In an industry where many watchmakers have spent countless decades, even close to two centuries, perfecting the art of luxury horology, Parmigiani Fleurier has made a name for itself in just a quarter-century by focusing on craft and innovation, as well as stylistic class.
At this year’s Watches and Wonders even in Geneva, the Swiss company unveiled its Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante watch featuring a brand-new and innovative take on a GMT complication. The function seems simple, yet fresh, as the dial consists of a minute hand and hour hand in rhodium-plated gold, and a hidden second hour hand in rose gold. When traveling, the wearer presses a pusher at the 8 o’clock position to move the rhodium-plated hand forward in one-hour increments to match that of local time, while the rose gold hand stays in place to keep the time of their home time zone. Upon returning home, you can instantly “flyback” the local hour hand to your home time by pressing a rose gold pusher within the crown, which places the “travel hand” back on top of the rose gold hand to keep it hidden until it’s needed again.
The watch’s dark blue dial is patterned with barleycorn guilloché and housed in a stainless steel case with a finely knurled platinum bezel and stainless steel bracelet to match. The open caseback reveals the superstar new PF051 caliber automatic movement, which features 207 components and an 18K rose gold micro-rotor. At 40mm in diameter, the case also has a 60m water resistance rating.
The GMT Rattrapante is at the forefront of Parmigiani’s Tonda PF releases, which also include the Flying Tourbillon and the Skeleton. However, the Rattrapante soars on its subtle simplicity on an aesthetic level, and its innovation on a mechanical one. It’s expected to be available this August for $28,700.
