Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux Watch Review
The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux has the capacity to measure elapsed hours, minutes and seconds, but without a subdial in sight. Unveiled at Watches & Wonders 2026, this timepiece indicates the prevailing time succinctly and only reveals its chronograph function when needed. The result is a watch with a clean and uncluttered dial. Upholding Parmigiani Fleurier tradition, the movement is constructed and finished to a matchless standard and the habillage exudes both subtlety and grace from every angle.
Keep it clean
When I was a young man, I worked for a large company where I shared a small office with fellow small people. The office manager would flit from one desk to another, like a bee on a mission, demanding to know what everyone was working on. He was also somewhat of a hygiene fiend, liberally applying hand sanitiser in between tidying papers on our desks. Each day, he would exclaim, “In this company, we operate a clean desk policy”, before uttering the same idiom for the umpteenth time, “Tidy desk, tidy mind”. While his words and deeds were sometimes irritating, they did instil a sense of order and conferred efficiency.
Now, as a fiftysomething, I’ve come to appreciate cleanliness and welcome the absence of clutter. Indeed, with the onset of grey hair, I’ve become a technophobe and frequently moan about being bombarded with information that I never asked for. For example, take smart watches (if you must). Do you need to know your SpO2 level in real time? In my opinion, superfluous information does not make life easier, it merely inhibits understanding the essential.
Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF collection (2021)
Guido Terreni was appointed CEO of Parmigiani Fleurier in January 2021. Later that same year, he unveiled the Tonda PF collection, comprising a handful of models each featuring a tastefully nuanced dial. The styling of every reference sidestepped vulgar ostentation, efficiently enunciating time with seemly elegance.
Image – Guido Terreni
Of all the inaugural models, I was (and remain) especially drawn to the Tonda PF Micro-Rotor. Featuring openworked delta-shaped hour and minute hands, a Grain d’Orge hand-guilloché dial, neat applied hour markers, a steel case with a platinum bezel and equipped with a movement to die for, the model proves a heady mix few discerning souls can resist.
Image – Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Micro-Rotor
Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante (2022)
In April 2022, Parmigiani Fleurier released the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante at Watches & Wonders. At first glance, the model resembled the Tonda PF Micro-Rotor. Again fitted with openworked delta-shaped hour and minute hands and succinct hour markers, save for the dial colour, everything looked the same. However, appearances can be deceptive, this model is a GMT, or dual-time watch, albeit with a notable difference.
Image – Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante Verzasca
Imagine taking the ‘red-eye’ to New York. On arrival at JFK, you merely need to press the pusher at 07:30 to adjust the local hour. As the silver-toned hour hand advances, it reveals a golden hand positioned below, indicating the ‘home hour’. A few days later, when you eventually arrive home, you simply need to press the golden pushpiece set within the tip of the crown and the ‘local hour’ will catch up with the ‘home hour’, reinstating the two-hand look.
The Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante provides additional functionality when needed, but when the dual-time complication is not required, the model tucks away the unwanted hand, ensuring the dial is as orderly as you could wish for. When compared with other watches, the GMT Rattrapante proves the neatest way of indicating the time in two different locations.
A PF signature – ‘complications that reveal themselves only when called upon’
Following the release of its ingenious dual-time model, the Maison unveiled the Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante in 2023, a complication that allows the wearer to advance an 18-carat rose gold hand in 1-minute or 5-minute increments, serving as a useful aide memoire. Available on demand, the complication remains hidden when not required.
Image – Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante Arctic Rose
Now, the brand from the Val-de-Travers, currently celebrating its 30th anniversary, has crafted another ingenious watch, the Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux. In common with the aforementioned models, the additional hands only reveal themselves when invited to do so. The apparent simplicity of the dial, a paragon of conciseness, belies the complexity of the model’s brilliant mind.
Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux – dial
The silver-toned delta-shaped hour and minute hands subscribe to the beloved Tonda PF design language, first seen in 2021. In this instance, the hands are accompanied by a matching rhodium-plated centre seconds hand. The hours are denoted with compact 18-carat gold, rhodium-plated appliques. In common with the model’s siblings, the dial shuns overt branding and loud text in favour of a simple ‘PF’, presented in an oval frame; the only indication of the maker’s identity.
