Hands-On Parmigiani's Tonda PF Split-Seconds Chronograph Is A Low-Key, High-Beat Masterpiece

At the center of our table was the Tonda Chronor Anniversaire, a solid hunk of polished rose gold,  enhanced by a brilliant blue grand feu enamel dial, This award-winning rattrapante chronograph had been released the year before, in 2016, to commemorate Parmigiani's 20th anniversary.

It carried my attention for the rest of the night. I was only 21 years old at the time, about two weeks away from my college graduation, and here I was, spending my weekend with a watch that featured a price tag that blew past my annual NYU tuition (proving to the universe that there's at least one thing costlier than what you'll spend seeking higher education in New York).

The original Tonda Chronor Anniversaire was a limited edition of 25 pieces; naturally, I never expected to see one again. Maybe I should have known better – there's always another anniversary around the corner.

I'll direct you to my Hands-On report from last October for a full rundown of the new, non-rattrapante Tonda PF watches. But to tell you the truth, my attention never wavered away from the platinum-cased Split-Seconds Chronograph. I've been waiting months since then for the right time to see if the watch could possibly live up to the somewhat heavy expectations I had placed on it over the last five years.

Now that the opportunity has come and gone, what I can tell you is that the Tonda PF Split-Seconds Chronograph would not disappoint the 21-year-old version of me. It's an impressively sleek evolution of the original Tonda design language, comprehensively enhanced by a 950-platinum integrated-style bracelet, with a matching 42mm case and a solid platinum dial with a clean, finely textured finish. Just like the rest of the new Tonda PF models, the Split-Seconds Chronograph features many smart attributes that have come down directly from the brain of Parmigiani's new CEO, Guido Terreni, who was poached from Bulgari – where he had successfully managed the development of the acclaimed, record-setting Octo Finissimo collection – in the spring of 2021.

What separates the platinum Split-Seconds Chronograph from its Tonda PF peers, however, is the quality of the movement inside. What I had no idea about in May 2017 is clear as day to me now – the caliber PF361 is one of the finest, most underrated, and most visually interesting split-seconds chronograph movements being produced today.

What I find even more impressive about the caliber PF361 is that the movement operates at the high-beat frequency of 5 Hertz. You're probably used to Zenith and the El Primero dominating the conversation when the topic of high-beat chronographs come up, but a few different alternatives have surfaced within the last decade. Blancpain's caliber F385 was released in 2014 as the first in this new wave of high-beat watchmaking, soon followed by Parmigiani's caliber PF361. Just last year this group was joined by the self-winding caliber SHX6 developed by high-end Swiss movement maker Chronode for exclusive use in Czapek's Antarctique Rattrapante.

The manual-wind Parmigiani and self-winding Czapek are the only two to currently offer a rattrapante mechanism while also operating at 5 Hz. The caliber PF361 is the only option, however, with a fully integrated movement architecture – making it a more refined and thoughtful product at the end of the day. Additionally, the rattrapante mechanism on the caliber PF361 is activated via a pusher integrated in the crown at three o'clock, a placement that's generally considered more desirable than the alternative positioning on the other side of the watch's case, typically near 10 o'clock.

Add in twin column wheels, a vertical clutch, a balance bridge with two-point fixation, an impressive 65 hours of running autonomy, and – wait for it – the imposing double-layer, openworked bridge construction made of solid 18k red gold (!) and I can't find any weak spots in the top-down execution of the caliber PF361. It seems the jury at the 2017 GPHG must have agreed with me – the Tonda Chronor Anniversaire walked away with a surprise victory in the hotly contested Chronograph category, finishing ahead of both the Singer Reimagined Track1 and the first iteration of the Zenith Defy El Primero 21, with its ability to measure elapsed time up to one-hundredth of a second.

