Last year, Parmigiani Fleurier had one of the strongest showings of any brand at Watches & Wonders, led by a pair of absolutely gorgeous, traditionally styled perpetual calendars. This is a brand that for me has been somewhat hard to get into, personally. While the quality of the watches themselves is never in question, I don’t always identify with the design choices, and think occasionally they lean a little too subtle for their own good. That’s why last year’s Toric Quantieme Perpetual was such a surprise. It’s not the kind of watch that usually lands in my wheelhouse, but I found that it was executed so perfectly that I just couldn’t ignore it.
This year’s big novelty for Parmigiani at Watches & Wonders takes an entirely different approach, but follows a pair of recent creations that have been much admired flagships for this current generation of the brand. The Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux follows the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante and the Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante with a new complication that is hidden until called upon by the wearer, and in doing so have created a chronograph that is impossibly minimalist at first blush, with no obvious indications that it is, in fact, a chronograph.
That, of course, may or may not be appealing to you if you’re a chronograph fan. Part of the appeal of these watches for many is in how a chronograph naturally segments the dial and presents a variety of hopefully useful information in a cluster. The Chronograph Mystérieux isn’t for that kind of chronograph fan, though. It’s for someone who appreciates the novelty of a genuinely unique execution of one of the most traditional watchmaking complications.
Here’s how it works. When the chronograph is not running, the dial is presented as one with a traditional three-hand interface, showing hours, minutes, and seconds. With the first press of the monopusher chronograph actuator located at 7:30 the three chronograph hands (all rhodium plated) flyback to the starting position, and hide the current time display so that the only visual information on the dial is the chronograph output. The second press of the monopusher stops the timing – the elapsed time can be read easily via the hour, minutes, and seconds hands. The third press of the monopusher gets you back into civil time mode, returning to a current display of the time, hiding the chronograph functionality completely.
This is obviously a highly complex and niche chronograph in terms of its functionality. It runs on the PF053 caliber, which certainly operates on some of the same principles that drove the previous Rattrapante releases, but is a true integrated chronograph movement unto itself, with 362 total components and a power reserve of 60 hours in total.
The case is steel measuring 40mm in diameter and 13mm in height. This new style Tonda PF case, in my experience, wears a little larger than the dimensions would indicate, so I’ll be curious to see how this feels on the wrist at 13mm thick. That’s certainly not out of bounds for an automatic chronograph caliber (particularly one that is this unique). It’s mounted to a steel bracelet with alternating polished and satin finishing. The dial is in Parmingiani’s “Mineral Blue” and features Grain d’Orge guiloche applied with a rose engine.
The retail price of the Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux is set at $44,600. Parmigiani Fleurier
Zach Kazan
2026-04-14 13:00:00