Every year people like me talk about their favorite releases coming out of Watches & Wonders, and every year I try to hedge my answer with an admission that many great watches slip through the cracks, and that it can take some time to fully digest everything I’ve seen. This year, when visiting with the folks at Parimigiani, I’ll admit that my attention was consumed by what turned out to be one of my favorite releases of the show, the excellent Toric Quantieme Perpetuel. But there was another watch there that I was reminded of this week, and it’s one that more closely aligns to my MO, if you will, and that is the Tonda PF Sport Chronograph No Date Ultra-Cermet.
I’m always keen to see high-end, premium takes on sport watches, and this watch certainly falls into that category. The Parmigiani PF Sport Chronograph has always been an intriguing design, but the few small changes seen here really push it into another level altogether. The first is right in the name, they’ve taken the date out of the equation, which gives the rather serene dial a much clearer sense of levity. It feels like the natural choice within this context. Second is the choice of material, which is a blend of ceramic and metal, called creatively enough, Cermet. It’s lightweight, anthracite in color, and gets a mix of matte and satin finishing here that takes a far more subdued route than I’m used to seeing with manufacturers at this level.
When paired with Parmigiani’s typically restrained color palette, the result is quite extraordinary. The grey tones that range from dark to light provide a wonderful foundation for the rather straightforward chronograph design. There are rather minimal extraneous elements at work here, such as a tachymeter, or accent colors that emphasise the chronograph bits… it’s all blended together uniformly. The only numerals present are found in the sub-dials, and frankly, even they feel a little out of place in the context of the design as a whole.
The somewhat minimal dial is framed by a chapter ring indexed to 5th of a second segment, and a lovely coin edge bezel that has become a signature component of Parmigiani’s design language. The bezel is a juxtaposition of what we’d expect to see on a sport watch like this, where we’d typically find a bezel with a tachymeter or some other scale to amp up the ‘sporty’ vibes. Overall I think it works in the context of this Cermet material. Were it handled in a two-tone manner, I think I’d feel quite differently about it.
This is a unique design that doesn’t fall into the trap of genre specific tropes, and it’s all the better for it. Even the case and teardrop lugs hold on to the Parmigiani DNA, refusing to compromise on what could be considered formal flourishes. It’s a sport watch, but on its own terms. That means it could be somewhat polarizing in nature, and I’ve said before, that’s a good thing for a watch like this.
The PF Sport Chronograph is powered by Parmigiani’s PF070-CSND automatic caliber, which is visible through the exhibition back, a detail I generally don’t care for on sport watches, but I’d call it a good thing here, as it’s rather lovely to look at. The 42.5mm case is fit to an integrated synthetic strap, and the curved lug means it wears a bit smaller than you might imagine. Still, it’s big enough to make an impression, and priced at CHF 39,900, it had better. Parmigiani
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