Parmigiani Fleurier continues to push their innovative approach to complications hidden in plain sight this year with a new Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux. This is the latest Tonda to feature an unsuspecting complication, a trend that began with a hidden GMT hand in the Tonda GMT Rattrapante released in 2022. This time, we get a hidden centrally mounted monopusher chronograph. No sub dials, no scales, no tachymeter… just stacked hands and a single presser hidden in the lug.
Chronograph watches are generally set within sporty, bulky packaging, and some might say that’s part of the appeal. Parmigiani subverts that expectation, finding a way to distill the most practical components of the complication and deploy it within the Tonda framework without compromise to the core design features. It’s also a rejection of the idea that a chronograph needs to be bristling with all manner of peripheral information.
So what’s going on here? At a glance, this looks like pretty much any other Tonda PD, an expansive Grain d’Orge hand-guilloché’d dial and three hands. A small presser in the lower left hand lug tips the presence of something else at play, much like the Minute and GMT Rattrapante references. Pressing that button activates the chronograph, revealing for the first time that there are actually five hands.
Under the silver polished hands sits a golden hour and minute hand. When the chronograph is activated, all three of the silver hands become chronograph hands, while the gold hands remain in place to provide the time. The silver seconds hand, minute hand, and hour hand all align at 12 o’clock, and begin tracking time independently when activated. A second press of the button will pause the timing, while a third will send each of the hands back to their starting positions.
It’s a brilliant idea that’s executed seamlessly by Parmigiani. There is only one drawback that could become an annoyance if you’re the type to use a chronograph often. That is the seconds hand. When the timing is stopped and reset, the seconds hand merely begins ticking where the chronograph timing left off. This means that if you set your watch to something like time.gov to make sure it’s set to the second, every use of the chronograph will throw off the accuracy of whatever minute you happen to be in.
Parmigiani achieves this synchronization with the use of a triple-clutch system: one vertical, two horizontal. Getting it right necessitated the development of a new movement, which resulted in this PF053. It uses 362 components, and measures 6.9mm thick, and sits within a 40mm steel case with a platinum bezel, measuring 13mm in total thickness. It’s an impressive bit of packaging that will likely see iterations beyond the mineral blue dial seen here. Pricing for the watch is set at $44,600. Parmigiani Fleurier