2023-12-26 23:04:25
What are the latest truly innovative complications on the watchmaking planet? There are few, very few. We recently saw a winding control at Urwerk, or the very clever depth gauge on a dial by ArtyA. In terms of chronographs, A. Lange & Söhne hit hard with a Triple Split, which the latest Millennium Watch Book discusses at length. And since then, there has been Parmigiani
Reflexes are stubborn. If we say “second-hand” we will automatically think “chronograph”. This will be true in 99% of cases. But it’s the remaining 1% that Parmigiani Fleurier has chosen to explore with refreshing inventiveness. This 1% which does not concern the seconds hand, a natural attribute of the split-seconds chrono, but the hour and minute hands.
The initial idea is simple – in fact, it is precisely because it is that no one had seen it: the rattrapante is a needle capable of joining another in a rapid movement . In this minimalist definition, nothing prescribes that the hand in question must move forward or backward, whether it is single, double, whether it concerns minutes, hours or seconds. Everything therefore remains open. Parmigiani Fleurier took advantage not once, but twice.
Tonda PF Micro-Rotor Rattrapante © Parmigiani Fleurier
Reverse counting: clever, simple and elegant
The first iteration is that of the Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante. The idea is as follows: in addition to the hours and minutes pair, the manufacture has created a second minute hand, hidden under the first. To release it, the part has two pushers. This arrangement is extremely reminiscent of that of a chronograph, but it is an illusion. It’s not one of them.
The pusher at 8 o’clock advances the second hidden minute hand in steps of 5 minutes. The pusher at 10 o’clock, in one minute increments. It therefore becomes very easy to program a countdown. For example, if it is 10:10 a.m. and you want to measure a time of 8 minutes, simply advance the hidden hand to 10:18 a.m. The time period of 8 minutes will have elapsed when the first hand has caught up with the second, and the two are perfectly superimposed. Once the countdown is no longer necessary, you can return to the position of the two superimposed hands by pressing the pusher integrated into the crown, at 3 o’clock.
The principle is clear and elegant. It is technically more economical than a real countdown such as is sometimes found in certain chronometers or regatta pieces. This allows, as always in watchmaking, to have a less complicated movement, more energy efficient, and therefore more reliable. It’s the very definition of a well-thought-out design, revisiting the countdown principle with a sleeker, simpler construction.
Tonda PF Micro-Rotor Rattrapante © Parmigiani Fleurier
The GMT Rattrapante: even simpler!
This split-seconds principle was then extended to the GMT function. Here again, when we think about a second time zone, the complications quickly accumulate: home zone, reference cities, day and night indicators, even synchronized date. Parmigiani Fleurier will considerably simplify the subject. The piece comes down, once again, to two visible hands: hours and minutes. Once again, these two hands hide a third: the hour hand houses another. It is the needle of a second spindle.
Thanks to a pusher located at 7 o’clock, this second hour hand reveals itself, leaves the shadow of the first and advances in one hour jumps. From this moment on, the Tonda displays two different times: one with a rose gold hand, the other with a rhodium-plated hand. It’s up to the user to see which zone (local or domestic) they want to assign to one or the other. When he returns home, the display of a second time zone will no longer be useless: a simple press on the pusher integrated into the crown will again superimpose the two hour hands, the first “catching up” with the second, where his name. Parmigiani’s entire philosophy is summed up in these two pieces: simplicity, elegance and creativity.
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