Press the monopusher at 07:30 and the silver-toned hands reset to zero and assume chronograph duties, precisely measuring elapsed time. As these hands move in the blink of an eye, they reveal 18-carat rose gold skeletonised delta-shaped hour and minute hands. These latter hands take over the role of indicating the hour and minutes.
By adopting this approach, the dial is not cluttered with counters. The central seconds hand suddenly transitions from indicating the running seconds to assuming the role of a central chronograph seconds hand, measuring elapsed periods to the nearest ¼-second. Likewise, the silver-toned hour and minute hands display elapsed periods with the adjacent track, fringing the dial, facilitating ease of read-off.
To avoid any potential parallax issues, the hands are positioned in very close proximity to one another, with the silver-toned hands sitting just above the gold hands. It is this nearness that ensures, for the majority of the time, the watch appears to have just three hands.
Upholding Tonda PF convention, the dial masterfully employs colour and texture to comely effect. Guido Terreni has repeatedly shown his eye for design along with an extraordinary sensitivity to shades and deep respect for materials. The dial of the Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux is executed in Grain d’Orge hand-guilloché, a textured surface that evokes thoughts of the sumptuous Italian cloth with a fine structure and high knot count.
Image – Guido Terreni
Moreover, Terreni is a disciple of Le Corbusier and his legendary Architectural Polychromy (see my feature on the Toric Petite Seconde Rose Gold Dune). He expends much time and effort experimenting with different dial hues. To a lay person, the tonal differences may seem imperceptible, but to Guido Terreni, unquestionably a perfectionist, such minuscule differences matter. On this occasion, he has chosen to dress the dial of the Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux in a suit of ‘Mineral Blue’.
Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux – case
Since unveiling the inaugural Tonda PF models (2021), namely the Micro-Rotor, a chronograph, an annual calendar and a split seconds chronograph, Parmigiani Fleurier has gone on to release several additional references. These range from the comparatively simple to the mind-bogglingly complex. Cases have been executed in steel, 18 carat rose gold, ‘two-tone’ and platinum, with sizes ranging from 36.1 mm to 42 mm in diameter.
While the collection is now extensive, proffering much choice, the design language remains focussed and is consistently applied. The new Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux, measuring 40 mm in diameter, proves no exception.
The case band is adorned with a horizontal satin finish, whereas the upper surface of the lugs is polished. The lachrymose-themed lugs feature gleaming chamfered edges that become increasingly wider as they near the bracelet.
And speaking of the bracelet, it is clear that PF does not believe in the idea of ‘time and motion studies’. Indeed, the bracelet’s multi-row design is incredibly complex to realise. The central row of links is of uniform width, whereas each neighbouring row elegantly tapers. The outer row of links is polished, sitting in contrast with neighbouring satin-finished surfaces. The juxtaposition of two finishes and the complex bracelet assembly is labour intensive, but for Terreni, the resultant aesthetic justifies the effort and cost.
Back in 2021, when Parmigiani Fleurier released the Tonda PF Micro-Rotor in steel, the brand’s press release mentioned the watch featured a steel case and a platinum bezel and yet the brand’s accompanying images revealed no discernible difference between both metals. I have subsequently come to learn that capturing such subtle differences in shade using a camera is near impossible. However, cradle the watch in your hands and the nuanced tonal difference between steel and platinum becomes apparent, with the latter noble metal appearing whiter. In many companies, the bean counters would have countermanded the additional expense, but thankfully, Terreni, a master of tones, has enjoyed much creative freedom, imbuing his work with an exquisite delicacy.
Over the last few years, I have attended several presentations where Guido Terreni has selected a model at random from the brand’s extensive Tonda PF collection and placed it upon his wrist. Then, without closing the clasp, leaving the bracelet loose, he has proceeded to rotate his arm 45° clockwise and then counterclockwise, back and forth, again and again. The watch head never moves, seemingly rooted to his wrist. I’m sure that if he violently shook his arm, the watch would shift, but his arm twisting serves to demonstrate that the Tonda PF was designed not merely to sit upon the wrist but to almost fuse with the arm. Indeed, with its optimal centre of gravity and ergonomic profile, the Tonda PF is a byword for wearer comfort.
