Parmigiani

I’m a big fan of Parmigiani, especially neovintage references combining beautiful casework with excellent finishing like the Ionica.

With that said, I found their modern lineup to be off in terms of design. Then, the Tonda GT sports line dropped…

A completely fresh take on an integrated bracelet sports watch? 

Guilloche dial, complications, in-house movement? 

Sign me up.

I came close to buying one but decided to wait for them to hit the used market as I don’t love eating depreciation.

Right when I was about to pick up one of the earlier models, the new PFs launched with a thinner movement and big improvements in quality and design. Basically they went from using a module for the chronograph to a brand new movement with a properly integrated chronograph function. So I waited again..

Fast forward to a few weeks ago —I visited a local dealer, tried a few variations, and knew I had to pull the trigger. In an ideal world, I’d have gone for the gold version but the budget said steel. Alas. 

Jumping into the review:

Design

This is a fresh take on the sports watch genre and unmistakably Parmigiani. It shouldn’t be groundbreaking to design something original, but somehow, most brands fail at this. If you’ve followed the brand for a while you can see how previous Tonda models iterated into the PF, it’s very cool to see. Parmigiani has always had beautiful cases, and this watch is no exception.

Bonus points for Parmigiani not ruining this watch with tons of excessive logos and writing and sticking to a minimal amount of fonts. 

Loads of nice touches too like the pushers matching the lugs. They flow together beautifully. The date window matches the dial and integrates nicely without distracting you. 

Bracelet

The bracelet is incredible. I’ve owned many popular stainless steel sports watches plus some obscure ones; this is up there with the best. A nice variety of finishing techniques give it a very premium feel. It doesn’t have the “bling” factor that something like a Royal Oak does though. Maybe that’s good, maybe it’s bad, depends on what you want. Worth noting, the clasp looks better than the previous generation Tonda line. 

Thanks to the thin movement and perfectly executed bracelet, it’s hard to take this off. Comfort might just be the #1 reason to buy this watch. 

Would I love a Rolex-style micro-adjust? 

Yes. But my wrist doesn’t change sizes much, so it’s not something that impacts my decision making. 

Movement Engineering

After owning several thick watches, I’ve learned my lesson! I really appreciate that this automatic chronograph is just 12.4mm thick. This is something brands that are much larger than Parmigiani don’t seem to be capable of doing, so hats off to them. I guess it’s clear why they are the supplier of movements to brands like Audemars Piguet and Richard Mille. 

The 100m water resistance is another bonus. It means I can travel with this watch and not worry about leaving it in a hotel room when I go to the beach.

Performance is solid, the PF is COSC-certified. Mine runs at about +2s/day with a 65-hour power reserve, which is impressive given it’s a high frequency movement. A lot of haute horology brands do not seem to care much for accuracy, so the COSC certification is a pleasant surprise! 

Overall, the engineering of the movement is a big highlight of the watch for me. I can’t think of another sporty chrono with a better movement from an engineering standpoint off the top of my head. Maybe a competitor would be the Laureato but that is a very fugly watch. 

Finishing & Details

The case and bracelet are well executed, with details like the hand-knurled platinum bezel. On the PF chronograph, there are 225 knurled flutes compared to 160 on other models. The reason they used platinum for the bezel is because it can be polished to a higher shine apparently. Personally I don’t really notice a big difference from the steel, but I guess it’s a nice subtle touch. 

Another fantastic detail on the case is the beveling that continues onto the lugs themselves, which kind of extend alongside the case. I’ve tried to take some pictures of it to show what I mean.

Movement finishing is where things are a little disappointing for me. Unfortunately because of the bracelet I wasn’t able to get great pics of it, and I’m too much of a coward to touch the screws on a watch this nice to undo the clasp for pics. Anglage is wide but machine-executed; think AP ROO or Moser - maybe a cut above those. What bugs me here is that Parmigiani is capable of insane finishing; just look at Vaucher movements they produce that come with plenty of internal angles like those supplied to Laine. 

I guess this is a bit of a personal preference but reducing the number of openworked bridges in favor of better-finished surfaces would’ve been a smart trade-off. A good example is the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms or Bathyscaphe. They opted for less total surface area with anglage but whatever surfaces do have anglage are executed to a higher level, and as a result I believe the movements look better. At the end of the day though, all of this is on the back of the watch with a bracelet…you can’t really easily admire the movrment, so I don’t care that much. I’m much pickier about finishing when buying an openworked piece. 

To Parmigiani’s credit, some of the wheels below the top layer have been openworked and finished well, plus the screws (these are strangely nice) are all a cut above what you usually see at this price point. The wheel finishing is another good example of what I mean though, it’s kind of buried in the movement and I’d rather have it not openworked with the same labor hours reallocated into higher quality anglage on the main bridges as they are more visible. 

Now…all the aggressive open working mentioned above does give you a huge sense of depth as it means you can see past the rotor, the main bridges/plates, and into the deep depths of the chronograph.

The guilloché dial is done via cnc not a true rose engine as far as I can tell and it doesn’t seem to have the same 3D effect my Breguet and Benzinger watches have had. There are some articles, specifically one on Monochrome that says this dial is done via rose engine but I believe it is incorrect. A few other videos on YouTube say that this model has a hand-executed guilloche dial, but then a video with the CEO about the time-only model says they are done via CNC, and I’d be surprised if they did CNC for one model and rose engine for another. I emailed Parmigiani to confirm more than a week ago but still haven’t heard back. Does this matter much? Personally…yes because my Breguet Tradition dial has a 3D effect to it that this watch is missing. I think it would make the dial much more interesting to execute the pattern via rose engine and make it a little larger. 

The hands are beautifully designed and nicely polished but not particularly noteworthy. I do wish they did more here. The stack is surprisingly tight which is a sign of excellent craftsmanship. Indices are similarly well polished. 

This watch does have AR, but only single sided. Personally, after spending a lot of time with double AR watches this year, I have a BIG preference for double AR. 

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m very happy with this piece. At its current price on the secondary market, it’s a lot of watch for the money. Like almost all nerd brands, it trades for a huge discount off MSRP, so I’d stay away from buying new or buy new only if the AD will give you a discount that makes the depreciation easier to digest. 

If you prioritize design, comfort, and want an exceptionally well engineered movement with a gorgeous high quality case and bracelet, this is a great pick.

If you care more about hand-finishing of the movement and less about case/bracelet quality, something like the Fifty Fathoms or previous-gen Breguet Marine might be a better fit. While the Marine’s casework is very, very good - it is not anywhere as comfortable as this watch.

Personally, given I bought this as a daily steel sports watch, I don’t care too much about the movement as the case + bracelet finishing and comfort of the watch matter much more to me..so the Tonda makes sense, especially at the ridiculously good prices they can be had for. 

All pictures are taken with an iPhone and then sharpened and denoised in Lightroom. No special lens or anything. Sorry! 😂 

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