Parmigiani Fleurier Puts A New Spin On A Classic Complication with Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante

Parmigiani Fleurier is introducing a new member to their Tonda PF collection, and it contains a novel take on the GMT complication. The term ‘rattrapante’ is often associated with the timing hands of a chronograph, stacking them in multiples allowing the user to time multiple events in concert. A single press begins timing, while a third pusher will stop one of the timing hands in place, allowing the other to continue on. An additional press will ‘catch up’ the stopped hand to the timing hand again. Parmigiani has harnessed this concept and applied it in a far more practical application to the GMT complication with the new Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante. 

So how does all this work with a GMT hand? So simply that, frankly, I’m surprised it’s never been done in this way before. The core simplicity of the Tonda PF, a watch we took a hands on look at right here, has been retained. At a glance, there’s just an hour and minute hand. Still no bezel, no numerals, just that lovely pattern spanning the expansive dial. Only a bronze pusher in the crown, and another pusher integrated into one of the shapely lugs will tip you off that there’s something else in store.

There are a pair of hour hands, stacked atop one another, silver on top, bronze on the bottom. A press of the lug bound presser will advance the silver hand one hour at a time, leaving the bronze hand in place. This allows for quickly making adjustments to local time when traveling, while never losing your home time. No bezel or crown manipulation required. Once you’ve returned from your travels, a press of the pusher within the crown will ‘catch up’ the local hand with the home hand once again. 

Advancing a second hour hand with the press of a button is nothing new, Patek Philippe’s reference 5164 is a particularly lovely example, however, keeping it as clean as Parmigiani has managed here, and pairing it with a rattrapante feature makes this Tonda PF one of the cleanest implementations of such a complication I’ve ever seen. One thing the Patek has that’s missing on the Parmigiani is an am/pm indication of any kind. Both hands still tell time at a 12 hour scale. To be fair, I generally have enough awareness of my home time to make that judgment, and as far as local time goes, well, I can simply look out the window to make such an assessment. In this case, I’ll happily accept the uncompromised dial for the minimal loss of information. 

Parmigiani is using their beautiful PF051 caliber which features a micro-rotor design and all around impressive finishing to be admired through the open caseback. The movement is placed within a 40mm steel case that measures 10.7mm in thickness, which is a slight jump from the time only model, but still acceptably thin considering the added complexity. The Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante is priced at $28,700, and while that’s no small sum, consider that similar watches, like the previously mentioned 5164 will run you into the six figures.

Keep an eye out for our hands-on impression of this one coming soon. Parmigiani.