Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Sport Chronograph Ultra-Cermet Mineral Blue: The Sleeper Chrono Gets a Splash of Colour

Description

Parmigiani Fleurier is expanding one of the quiet triumphs of modern high-end watchmaking: the Ultra-Cermet Tonda PF Sport Chronograph. The new Mineral Blue execution keeps the watch's technical identity intact but trades the earlier monochrome Milano Blue and London Grey for a brushed blackor dial framed by blue subdials that shift darker or brighter with the light.

It is, in the best sense, a sleeper: a genuinely integrated in-house column-wheel chronograph wrapped in a material almost no one else is machining at this scale. Priced at CHF 40,400 excl. VAT and joining the permanent collection, it is aimed at the collector who wants stealth, scratch-resistance and serious movement architecture in equal measure.

Design

The 42.5 mm case is 13.3 mm thick and built — middle case, signature fluted bezel, screw-down crown and chronograph pushers — almost entirely from Ultra-Cermet, a hybrid of ceramic and roughly 40% titanium rated around 1,450 Vickers. Satin-brushed and polished surfaces play off each other to reveal the material's shifting, metallic-yet-ceramic character. The brushed blackor dial carries Mineral Blue sub-dials, with a 30-minute counter at 3, a 12-hour counter at 9 and running seconds at 6.

Hand-applied 18k gold blackor-plated indices and skeletonised gold hands receive a touch of luminescent material, while blackor-plated steel chronograph and small-seconds hands keep the monochrome theme consistent. There is no date. A sapphire exhibition caseback reveals the movement, and the watch rides on a matching Mineral Blue textured rubber strap closed with an Ultra-Cermet pin buckle.

Specifications

Reference: PFC931-1020024-400182
Case: 42.5 mm diameter × 13.3 mm thick
Case material: Ultra-Cermet (ceramic + ~40% titanium, ~1,450 Vickers); fluted Ultra-Cermet bezel, screw-down crown and pushers
Crystal: sapphire with AR coating; sapphire exhibition caseback
Water resistance: 100 m
Dial: brushed blackor with Mineral Blue sub-dials; 30-min & 12-hr chrono counters at 3 & 9; running seconds at 6; no date
Movement: calibre PF070, in-house (with Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier); integrated automatic chronograph, column wheel + vertical clutch
Movement dimensions: 30.6 mm × 6.95 mm; 288 parts; 42 jewels; COSC-certified
Frequency: 36,000 vph (5 Hz)
Winding: automatic; skeletonised 22k rose-gold rotor
Power reserve: 65 hours
Complications: chronograph (12-hour, 30-minute), small seconds
Strap: Mineral Blue textured rubber with Ultra-Cermet pin buckle
Price: CHF 40,400 (excl. VAT)
Availability: permanent collection

What's Exciting

Parmigiani was the first manufacture to build not just a case but nearly every external component from Ultra-Cermet, and that head start still shows. This is a fully integrated, high-frequency column-wheel/vertical-clutch chronograph — the hard, expensive way to build a chrono — housed in a composite that resists scratches the way steel simply cannot. The Mineral Blue finally injects a little warmth into a coolly technical series without diluting the stealthy, all-composite concept. For the money, there is very little that matches this combination of movement pedigree and material innovation.

History

The Tonda PF collection arrived in 2021 as Parmigiani Fleurier's clean-sheet statement of restrained, guilloché-detailed luxury sport-chic, and the Tonda PF Sport followed in 2023. In 2025 the brand introduced the first Ultra-Cermet Sport Chronograph, becoming the first manufacture to execute almost all external components in the sintered ceramic-titanium composite. The Mineral Blue is the natural next step — a colour-led evolution of a material story that Parmigiani, backed by movement-maker Vaucher, is still writing largely on its own.