Frequency talk isn't always the most fun (go ahead and give this a read if it's already giving you a headache), but it is important to understand that a chronograph operating at 5 Hz is actually a touch more functional than the 4 Hz alternative. A movement running at 5 Hz has a balance that is physically oscillating at 36,000 vph; on the dial side, this translates to the ability to measure elapsed time (the whole goal of a chronograph, after all) in one-tenth-of-a-second intervals, compared to one-eighth of a second with a chronograph running at 4 Hz.

Richard Mille introduced a high-beat self-winding rattrapante chronograph, in 2020, in the RM 65-01 Automatic Split-Seconds Chronograph. However, unlike the four brands I just mentioned that use either an in-house movement or one created out-of-house with "exclusive" rights, the caliber RMAC4 in the RM 65-01 is wholly based on the architecture and layout of the Parmigiani caliber PF361.

To be clear, Richard Mille didn't just call Michel Parmigiani out of the blue one day with a movement order. It's all handled through Vaucher, the heart of the "Parmigiani Watchmaking Centre." This group of five Swiss specialist manufacturers are all owned by Parmigiani's parent organization, the Sandoz Family Foundation, and allow Parmigiani Fleurier to offer one of the most consistent and highest levels of vertical integration across Swiss watchmaking. In addition to producing practically every part of Parmigiani's own timepieces, these five different factories (dedicated to the production of dials, cases, screws, escapements, and the movement itself, respectfully) are all open for business, catering to Switzerland's long tradition of établisseurs and offering a higher-end alternative to ETA's and Sellita's hegemony as the go-to purveyors of mass-market mechanical movements.

Two years after Parmigiani introduced the caliber PF361, Vaucher brought the VMF 6710 chronograph caliber to market. (For more information on the VMF 6710, don’t miss this deconstruction by The Naked Watchmaker.) For all intents and purposes, the VMF 6710 is a pared-down iteration on the original manual-wind split-seconds caliber PF361. In its stock format, the VMF 6710 has a fully integrated construction and runs at 5 Hz but incorporates automatic winding and no split-seconds mechanism; Vaucher can, however, bring any of these features back for a price (or add additional complications). 

That's what you're seeing with the rattrapante-equipped RM 65-01 – one of the watch industry's most material innovative and tech-forward companies leaning on the expertise and quality of a Parmigiani/Vaucher-designed movement. 

The Tonda PF Split-Seconds Chronograph is a substantial watch, there's no doubt about that. The dial, case, and bracelet are all crafted from solid platinum, a task I can only imagine to be massively time-consuming given the material's propensity for causing extensive tool wear. (Jack's 2020 treatise on the "Convoluted History Of Platinum" is essential reading around these parts.)

While so much of the Tonda PF line has been refined and refreshed under the hand of the new CEO, Terreni, the fluid ergonomics of the bassiné case profile itself is the clearest visual characteristic the new watches share with the OG Tonda. The Tonda PF Split-Seconds also shares important, new details with the other Tonda PF watches, including screw-down crowns and a nearly seamless connection between the Tonda's signature teardrop-style lugs and the newly designed bracelet (a Terreni invention). The applied "PF" logo – also a new addition to Parmigiani dials, so far seen exclusively on the Tonda PF line, is based around a drawing completed by Michel Parmigiani in the '90s – is consistent throughout the entire Tonda PF collection so far.

Without going into either the technicality of it all, the movement functionality, or the physical weight of the watch on the wrist, the most prominent difference I can identify between the Tonda PF Split-Seconds – as the clear-cut halo product within the new collection – and the rest of the Tonda PF line boils down to dial aesthetics.

Every Tonda PF dial we've seen to this point has been extremely minimalist in execution, but only the dial on the Split-Seconds ditches the Grain d’Orge guilloché dial pattern used throughout the rest of the line (see above). Parmigiani instead opted for a light textured touch on the solid platinum dial, applying a silky sandblasted finish evenly across the dial, remaining consistent even on sunken portions like the three annular sub-dials.

