What We Know
Parmigiani Fleurier’s Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante was arguably one of the coolest watches from Watches & Wonders 2022. A discreet pusher allowed you to jump the hour hand forward, leaving a second, hidden hour hand for a reference time zone and using the watch as a traveling GMT. When you were done, the crown pusher reset you back to your home time. Well, they’ve taken the hidden display even further with a new Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux, an in-house monopusher chronograph movement that has a lot up its sleeve.
First of all, the monopusher is unusually placed at the 7 o’clock crown, which is an uncommon choice (necessitated by this new PF053 movement). The movement runs at 4Hz as a column wheel chronograph design with 362 components, a 60-hour power reserve, and (somewhat surprisingly) an automatic winding system. The chronograph runs all stop/start/reset functions through that pusher. The watch is cased in polished and satin-finished stainless steel with a platinum knurled bezel, measuring 40mm by 13mm.
But the real show is the hidden chronograph functionality. When using the watch normally, the rhodium-plated hour and minute hands function to show normal, civil time, and the central second hands just keep track of civil time as well. If you start the chronograph, the central seconds hand instantly jumps to 0 and starts to function as a chronograph.
The rhodium-plated hands also reset to zero and turn into counter hands, counting the running minutes and hours, while moving to reveal the rose gold hour and minute hands underneath that still track civil time. Stopping the chronograph stops those rose gold hands from continuing to track civil time. A third activation of the pusher brings everything back to tracking civil time and hides the rose gold hands again.
The watch is capped by a ‘Mineral Blue’ dial with Grain d’Orge hand-guilloché, and the movement has open-worked satin-finished bridges with hand-beveled angles according to Parmigiani Fleurier’s standards and design codes.
This is a fascinating way to handle a chronograph and comes at what feels like a reasonable price for a newly developed in-house chronograph, coming in at $44,600.
What We Think
I’ve always thought the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante was an incredibly cool watch and a creative GMT display. To go this far with a new chronograph movement (which certainly took a lot of development) is pretty impressive. Functionally, as a chronograph, I think it might get a bit confusing and difficult to wrap one’s head around, as well as hard to reference at a glance or actually time anything where subdividing seconds is truly important, but from an emotional standpoint, it’s an incredibly captivating watch.
This is certainly near the top of my list of watches from this fair that I want to see in person. I think the overall creativity and aesthetic of the watch will be enough to win me over, and I can see this being a hot product for Parmigiani Fleurier this year.
The Basics
Brand: Parmigiani Fleurier
Model: Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux
Reference Number: PFC917-2020001-100182
Diameter: 40mm
Thickness: 13mm
Case Material: Polished and satin-finished stainless steel with platinum 950 knurled bezel
Dial Color: ‘Mineral Blue’ with Grain d’Orge hand-guilloché
Indexes: Hand-applied 18ct gold rhodium-plated appliques
Lume: None
Water Resistance: 100m
Strap/Bracelet: Polished and satin-finished stainless steel
The Movement
Caliber: PF053
Functions: Hours, minutes, monopusher chronograph
Diameter: 32.4mm
Thickness: 6.8mm
Power Reserve: 60 hours
Winding: Automatic micro-rotor
Frequency: 4Hz
Jewels: 41
Chronometer Certified: No
Additional Details: Satin-finished open-worked bridges, bevelled
Pricing & Availability
Price: $44,600
Availability: Now
Limited Edition: No
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