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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. 

Bell & Ross pairs a brilliant sun-ray-finished green dial with its third all-gold BR 05 model. The watch joins two equally colorful Bell & Ross debuts during Watches and Wonders 2023.

The new Bell & Ross BR 05 Green Gold.

Green Gold 

While gold cases are still a rarity within the Bell & Ross BR 05 series, this debut makes it clear that the BR 05’s sophisticated rounded-square case and integrated bracelet works just as well in this luxurious guise as it does in its original steel dress.

The dressier satin-brushed 40mm gold case and bracelet plays well with the deep green sunray dial as light reflects from each element to influence the other. Thus we see hints of green along the inner bezel ring and on the gold-coated markers and hands. Bell & Ross applied numerous layers of tinted green vanish atop a sun ray-finished dial plate to obtain the dial’s glimmering effect, which can seem to change hue whenever the light changes.

Bell & Ross coats all the hands (except for the seconds-hands), numerals and indices in C3 SuperLuminova and also polishes the edges around what is largely a satin-finished case. Via the sapphire crystal caseback the wearer can eye the automatic Sellita-based BR-CAL.321 movement sporting a gilded oscillating weight.

As a BR 05 model, the new Green Gold edition highlights it integrated bracelet, who here is satin-brushed gold with polished small links. Still, buyers can opt for an alligator-leather strap—a first for the BR 05 series.

Price: $22,600 on the alligator strap and $34,000 on the gold bracelet. 

GMT Blue

Debuting at Watches and Wonders 2023 alongside the BR 05 Green Gold is this BR 03-93 GMT, now adorned with contemporary blue and grey coloring.

On the dial the blue displays daytime hours and grey indicates night-time hours. Bell & Ross pairs the BR 03-93 GMT Blue with a dressy blue Nappa Soft calf leather strap with tone-on-tone stitching. The watch’s blue steel bezel echoes its glimmering blue sunburst dial. Price: $4,200. 

Bronze Diver in White

Bell & Ross expanded its ongoing bronze collection with the new BR 03-92 Diver White Bronze. The ISO-certified diver series, which currently includes a brown-dialed, bronze model, now adds this brighter edition.

The new Bell & Ross BR 03-92 Diver White Bronze.

The watch’s opaline silver dial contrasts nicely with the bronze case, especially alongside the red-tinted bronze shades. The unidirectional rotating bezel is also finished with polished bronze and fitted with a brown aluminum ring. A soft iron cage protects against magnetism.

Bell & Ross builds a 42mm case, water-resistant to 300 meters, protected by a screw-down crown and powered by an Sellita-based BR-CAL.302 movement. Available in a limited edition of 999 pieces, the watch is priced at $4,700.

Oris enhances the performance of its groundbreaking automatic mechanical altimeter and places it into a new carbon-fiber composite case.

The new Oris ProPilot Altimeter

Announced during Watches and Wonders 2023, the new Oris Pro Pilot Altimeter is now thinner and more lightweight than it was in 2014 when Oris launched it as the “world’s first and only automatic mechanical watch with a mechanical altimeter.”

 

After working on the new model for the past three years, Oris has made the new model capable of indicating altitude up to 19,700 feet or 6,000 meters (the watch is available with indications in either feet or meters). On the earlier editions the scales indicated up to 15,000 feet or 4,500 meters.

 

Teaming with 9T Labs, a spin-off from the ETH Zurich university (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Oris built the new 47mm carbon fiber case as a single-piece of 3D-printed carbon 1mm thinner than the earlier models.

Oris attaches a PVD-coated titanium bezel and caseback and powers the watch with its own Caliber 793, a slimline automatic with a newly improved 56-hour power reserve.

The watch is available in two versions, one with an altitude scale in feet and another with an altitude scale in meters. Both versions are priced at $6,500.

Specifications: Oris ProPilot Altimeter 

Movement: Automatic Oris 793, with hours, minutes and central sweep seconds hands, date with quick setting, stop second device, date window at 3 o’clock. Power reserve of 56 hours.

Case: 47mm single-piece carbon fibre case, grey PVD-plated titanium bezel and caseback. Water resistance to 100 meters.

Dial: Black with altitude scale on dial ring in either feet or meters.

Luminous material: Indices, numbers and hands printed with Super-LumiNova. Domed sapphire on both sides, anti-reflective coating on both sides. Case back in grey PVD-plated titanium, screwed, feet-to-metre conversion chart engravings.

Operating devices: Grey PVD-plated titanium screw-in security crown at 2 o’clock, grey PVD-plated titanium screw-in altimeter crown at 4 o’clock.

Strap: Green textile with brown leather lining, grey PVD-plated titanium folding clasp with fine adjustment system. 

Price: $6,500.

Among its 2023 Watches and Wonders Debuts, Chopard adds an ultra-thin small-seconds model to its high-flying Alpine Eagle collection.

The new Chopard Alpine Eagle 41 XPS.

The new watch, the Chopard Alpine Eagle 41 XPS, comes a year after Chopard debuted a small-seconds display within the Alpine Eagle Flying Tourbillon. The new watch expands an already impressive list of Alpine Eagle variations, including models with a flyback chronograph movement, a high-frequency caliber and the recent flying tourbillon.

This series places Chopard’s superior L.U.C 96.40-L movement in a 41mm by 8mm steel case, topping it with what Chopard calls its “Monte Rosa Pink” dial.

