Watches And Wonders 2022: Parmigiani Fleurier- Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante Combines Horological Complexity
5 min read
At Watches And Wonders 2022, all brands have showcased excellence and their quest for essentials. Parmigiani Fleurier has joined this same quest with the launch of The Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante, which combines horological complexity with simplicity and purism. On its search for purism paired with innovation, Parmigiani Fleurier is rewriting watchmaking heritage, as evidenced by the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante, a polished world-first combining discreet complexity with quick user-friendliness.
This new model epitomises the brand's attitude, which renounces ostentation in favour of intellectual design, volumes and proportions, and extraordinary details, as well as exclusivity and innovation. It exemplifies a sartoriale approach that appeals to a select group of connoisseurs and is rooted in a long-standing watchmaking tradition. It's the latest in a long line of global debuts that have marked the brand's existence since 2003.
Knurled Bezel as a Strong Signature
Alongside the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante, Parmigiani Fleurier presents four more sophisticated high-flying novelties: the Tonda PF Skeleton; the Tonda PF Flying Tourbillon; and on a sportier note, the Tonda GT Chronograph in Big Date and Annual Calendar versions. The common denominators are a knurled bezel, a discreet yet strong visual and identity signature ensuring the stylistic and iconic coherence of the collection, along with teardrop-shaped lugs that extend the case and the spacious and uncrowded dial accentuated by the Grain d’Orge guilloché pattern.
This understated creativity follows a particular direction: the quest for essentials, materialized last September with the introduction of the Tonda PF. The integration of a meticulously finished metal bracelet into the case; the dynamism of a design inspired by the golden ratio; as well as the presence of dials featuring refined minimalism: this wealth of visual detail celebrates beauty in all its horological facets.
Against the Grain of the Mainstream
A vertically integrated industrial structure enabled Parmigiani Fleurier to master the whole range of high-end watchmaking knowledge, allowing the brand to quickly adapt to this new style lexicon. This is mirrored in the new timepieces unveiled at Watches and Wonders, which are aimed at connoisseurs who aren't interested in mainstream products.
Parmigiani Fleurier's language? In terms of both form and substance, rare, meaningful, and filled with rich cultural added value.
The Tonda PF collection launched in September 2021 has redrawn the lines of watchmaking purism. At Watches and Wonders 2022, it is enriched by a timepiece equipped with a complication offered as a world premiere: the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante. In keeping with the minimalist character of the collection, it features an innovative yet simple-to-use mechanism that preserves its understated nature.
This complication features two superimposed hour hands: one in rhodium-plated gold and the other in rose gold. Pressing the pusher at 8 o'clock causes the upper rhodium-plated gold hand dedicated to local time to jump one hour forward, thereby revealing the rose gold hand which displays time in the wearer’s place of residence, known as “home time”.
Once the second timezone information is no longer required, pressing the crown-integrated rose gold pushbutton repositions the rhodium-plated hand on top of the rose gold hand in the same manner as a splitseconds chronograph hand. This makes it an extremely user-friendly complication entirely in keeping with the brand spirit. The Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante, a watch for globetrotters who travel between time zones, and an instrument for connecting people across distances.
Instinctive Reading
The incorporation of a sophisticated mechanism allows for this one-of-a-kind flyback capability in the profession. Purists can use this simple complication to remove an extra time display from the dial surface when it isn't needed. This action helps show the quality and care given on each and every element by reducing the amount of information to the fundamentals, encouraging instinctive reading, and reducing the quantity of information to the essentials.
For Aesthetes, Great Formal Simplicity
Parmigiani Fleurier uses its sartorial approach to watchmaking to endow the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante with a particular structure, much like a tailor works on the folds generated by the drape of a fabric.
The beauty of a fundamentally architectural collection is unveiled, and the defining lines symbolising this power begin at the edge of the lugs on the steel case-middle and stretch in a barely noticeable dynamic to the centre of the bracelet side-links.
On this watch marked by impressive formal simplicity, this subtle underlying element acts as a "hidden trademark." A model that was clearly created to live in total synergy with the aesthete who adopts it, according to its developers.