For the ultimate expression of Chronograph Mystérieux ownership, the brand also offers a fully platinum option.
Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux – PF053 Manufacture calibre
To the rear of the watch, a pane of sapphire affords sight of the PF053 Manufacture calibre, a new integrated chronograph movement featuring a column wheel. Fellow inquisitive horophiles will undoubtedly be keen to establish whether the watch features a horizontal or vertical clutch. Surprisingly, the brand states the movement features a column-wheel with ‘triple clutch architecture’, combining one vertical and two horizontal clutches. I have been informed that this complexity was necessary due to the ‘superimposition and transformation of hand functions’.
Without access to a working sample of the watch, I am unable to comment on the pushpiece feel or the behaviour of the chronograph in use. However, based on my knowledge of the Maison, I have no doubt that the movement will prove an extraordinary exemplar of micro-mechanical engineering. At this juncture, I need to refer you to my in-depth feature discussing the work of Michel Parmigiani. In this article, I reveal the time I wrote content for the brand’s online magazine, ‘Le Blog’, an experience that gave me an incredible insight into the brand and its associated companies. Furthermore, it was spending time with Michel Parmigiani that I learnt the importance of finishing.
In its pre-Watches & Wonders press release describing the PF053 calibre, the Swiss marque states, ‘It is finished according to the Maison’s standards, with a 22-carat rose gold oscillating weight featuring alternating sandblasted and polished surfaces and openworked bridges with satin-finishing and bevelled edges’. Everything sounds eminently refined and typically Parmigiani Fleurier, albeit I will reserve final judgment until I have inspected the movement at close quarters with a loupe to my eye. I hope in due course to revisit the PF053 calibre in more detail.
Closing remarks
Since releasing the first Tonda PF models, the brand’s product portfolio has grown exponentially. Different dial colours, case materials, case sizes, the presence of complications and even the addition of diamonds have broadened the appeal of the collection. However, the Swiss marque has always stayed true to the original design language, first seen in 2021. By adopting this approach, Parmigiani Fleurier successfully sidesteps obsolescence. For instance, the Tonda PF Micro-Rotor, now approaching its 5th birthday, has lost none of its lustre and its eye-appeal remains undiminished.
While the Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux has the capacity to measure elapsed hours, minutes and seconds, it does so without a subdial in sight. For most of the time, this watch will look like a simple three-hander, indicating the prevailing time. When required, the wearer simply needs to press the monopusher at 07:30 and the silver-toned hands will suddenly assume their chronograph duties while a second set of hands, executed in rose gold, take on the role of time telling. The resultant dial is clean and seemingly simple, only revealing its complication on demand; however, this succinct presentation of time belies the complexity of the PF053 calibre, orchestrating the performance centre stage.
Returning to my introduction, yes, I concede that as I’ve grown older, I’ve become a tad grumpier. I feel frustrated with some aspects of modern life. For instance, I abhor loud voices in restaurants, apps on my phone that I will never need and countless emails providing information that I never requested. The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux indulges my desire for brevity and indicates the prevailing time clearly. If you have a need for a chronograph, the additional functionality only makes its presence known when called upon. Quite simply, if you subscribe to the ‘Tidy desk, tidy mind’ philosophy or simply don’t wish to be bamboozled with unnecessary information, this latest PF may well be the perfect companion, irrespective of your age.
Further reading
https://www.parmigiani.com/en/
Technical specification
- Model: Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux
- Reference: PFC917-2020001-100182
- Case: stainless steel with platinum 950 bezel, diameter 40 mm, height 7.8 mm, water resistance 10 ATM (100 metres), sapphire crystal to front, exhibition case back.
- Functions: hours, minutes, monopusher chronograph
- Movement: Calibre PF053, self-winding movement, frequency 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 41 jewels, power reserve 60 hours, 362 components.
- Bracelet: polished and satin-finished bracelet with folding clasp
- Price – steel and platinum: 36,900 CHF (RRP as of 14.4.2026)
- Also available in a fully platinum case: 99,600 CHF (RRP as of 14.4.2026)