omit a date display and, with a traditional rotor powering the movement, are not quite as thin as the earlier 40mm debuts.

The 36mm two-tone debut, a first steel and gold mix within the Tonda PF collection,  features a rose gold bezel, crown and rose gold links within the steel bracelet.

The gold essentially brings extra attention to characteristics that Parmigiani Fleurier built into the contemporary Tonda PF design, namely the finely knurled bezel and the tapered bracelet.

Parmigiani Fleurier further emphasizes these architectural elements with a contrasting finish. Unlike the polished stainless steel links at the ends of the bracelet, the gold links are satin-finished. And note that as the line of gold and steel links nears the clasp, each link is slightly shorter than the previous link.

The gold-cased Tonda PF Automatic 36mm debut is more luxurious and dressier with its all-precious case, ruby-colored alligator strap and ruby red Grain d’Orge hand-guilloché dial decoration.

Both debuts feature a superb in-house PF770 automatic movement that boasts a sixty-hour power reserve and a skeletonized rotor fully visible from the watch’s clear sapphire back.

Prices: $26,200 (steel and rose gold case and bracelet), $40,400 (rose gold on an alligator strap).  

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On The Wrist

On The Wrist: Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Micro-Rotor Steel Slate 

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. 

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The Watches

Parmigiani Fleurier Launches Tonda PF Sport 

Parmigiani Fleurier launches a pair of sporty models within its Tonda PF collection, adding the Tonda PF Sport Chronograph and Tonda PF Sport Automatic, two models that effectively replace the watchmaker’s Tonda GT collection.

The new Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Sport Chronograph, available in a 42mm steel or rose gold case.

Both watches extend the watchmaker’s Tonda PF collection, first introduced two years ago as a slate of knurled platinum-bezel dress models with clean dials and revamped bracelets.

The new Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Sport Automatic is available in a 41mm steel or rose gold case.

The new ‘tailored’ approach to the design drew has drawn strong collector acclaim. The watchmaker has responded with a series of high-profile rattrapante designs and complicated models within the expanding Tonda PF collection.

Parmigiani Fleurier offers the new models in both steel and rose gold. As sporty watches within a fairly dressy collection, both the Tonda PF Sport Chronograph and Tonda PF Sport Automatic display design touches that confirm their sportier appeal, including a bolder bezel and broader guilloché dial pattern.

The knurled bezel on each Tonda PF Sport watch features 160 cuts rather than the finer 225-incision bezel found on the dressier Tonda PF collection.

The new dial features a hand guilloché ‘triangular nail’ pattern known as clou triangulaire, a sportier look when compared to the guilloché grain d’orge of the existing Tonda PF collection.

In addition, Parmigiani Fleurier coats the applied hour markers here with black SuperLuminova while also supplying each watch with a rubber-treated textured and stitched strap. Both watches are water-resistant to 100 meters.

For the 42mm by 12.9mm ‘panda’-style chronograph, Parmigiani Fleurier has removed the large date found on the firm’s previous GT chronographs in order to leave space for the PF logo.

This mimics the dial on the current, dressier, Tonda PF chronographs. The (smaller) date is now found between the 4 o’clock and 5 o’clock position. In addition, the new design features shorter indexes and a somewhat smaller flange.

Similarly, on the 41mm by 9.8mm Tonda PF Sport Automatic the watchmaker places a small date aperture at the 6 o’clock position to allow for a clean dial marked only by a logo at the 12 o’clock position.

The PF Tonda Sport Chronograph displays its Caliber PF070 movement via a clear sapphire back.

Inside the Tonda PF Sport Chronograph Parmigiani Fleurier fits its stunning Caliber PF070, a superb high-frequency (5Hz – 36,000 vph) manufacture movement with an integrated column wheel chronograph and a vertical clutch. The COSC-certified chronometer offers a power reserve of sixty-five hours.

A view of the caliber PF770 from the back of the Tonda PF Sport Automatic.

Inside the Tonda PF Sport Automatic you’ll find a Caliber PF770 with a serial-mounted double barrel and a power reserve of sixty hours. To extend the sporty design, the watchmaker also created a new, skeletonized oscillating weight for both watches. The watchmaker says the rotor now looks somewhat like the steering wheel of a Ferrari 250 GTO. 

Prices: $50,200 (chronograph in rose gold), $29,000 (chronograph in steel), $38,200 (automatic in rose gold) and $21,300 (automatic in steel). 

