Parmigiani Fleurier - Tonda PF
With a judicious sense of detail, pattern, shape and curve, the Tonda PF is Parmigiani Fleurier’s latest and most forward-looking collection. Released as the watchmaking brand celebrates its 25th anniversary, these new integrated bracelet timepieces take attention to craft, complication and streamlined aesthetics to a new high. One that doesn’t scream expensive but says excellence. One that is created to satisfy purists looking for a high-end, finespun timepiece. The Tonda PF collection is built around the most iconic in-house movements of the maison, running a wide gamut of complications, and culminating in a limited edition, all-platinum, award-winning split-seconds chronograph.
The Tonda PF Collection
The Tonda PF collection inaugurates a new brand signature. The PF logo appears at 12 o’clock, nestled in a vertical, oval, double-edged appliqué with extensive finishings, a harbinger of the level of care put into the collection. The indices of each timepiece are set across two levels of the dial, while the Grain d’Orge guilloché dial pattern is the finest imaginable. Any smaller and it would have become invisible. Any larger, it would have become obvious, therefore defeating the purpose of this line: imperceptible refinement, entire dedication to exclusivity, modern permanence.
The Tonda PF is an entirely new collection of timepieces within the Tonda family, featuring Parmigiani Fleurier’s most distinctive complications from the outset. This includes the Tonda PF Micro-Rotor, a slim, pared-down, high-end two-hander with platinum micro-rotor. The Tonda PF Chronograph features an almost flush dial and an integrated high frequency chronograph movement. The Tonda PF Annual Calendar with retrograde date demonstrates how discretely and astutely advanced indications can be integrated into a pared-down design. All three models are available in steel with platinum hand-knurled bezel or entirely crafted in 18ct rose gold.
At the top of the range, Parmigiani Fleurier is grooming a limited series of the Tonda PF Split Seconds Chronograph. Fitting for a 25th Anniversary, its 25 pieces feature a dial, case and bracelet made of platinum 950, whose high frequency, openworked, split seconds chronograph movement is built out of solid gold.
Sartorial Savvy
Everywhere the eye lands on a Tonda PF, there’s a particular texture, form, detail to be seen and enjoyed. This is not ornament, ostentation or opulence. This is a mature, sartorial approach to watchmaking, where cloth is replaced by metal and weaving by dial pattern. The cutting and fitting of the shoulders and waistline take on the form of case and bracelet. Like in a Neapolitan or Sicilian workshop, these are entirely focused on silhouette, fluidity, proportions and taste. Like any jacket that originates in those institutions of male elegance, the Tonda PF is tailored to withstand the passing of time and trends, and remain.
Its specific hands are made of solid gold. Slim and long, they’re almost entirely openworked and of completely new design. The bezel, a direct heritage from the Tonda collection, features a sleek, polished part and another that’s been knurled by hand, and is crafted out of solid platinum 950 for the steel models. Rather than using the same steel as the rest of the case and bracelet, Parmigiani Fleurier has elected to work with this highly precious metal. 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.
The case band on all four references of the Tonda PF line deserves closer examination. It is not straight, but slightly bassiné, i.e. wider near the bezel and narrower on the wrist. This provides the overall design with a sense of increased slimness. The surface is horizontal-satin-finished all around as is the upper surface of the lugs. The Tonda PF Micro-Rotor measures 40 mm in diameter and owes its pure aesthetic to the uncluttered warm grey, matte guilloché dial. It inaugurates a new version of Parmigiani Fleurier’s fundamental movement, the PF703. This ultra-slim, 3 mm thick engine is selfwinding thanks to a full platinum micro-rotor. This diminutive oscillating weight is integrated inside the movement’s structure rather than lying on top of it. The gain in height is considerable. This in turn allows the Tonda PF Micro-Rotor to measure a mere 7.8 mm on the wrist, ensuring comfort and elegance.
In an unusual and exclusive combination, it features hours, minutes and date. The date disc is the exact same color as the minute track’s, creating a consistent colorway. Combined with its slimness and sleekness, this makes the Tonda PF Micro-Rotor a refined everyday timepiece that can literally be worn on any occasion.
The 42 mm Tonda PF Chronograph exemplifies how a particular design can shift according to the specific requirements of a complication. The 5 Hz Caliber PF070 is an integrated, high frequency, column wheel movement with small seconds and two registers. Integrating three counters on the Tonda PF Chronograph’s thinly guilloché dial demands finesse.
Parmigiani Fleurier maintains an almost flush surface by using thinly sandblasted minute track and counter outlines on the discrete blue dial. The pushers have been fused with the profile of the Tonda PF Chronograph’s lugs. This model, along with the Tonda PF Annual Calendar, premieres a new oscillating weight in 22ct rose gold, widely openworked with a central PF logo medallion.
The 42 mm Tonda PF Annual Calendar transcends the aesthetics that had thus far been associated with Parmigiani Fleurier’s annual calendar movement. Caliber PF339 presents a retrograde date, day, month and 122-year moonphase as visible in both hemispheres. As they come on top of the three usual time-telling hands, the very nature of the general design of the collection was at stake.
By pushing the da te outwards onto the minute track and using discretely outlined counters on the warm grey guilloché dial, Parmigiani Fleurier has managed to balance the pared-down equilibrium of the collection’s design language and an elaborate layout.