The Tonda PF made quite the scene. Introduced in the last days of the 2021 summer, the latest collection by Parmigiani Fleurier has gained both wide acclaim and a warm reception. In a watchmaking world dominated by overstatement and brand assertion, the line is a welcome alternative. Refined, thin, ripe with the kind of small details that really matter, the steel on steel two-hander is meant for the connoisseur. A micro-rotor powered movement, a knurled platinum bezel, applied gold indices, a guilloché dial of absolute discretion: the Tonda PF is a timepiece for the ages. It’s only logical that a watch built on understatement be fitted with an understated complication at some point. The thing is, there really wasn’t one in the classic watchmaking repertoire. So Parmigiani invented the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante. No, this is not a split-seconds chronograph, as the rattrapante word might lead you to believe. This piece is about something lse. It possesses a secondary hour hand for a second timezone indication. It’s set in one-hour increments with a pusher at 8 o’clock, almost seamlessly integrated within the generously curved lugs. The trick is this: at any given moment, this second timezone hand can be hidden, when the user is not traveling, or when doing so within his own timezone.
SLY SLIDE
A rose gold pusher is located inside the crown. Activating it will direct the rose gold hand to catch up (hence the word equivalent Rattrapante) with the main hour hand, to a concealed position. In other words, this is a GMT timepiece with an on/off switch. Yet something had to differentiate the original, pared-down Tonda PF from this more elaborate descendant. Parmigiani made good use of colors in order to unequivocally separate the two. For starters, the GMT Rattrapante has a blue dial. The barleycorn guilloché is still present, of course, as it is on the solid rose gold micro-rotor. And then there is precisely that tone of gold, drops of it here and there that unite the GMT function. The pusher inserted within the crown is in tune with the secondary hour hand, both in 18K 5N gold. Much like the Tonda Pf was almost undetectable in its lavishness, so is the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante in its functionality.