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Featured News

Watches and Wonders 2023: The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante  

One year after debuting the world premiere Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante, Parmigiani Fleurier this year follows up with another premiere jumping hand watch, the Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante.

The new Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante.

The new watch echoes last year’s GMT by performing a classic timing function with a new, simpler operation. Where that earlier model allowed for a hand-based display of GMT time, the new watch allows the user to check elapsed minutes on-demand via a second minute hand hidden directly under the primary minute hand.

Instead of turning a calibrated bezel (as on a dive watch), the user simply presses a pusher to move the second, gold hour hand to the desired time.

With the Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante, it’s the movement’s control of the second minute hand that performs the elapsed time display, not the user’s bezel-read calculation. The elapsed time is indicated when the primary minute hand reaches – and covers – the gold minute hand.

This display can be used for any fine calibration of the minutes over a specific period of time, or for any occasion or event requiring measurement of the minutes count, such as for cooking times or game times.

To use the function, the wearer can move the rose gold hand in either five-minute increments (via the pusher at 8’o’clock) or one-minute increments (via the pusher positioned at 10 o’clock). Once the two hands meet and superimpose, the period of time to be measured will have elapsed.

At any time, the wearer can return the gold hand to its position hidden underneath the rhodium-plated primary minute hand by pressing the crown-integrated pusher, in a similar way to the split-seconds function. 

As on last year’s Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante, this new hand-based time counting function is only visible when activated.

The movement that makes these functions possible, new caliber PF 052, is powered by an elegant rose-gold micro-rotor and is fully visible from the back of the 40mm steel case.  

The functionality here is of course paired with the watchmaker’s high-end workmanship and finishing. These include a hand-cut Grain d’Orge guilloché dial in a sand grey color and 18-karat gold hands and markers. As on all Tonda PF models, the knurled bezel is platinum.

The new Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante is a welcome, ingenious addition to Parmigiani Fleurier’s new series of hand-based complication displays.

Price: $30,600. 

Also new in 2023

In addition to the headliner Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante, Parmigiani Fleurier debuts a platinum-cased Tonda PF Flying Tourbillon with a stunning Milano blue dial ($163,700), a premiere all-platinum Tonda PF Microrotor model with time and date only ($92,800), and a trio of perpetual models displaying time using the Islamic, Chinese and Gregorian calendars.

The new Tonda PF Flying Tourbillon.
The new all-platinum Tonda PF Microrotor.

The watchmaker also adds a rose-gold edition of last year’s premiere PF GMT Rattrapante, complete with a rich Grain d’Orge guilloché dial in Milano blue,($65,500) plus a rose-gold edition of its always impressive Tonda PF Split-Seconds Chronograph ($169,100).

A new rose-gold edition of last year’s premiere Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante.
The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Split-Seconds Chronograph, now in rose gold.

We’ll have more about the debuts in future posts. 

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The Watches

Parmigiani Fleurier Unveils a Red Rose Repeater  

With the new Rosa Mystica, Parmigiani Fleurier presents the latest addition to its stunning Roses Carrées collection of five unique minute repeaters decorated with Grand Feu enamel and intricate hand engraving.

The new Parmigiani Fleurier Rosa Mystica.

On the new watch you’ll find a red Grand Feu enamel dial, an engraved rose on the back and a bezel, the lugs and case band hand-engraved with the flowery La Rose Carrée motif. Parmigiani Fleurier underscores the red theme with a natural garnet cabochon on the 42mm 18-karat white gold case.

Like the blue-enamel La Rosa Celeste, which Parmigiani Fleurier launched in 2022, the Rosa Mystic is cased in a hinged hunter’s caseback that reveals a manually wound minute repeater caliber with cathedral gongs.

The chime has been optimized by a suspended movement, with the heel of the gongs physically connected to the case. In addition, watchmakers have redesigned the case to create resonance pockets and to lighten the white gold mass.

Parmigiani Fleurier has also devised an unusual ringing sequence for this movement that automatically skips dead time. For example, at 3:19, the three chimes for the hour are immediately followed by a double chime for the quarter-hour and again, without silence, by up to four chimes for the minute.

For the series, Parmigiani Fleurier has skeletonized the PF355 caliber (which recalls the PF361 caliber from 2016) with intricate curves and counter-curves, 114 inward and outward angles, and hand-applied beveling, polishing and surface treatments.

Price: Upon request. 

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