Chopard explains that the new dial color is inspired by natural Alpine colors and is named to evoke the pinkish shimmer after which the second highest mountain range in the Alps is named.

The Chopard L.U.C caliber inside the new watch, like so many of Chopard’s excellent in-house movements, offers a much-welcomed long power reserve of sixty-five hours thanks to its two stacked barrels based on Chopard Twin technology.

Chopard also equips the movement with a stop-seconds function that is backed up with a chronometer certification by the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute. (Note the “Chronometer” inscription on the dial below the logo.) In addition to its chronometer certification, the watch is finished to Geneva Seal haute horlogerie standards.

Chopard makes all its steel Alpine Eagle models with its own Lucent Steel A223, a particularly shiny and element-resistant alloy. Other characteristics of the collection include: a round case with stylized flanks, a crown engraved with a compass rose, a bezel with eight functional screws set at a tangent, a stamped colorful ‘eagle’s iris’ dial, luminescent indications and a metal bracelet. Price: $22,500. 

 

Also New in 2023

During Watches and Wonders 2023 Chopard also debuted a new 25mm Happy Sport collection the debuts in four variations featuring a choice of materials, straps – including a new double tour option – and diamond settings. Prices start at $4,450.

One of four new 25mm options in the new Chopard Happy Sport collection.

In addition, look for Imperiale, a rose-gold-cased 25-piece limited edition in ethical 18-karat rose gold models with a lotus flower motif.

The new Chopard Imperiale.

The flowers bloom against the sky backdrop that appears to change thanks to a rotating day-night mechanism. Price: $90,700.

A year after Grand Seiko introduced complicated and sporty models to its  Evolution 9 Collection, the watchmaker adds its first automatic chronograph to the collection.

The new Grand Seiko Tentagraph.

The new model, the Tentagraph, features Grand Seiko’s high-beat (36,000 mph) movement, Caliber 9SA5, which is enriched with two barrels and an ultra-efficient Dual Impulse Escapement. The existing GMT chronograph within Evolution 9 is powered with Grand Seiko’s Spring Drive technology (Caliber 9R96). 

With these technical enhancements, Grand Seiko says the Tentagraph will retain its power reserve in chronograph operating mode for seventy-two hours, which the watchmaker call the “longest power reserve in the industry today.”

Grand Seiko tests its Tentagraph movement for twenty days with a strict precision goal of +5 to -3 seconds per day.

The new 43.2mm by 15.3mm titanium-cased watch retains the eye-catching Evolution 9 textured dial finish, here colored blue. The dial’s large indexes and recessed sub-dials deliver a quick read for the wearer.

Grand Seiko also gently curves the chronograph seconds downward so that the tip of the hand is as close as possible to the dial’s markers, again enhancing legibility.

The chronograph features a running seconds sub-dial at the three o’clock position, a 30-minute chronograph counter at nine, and a 12-hour chronograph counter at six o’clock.

Grand Seiko’s own proprietary Dual Impulse Escapement efficiently transfers energy to the free-sprung balance wheel indirectly through the pallet fork and also directly from the escape wheel, enhancing the movement’s efficiency.

In addition, Grand Seiko builds a vertical clutch and a column wheel into the movement, both of which enhance accuracy and chronograph control.

On the dial Grand Seiko places its signature Mt. Iwate pattern, named for the nearby mountain visible through the windows of the Grand Seiko Studio Shizukuishi.

The Tentagraph’s bezel is made of ceramic.

The Grand Seiko will make the Tentagraph available at the Grand Seiko Boutiques and select retail partners starting in June. Price: $13,700.  

Specifications: Grand Seiko Evolution 9 Collection Tentagraph

(Ref. SLGC001) 

Movement: Caliber 9SC5
Driving system: Automatic
Frequency: 36,000 vibrations per hour (10 beats per second)
Accuracy (mean daily rate): +5 to -3 seconds per day
Power reserve: 72 hours
Chronograph with 30-minute counter at 9 o’clock and 12-hour counter at 6 o’clock

Dial: Blue ‘Mt. Iwate’ pattern finish.  

Case: 43.2mm by 15.3mm high-intensity titanium, box-shaped sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating, ceramic bezel, see-through screw-on case back, screw-down crown, water resistance to 100 meters and magnetic resistance of 4,800 A/m. 

Bracelet: Three-fold titanium clasp with push button release.

Price: $13,700.

 

New Masterpiece

At Watches and Wonders 2023 Grand Seiko also debuted a hand-engraved, manual-wind platinum model in its Grand Seiko Masterpiece Collection.

Its dial consists of the now familiar Shinshu white birch pattern, though here Grand Seiko artisans have added a slightly different tone and a more metallic texture.

Inside Grand Seiko fits its Spring Drive Caliber 9R02 (first seen in 2019). The caliber’s superb eighty-four hour power reserve is the result of a dual spring barrel in which both mainsprings are set in parallel within the single barrel. 

Grand Seiko has set an 18-karat gold plaque on the 38.5mm watch’s lower bridge engraved with the words “Micro Artist.” However, the owner can instead customize it. Price: $79,000 (limited edition of fifty).

Finally, Grand Seiko introduces a Spring Drive jewelry watch inspired by the Brand’s emblematic white lion. The watch’s case and dial gleam with 5.62 carats of diamonds and 1.25 carats of blue sapphires, all set by hand.

The sapphire crystal case back reveals a beautifully finished Caliber 9R01 movement’s one-piece bridge, designed in the image of Mt. Fuji. Price: $260,000.