Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Annual Calendar Watch Review
The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Annual Calendar is able to distinguish between those months with 30 and 31 days, adjusting the date accordingly. Moreover, this model embraces the Swiss marque’s new, sporty design language. Mark McArthur-Christie reviews this sumptuous creation in detail.
Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Annual Calendar – tastefully understated
If bling is your thing, look away now, there’s nothing to see here. These two new Tonda Annual Calendars from Parmigiani Fleurier are so under-the-radar subtle that the only people who’ll spot you’re wearing one will be other watch people. And, to be fair, even plenty of watch people will miss it. You’ll get the odd, ‘that’s gorgeous’ comment, but otherwise, you can go about your day in a distinctly unshouty way, untroubled by attention. These are the Lockheed U-2s of the watchworld.
Sometimes ‘subtle’ can be a polite way to say ‘dull’. This is not the case here. After all, this is the watchmaker who produced a watch with telescopic hands, just because. Instead, there’s plenty of interest to be found everywhere from the integral bracelet to the new Calibre PF339 movement.
Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Annual Calendar – case options
Let’s start on the outside…
You get the choice of two case metals; stainless steel with a platinum bezel or 18ct rose gold. Whichever you go for, the case is a wrist-friendly 42 mm in diameter and a gnat’s fingernail over 11 mm deep. Both options combine brushing and satin finishing. Meh, brushing, schmushing. Not so fast – this is not your everyday brushing – it’s worth scrolling to the nearest case picture to get a sense of how fine it actually is, almost a satin finish. It contrasts with the coin-edging and polishing on the bezel.
Spot how the circular part of the case seems to hover in the integrated bracelet? That’s because the bracelet and lugs form a single line with the lugs standing slightly proud of the case edges. It’s aesthetically appealing but it also serves to protect the recessed pushers for the calendar’s operation.
Turn the watch over and you’ll see the caseback is polished and held on with four screws, one at the base of each lug. This is a fine way to secure a caseback as it completely eliminates any shearing on the main rubber seal of the watch. No shear means the seal retains its integrity for longer. Talking of seals, despite the lack of a screw-down crown, Parmigiani declares both watches are water-resistant to 100 m.
Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Annual Calendar – Calibre PF339
The caseback is sapphire, all the better to admire the movement which is something well worth doing given there’s not a plain surface or plate to be seen. Every element has some variety of finishing. It looks as though Parmigiani Fleurier has bought every stripe it could find in Geneva as almost every surface is côted (sorry) – including the balance cock and regulator. The bridges are all bevelled too with perlage under the balance. If there’s a jewelled bearing (and there are 32 of them), they’re countersunk with a polished rim. Even the 22ct rotor is a combination of polishing, circular graining and stippling. Yet despite all this, there’s still not even a whiff of bling. Everything looks as though it’s supposed to be that way and everything just works visually.
It all works beautifully from a mechanical point of view too. The tech specs show a 359 part, 28,800 vph movement with a 50 hour power reserve from two mainspring barrels rather than the one you might expect. But where things get really interesting is in the depths of the movement and its complications.
The PF339 takes the PF331 and adds a module for a retrograde annual calendar. On your everyday quartz (that’s £5 in the Escapement editor’s swear box), an annual calendar is a relatively simple piece of chip programming. Simply set the number of days for each month and allow for leap years until some distant date when we’re all taking holidays on Mars in our flying cars. Doing the same job mechanically requires a lot more ingenuity and a great deal more watchmaking nous. In this case, your watch will do all the clever adjustments for 30 or 31 days in a month. But what about February? Because the PF339 counts 29 days for February, you don’t even have to touch your calendar in a leap year. During the other three years of the cycle, it asks nothing more than a single day’s correction. And with the recessed case pushers being absolutely and satisfyingly mechanical, you may well wish it needed playing with a little more often.
Precision moon phase
As well as the retrograde annual calendar, the PF339 also has what Parmigiani Fleurier call a ‘precision moon phase’. It will give you the phase of the moon in both northern and southern hemispheres and you’ll only need to set it once (assuming you keep your Tonda on your wrist and wound, clearly) as it only needs a tweak once every 122 years. Just make sure you keep the instruction booklet to pass on to whomever you’re leaving your Tonda to in your will.
Now all this watchmaking cleverness presented PF with a bit of a problem. The overall design of its Tonda models is profoundly uncluttered. With this watch, all of a sudden there are two hemispherical moonphases, 12 months, seven days of the week plus all the usual hours, minutes and seconds, let alone the date for the annual calendar. It would have been easy to end up with an over-busy dial that tried to do too much. Instead, PF came up with the neat idea of integrating both moon phases into one single subdial and pushing the date outwards to the top of the dial edge.
Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Annual Calendar – dial details
It all blends rather well; the date hand’s body blends with the dial colour, using a white crescent moon as its indicator. Meanwhile, the rest of the timekeeping, as well as the day and month action, gets looked after by either 18ct gold rhodium-plated or gold skeleton delta hands. Like the rest of the watch, it’s a subtle enough touch that you’ll not see it and realise how neat it is unless you go looking for it.
Likewise, at a glance, the dial appears neat and unfussy. A bit of a closer look reveals the same sort of detailed finishing as the movement has enjoyed. Each index (again, either rose gold or rhodium-plated appliqué) is faceted to better reflect the light and make it easier to see. The dial itself uses two finishes; a plain matte to differentiate the subdials and date/seconds track and a rich Grain d’Orge guilloché on the main surface. Just below 12 o’clock is a thoroughly confident ‘PF’. If you have to ask what it stands for… The moonphase dial itself uses a contrasting night sky blue.
Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Annual Calendar – ‘one of the best bracelets out there’
All this gets firmly held onto your wrist with one of the best bracelets out there. There’s not usually much to say about a bracelet, but this one merits its own description. In terms of finish, it picks up the case’s subtle brushing with polishing on the outer edge running right the way round to the triple-fold clasp. The hand-finished links are narrow enough to avoid bracelet bulge; each link snugs down smoothly to your wrist. And there’s no faffing about with having to carefully push out pins – the lower links are properly screw-fixed.
Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Annual Calendar – closing thoughts
With many watches at this level, their interest can rest on one feature; a clever movement, a different type of case or perhaps even a striking dial. The Tonda Annual Calendar has each of these elements but combined in a way that’s clear, simple and visually quiet. That makes it initially attractive but also rewards you with something new each time you wear it.
Further reading
https://www.parmigiani.com/en/
Technical specification
- Model: Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Annual Calendar
- Reference: PFC907-1020001-100182 (stainless steel case with platinum 950 bezel)
- Reference: PFC907-2020001-200182 (18-ct rose gold case)
- Case: Diameter 42 mm; height 11.1 mm; water resistance 10 ATM (100 metres); sapphire crystal to front; exhibition case back.
- Functions: Hours; minutes; central sweep seconds; retrograde annual calendar and precision moon phase
- Movement: Calibre PF339; self-winding movement; frequency 28,800 vph (4 Hz); 32 jewels; power reserve 50 hours; 359 components.
- Bracelet: Polished and satin-finished stainless steel bracelet / 18-ct rose gold bracelet with steel folding clasp
- Price: stainless steel case with platinum 950 bezel – CHF 36,000 inc VAT (RRP as of 21.9.2023)
- Price: 18-ct rose gold case – CHF 72,000 inc VAT (RRP as of 21.9.2023)