In lock step with the rest of the Tonda PF line, the Split-Seconds example has a recessed periphery, with applied 18k white-gold hour markers resting across both levels of the dial. Given it's a chronograph, Parmigiani uses this space wisely and has printed a pulsometer scale calibrated to 30 pulsations there, a purposeful choice more likely to resonate with the 25 (potentially) patrician buyers of the Tonda PF Split-Seconds compared to a random racing tachymeter.

After spending a few days with the Tonda PF Split-Seconds, I did find myself pondering the (few) visible colors on the watch. Taken together, the watch has a pure lustrous look that feels somehow "natural." The cool tone of the platinum case has a softness to its finish that tends to read as entirely more matte than reflective; in fact, whenever I held the watch up to a light source or next to a window, the watch felt like it was absorbing light rather than reflecting it; in other words, the Tonda PF Split-Seconds simply glows.

I can't think of another watch company today, big or small, that actively does more for those that could be considered its competitors. Although Parmigiani is underwritten – occasionally at a loss – by a foundation, which must surely help in providing the company with a big-picture perspective, we all know of at least one other watch company backed by a private family trust that just so happens to be one of the most secretive watch brands there is.

My point here is that it becomes a lot easier to comprehend that there's at least a small degree of community-good happening in the production and valuation of this $171,600 luxury watch. Parmigiani's all-encompassing approach to watchmaking provides the potential of some of the tech inside this high-end, highly complicated timepiece to eventually trickle down to outside watchmakers.

What won't trickle down, however, is what happens to be my absolute favorite aspect of the Tonda PF Split-Seconds Chronograph – the two-layer, spiderweb-like bridge construction and mainplate that are crafted from solid 18k red gold and appear to reverberate out from the fast-moving balance wheel.

Outside the subtraction of the twin date wheels on the dial-side of the watch, it appears that nothing else of note has been sacrificed in the way of technical specifications or aesthetics from 2016's GPHG-winning Tonda Chronor Anniversaire. (Fun fact: The name Chron-or was selected by combining the chronograph prefix, Chron, with the heraldic tincture for gold, Or.)

The bridges of the caliber PF361, which snake around in so many different directions that it's hard to keep track, are openworked to enable visibility into certain areas of the movement. I actually found that to be one partial downside to Parmigiani's approach here – with the extensive reach of the bridges, open visibility is lost on certain parts of the movement, most notably of the rattrapante clamps that engage with the central column wheel.

It should also go without saying that this form of expressive movement design is uncommon in Swiss watchmaking. You could go so far as to say it might even disrupt the sensibilities of certain traditionalists or purists. If that sounds like you right about now and you're finding yourself desiring a more conservative movement design, I'd instead encourage you to grab a loupe and take a closer look, particularly at the rounded corners of those bridges.

Every single possible visible bevel I can find on the watch has been given an extensive-but-delicate rounded, hand-anglage finish, further highlighted by the absurd amount of interior angles on the bridges. Executing interior angles to this level is one of the most time-consuming tasks in handmade watchmaking; it's impossible to replicate with a machine finish. And get this – there are almost too many interior angle examples to count on the caliber PF361. I literally lost track trying to do it multiple times in a row. (My best estimate is 50+.) 

Additionally, the top of each of the caliber PF361's bridges are satin-finished, while the jewel sinks, screw heads, and wheel leaves are individually mirror-polished. And finally, despite it being difficult to see (look above the top-left column wheel in the above image), I also wanted to point out a subtle engraving on the mainspring barrel that features a repeating pattern shaped like teardrop lugs – one of Parmigiani's most recognizable aesthetic attributes.

Although I still have yet to see the Tonda Chronor Anniversaire in person again after my fateful 2017 dinner with Michel Parmigiani (an example popped up at Phillips Hong Kong in 2020 – so there's still hope), the Tonda PF Split-Seconds Chronograph did more than satisfy my curiosity. 

It also allowed me to experience one of the most compelling – not to mention underrated – rattrapante chronographs being produced today.