Parmigiani enters luxury sports watch ring with Tonda GT

Parmigiani Fleurier, a brand known for its classically-styled watches, has entered the hotly-contested luxury steel sports watch category with a new family of watches called the Tonda GT. This is the latest in a series of sports watches from luxury brands in the last 15-odd months, a list that includes entrants from A. Lange & Söhne, H. Moser & Cie, Czapek, and Chopard among others. The luxury steel sports watch category for years has been dominated by two icons – Patek Philippe’s Nautilus and Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak. And since both these watches have long waiting lists at retailers because of their supposed scarcity, other luxury brands are now hoping that customers will look at alternatives to the big two.

To create the Tonda GT, the Fleurier-based company roped in designer, Dino Modolo. The new aesthetic sticks to the “golden ratio” principles adhered to by eponymous founder Michel Parmigiani but takes a lot of its design codes from the GPHG-award-winning Tonda Chronor model from 2017. The case has gently curving lugs and an ergonomically-designed bracelet with brushed and polished finishes. The fluted bezel design is a nod to the brand’s Toric models. A “clou triangulaire” guilloche pattern is seen on the dials and rubber straps.

There are three models in the Tonda GT collection, but the flagship has to be the Tondagraph GT annual calendar chronograph. The watch uses a 42-mm stainless steel case water-resistant to 100 metres and fitted with a screwed-in crown and a sapphire crystal caseback. The black dial has the characteristic “Delta-shaped” hands with black luminescent coating. A large aperture at 12 o’clock is used to display the date, the subdial at 3 o’ clock indicates the running seconds and month, while the chronograph minutes and hours are displayed via the subdials at 9 and 6 o’clock.

The watch is powered by the self-winding Calibre PF043 with a 45-hour power reserve. Developed and built in-house, the movement has an array of high-horology finishes that you would expect from a brand at this price range. Limited to 200 pieces only, the Tondagraph GT will retail for $18,500 on an integrated rubber strap and for $19,500 on a steel bracelet.

The other two models in the family are two time-and-date watches, the Tonda GT Black and the Tonda GT Rose Gold Blue. Both have 42-mm cases like the Tondograph and guilloché dials with small seconds at 6 o’clock, and big date displays. These watches are powered by the in-house Caliber PF044. The Tonda GT Black is available on both a bracelet and a black rubber strap (priced at $13,500 and $14,500, respectively, and limited to 250 pieces); the GT Rose Gold Blue is limited to 150 pieces and is paired with blue rubber strap ($24,900) or on a rose-gold bracelet ($49,500).