By Magnus Salbu
Parmiginai has shown us that they are doing some serious upgrades to many of their collections this year, the two most exciting for us is the Tonda Metrographe and the Toric Chronometre.
The Tonda Metrographe have been given a new dial, while still keeping with the traditional sub dial layout of the Metrographe. The biggest changes to the dial, is the 12 hour and 30-minute subdials which has been surrounded by a slightly raised frame. The whole dial is now completely white or black (depending on the model) as opposed to previous models where the subdials on the black dial were surrounded by a luminescent ring in a greenish colour. This subtle change makes for a much sleeker and sporty look (after all, this is a sports watch).
The movement is the same as in previous models, the Calibre PF350 which is essentially their own PF331 Calibre with a Dubois Depraz chronograph module. It features an automatic winding, twin barrel movement with a 42-hour power reserve. The date disc has also been moved from 6 o’clock to 12 o’clock which we think is fantastic as it was one of the biggest flaws of the previous models as the date disc cut into the 12-hour subdial and would sometimes make it hard to read properly. The movement is as any Parmigiani superbly finished with bevelled edges and Geneva stripes radiating from the balance wheel.
The case is also the same as with the previous Metrographe, 40mm in diameter with curved, teardrop lugs. The chronograph pushers are also integrated into the lugs. The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda Metrographe comes with either a calf skin leather strap (11,500 CHF) or on a bracelet with brushed centre links and polished outer links (12,000 CHF)
Parmigiani also relaunched their Toric collection today with the addition of four new watches called the Toric Chronometer. We haven’t seen much from the Toric collection in recent years, and the existing models were beginning to look very outdated with their typical 90’s design. This year, however, Parmigiani has completely redesigned the whole case, dial and it has a new movement.
The case has been redesigned to fit your wrist and the bezel has received an upgrade that makes it look a lot more modern. However, despite these changes, the Toric Chronometre still retains most of the original design cues and fits perfectly into the collection. The case comes is two variations, white and red 18kt gold, each with the option of two very interesting dials.
The Black Opaline has Arabic numerals, Javelin style hands and a white date aperture at 12 o’clock. As with the Metrographe, the number ‘1’ is in red writing. The white dial is a cream white colour with a texture. This texture is achieved by brushing the dial with a mixture of salt and silver powder, leaving a very subtle, but beautifully grained pattern. The date aperture is black and at 12 o’clock we find the “Chronometer” writing on both dials revealing that the movement is Chronometer certified. However, this certification is not done by COSC standards, it is done by Parmiginai’s own, much stricter standard where the watches are tested in a number of challenging tests. They have to be within 0 to +5 seconds per day to get the certification, as opposed to COSC which operated with -2 to +4 seconds per day. For more info, please visit parmigiani.ch
