In the bustling center of Manhattan, at the iconic Gotham Hall, the eagerly anticipated WatchTime New York 2023 is just around the corner, scheduled to unfold from October 20 to 22. Adding to the prestige of the event, Parmigiani Fleurier, the renowned Swiss watch manufacturer, will be gracing the occasion with the exhibition of two extraordinary mechanical masterpieces— the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante and the Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante. These watches are not just timekeeping instruments, but works of art that showcase the beauty and complexity of mechanical watchmaking, while at the same time offering a new innovative use of the rattrapante function.
Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante
The Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante wowed the audience at last year’s Watches and Wonders. The watch is an expansion of the Tonda PF collection that was originally released in August of 2021, and like that release the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante maintains the sophistication and refinement set by its predecessors. The design is adjacent to other GMT and rattrapante models on the market, yet it approaches the complications with an unexpected and subdued execution.
For the model’s exterior, Parmigiani Fleurier opts for polished and satin-finished platinum for the case, complete with a knurled bezel and 18-carat rose gold “back-home” pusher at 3 o’clock. The case measures 40mm in diameter with a height of 10.7mm and is also available in pink gold and stainless steel.
The purely “milano blue” dial is complete with a barleycorn guilloché texture and decorated with applied, 18-carat gold rhodium-plated, geometric indices. Ticking atop are two skeletonized hands indicating the local time and minutes in rhodium-plated 18-carat gold. Unlike many GMT designs, the dial omits a date window or 24-hour hand, instead opting for an understated expression of the complication via a sole, secondary 12-hour counter.
At 8 o’clock there is a pusher that, when pressed, causes the hour hand to jump forward in increments of one hour in order to set the watch for a second-time zone. As the hour hand moves, an 18-carat rose gold “home time” hand is revealed underneath that remains consistent with the original time zone. Pressing the rose gold pusher that is integrated into the crown repositions the rhodium-plated hour hand atop the “home time” hand in the same manner as a split-seconds chronograph hand.
Inside the model, the caliber PF051 operates behind a sapphire exhibition caseback. The automatic winding manufacture movement powers the split GMT function and features a rose gold micro-rotor. Côtes de Genève and Perlage decorations in rose gold throughout the finished movement complement the rose gold “home time” hand on the reverse.
Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante
With the Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante, Parmigiani Fleurier is taking up where the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante left off last year. A stopwatch in the literal sense, the 40mm two-hand platinum model allows the measurement of elapsed minutes in increments of one or five. A pair of rhodium-plated hands is responsible for displaying the hour and minute on the Grain d’Orge guilloché dial in a sandy grey color scheme.
The rose gold hand underneath jumps to the correspondingly desired time period when the pushers are activated at eight and ten o’clock, respectively. The desired period is elapsed as soon as the classic minute hand has caught up to the rose gold hand’s position. Hence the name, because “rattrapante” means “to catch up.” The stop minute hand is reset by a pusher integrated into the crown.
In charge of this elegant time measurement is the manufacture caliber PF052, which oscillates at a rate of 21,600 vph. Its pink gold micro rotor, also decorated with the barleycorn pattern typical of the Tonda PF line, is revealed through the exhibition case back.
“At Parmigiani Fleurier, we push the boundaries in innovation. The individual should control time, his time. It’s not time that should control the individual. That is the essence of our world premiere.”
— Guido Terreni, CEO Parmigiani Fleurier
To learn more about the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante and Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante, click here.
And to purchase your tickets to WatchTime New York 2023, click here.
