Wrist Check: The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF In Steel

The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF collection debuted in August of 2021, at Geneva Watch Days, and it represented a major shift in direction for the brand, as well as the first major initiative undertaken under the leadership of Guido Terreni, who moved to Parmigiani Fleurier after years as president of Bulgari’s watch division. His career at Bulgari began in 2009 and under his leadership, Bulgari’s watches set six world’s records in ultra thin watchmaking and won dozens of international prizes, so it was no surprise to find that he was moving quite quickly to sharpen Parmigiani Fleurier’s game. Key to his refresh of the brand’s image was the introduction of the PF line, as well as the new PF logo, which had originally been developed by founder Michel Parmigiani when the brand launched in the 1990s, as a hallmark for precious metal cases and a stamp on movements. The PF logo was a sort of seed from which grew a whole new design language which, like the logo, brought a new economy of means and clarity of form to the Tonda line, and the Tonda PF collection was enthusiastically received by both critics and enthusiasts. Now, two years later, the initial enthusiasm has become broader market acceptance, with the PF Tonda collection as the flagship family.

The Rule Of Two

The Tonda PF collection is now not only the flagship, it’s one of just two collections – Parmigiani Fleurier now has just the Tonda and Toric watches, which are both based on round case shapes. The Toric collection is a sort of distilled essence of the original inspiration behind the brand (the first Parmigiani Fleurier watch was a Toric, in 1996) and represents a more classical approach to traditional fine watchmaking, with the Tonda collection now representing the contemporary side of Parmigiani Fleurier’s designs.

If you’re a lifelong Parmigiani Fleurier watcher, the first thing you’ll notice is that the PF Tonda in steel is as clean a modern watch design as you could wish. At first glance it almost seems too spare for its own good. The 40mm x 7.8mm case is not particularly large by modern watch standards but thanks to the narrow bezel – which is platinum, by the way – and the simple dial design, you get the impression that there is a lot of real estate to fill. One of the things that makes the design succeed, however, is that PF has resisted the temptation to load up on dial elements. It’s always fantastic to see a watch design that’s not afraid of negative space.

The Complex Problem Of Simplicity

Of course, there is a very fine line between simple and simplistic, and just leaving details out, doth not a successful design make. It’s only when you start moving things around in your mind’s eye, or changing them, that you realize just how much care has gone into making sure that what elements there are in the design, balance and complement each other. Date windows, for instance, can and often do seem terribly perfunctory but the placement of the date window at 6:00 and the use of a color that matches the dial, makes it a necessary counterpoint to the equally restrained PF logo at 12:00 (and, it goes without saying, the effect would be ruined by spelling out “Parmigini Fleurier”).

The rehaut is very slim, and steps gently downward to the plane of the dial itself, and the indexes act as a subtle visual bridge between the two – their high polish makes them easily legible despite their diminutive size and also makes them read larger than they actually are. The fluting on that bezel, by the way, is a very necessary piece of added texture – platinum is also an excellent material for a daily wear sports watch bezel as it shows scratches much less than stainless steel and gives you a little added peace of mind when you have the watch on your wrist. Ordinarily, I would find the absence of lume on the hands and indexes cause for a demerit but I don’t think they would do anything to help the design and trying to fit lume into the picture could do a lot to hurt the design instead. And, it gives the watch a kind of restrained formality that suits the near austerity of the dial and hands very well.

The dial is an astonishment. It’s a very deep chocolate brown and thanks to the interaction between it, the flat crystal, and the available light, it can seem anything from a deep blue to almost black, but brown is the true anchoring color. The pattern is so fine that it’s easy to miss at first, but there is an extremely fine grain d’orge (barleycorn) guilloché pattern engraved on it. The lines of the pattern intersect with each other at about a 60º angle at the top and bottom of the dial, and march in horizontal ranks across it, and not just the individual elements of the pattern, but also the way in which the rows intersect and parallel each other, makes the dial far more visually dynamic than if it had been left plain (or engraved with a less complex, more rectilinear pattern).

Parmigiani Fleurier became, almost at a single stroke at the introduction of the PF line, one of the leading watch design houses in the world but since the brand first debuted in 1996, it has been known both as a technical powerhouse, and as a repository of high end fine watchmaking craft. Its movements in general, over the course of its history, have compared well to those from any other fine watchmaking brand and the caliber PF703 is a great example of why this is so. Thanks to the platinum micro-rotor, it’s very flat, at 3.7mm – for comparison, the AP caliber 2120/21, which AP has phased out, and which was for several decades the thinnest full-rotor automatic movement in the world, is 2.45mm thick and if you add a date, that goes up to 3.05mm – only thinner than the PF703 by a very small margin and of course, the 2121 did not have a quickset date, which the PF703 does. The PF703 also offers a 48 hour power reserve, slightly longer than the 40 hours of the 2120/21. Neither movement has an overcoil balance spring, which would make for a thicker caliber, but the PF370 does offer a freesprung balance with adjustable timing weights on the rim.

There is a pretty long list of impressive features about the Tonda PF in steel, but the best thing about the watch is that it is greater than the sum of its parts. Do I miss a small seconds display? Generally I would but not on this watch, where either a center or small seconds would have been a distraction, detracting from the clarity of the design. Do I wish the screw-down crown were a little large? Somewhat, from an ergonomics standpoint, although if you wear this watch on a regular basis I doubt very much whether you will be manipulating the crown very often at all – perhaps just a few times a year when it’s a month with less than 31 days. A larger crown would have quickly started to look like an unwanted metallic excrescence on the side of the case anyway.

And it’s gloriously wearable. Comfortable, elegant, but not so formal as to make it seem out of place with anything other than business attire (god knows what that is nowadays anyway) this is one of the best integrated bracelet sports watches out there right now. For a collector of such watches the PF Tonda in steel is both a welcome renewal of purpose from a long-respected brand which in the past has struggled a bit to find a clear identity – and as other designs are discontinued and phased out, they may also offer a chance to collect earlier models with perhaps more idiosyncratic designs, but which also represent the technical and design heritage of the brand. Reader, I liked it – I liked it a lot – and if you happen to get a chance to spend some time up close and personal with one, I can’t recommend it enough; it’s a watch worth seeing whether you buy it or not, for what it represents in horological history and the history of modern watch design.