When Guido Terreni assumed the leadership of Parmigiani Fleurier in early 2021, he did not enter a quiet room; he entered a crowded and boisterous auditorium. The luxury watch market was navigating the tail end of a historic boom, driven by institutional hype, social media validation, and a frantic, collective scramble for highly visible status symbols. In such an environment, the conventional corporate playbook for a brand seeking a resurgence would dictate high-decibel marketing, striking neon-adjacent dial colours, and oversized silhouettes designed to be instantly recognised across a crowded restaurant.

Terreni did precisely the opposite. He chose to whisper. His opening gambit was the introduction of the Tonda PF collection, a masterclass in horological reduction. In a move that shocked traditionalists, he removed the full brand name from the dial, replacing it with a small, unadorned oval containing only the initials PF. The watch was not meant to declare its price tag or its pedigree to the casual observer. It was designed for the wearer alone – a philosophy Terreni conceptualised as “private luxury.”

“The watch is like a wedding ring between the values of the brand and the values of the customer,” Terreni noted during an earlier conversation with us, establishing his thesis that true luxury is not a commercial transaction, but an intellectual pact. It is an ethos that rejects the standard markers of ostentation in favour of what Terreni calls cultural education, sensitivity, and refined taste. Under his stewardship, Parmigiani Fleurier fast-tracked its way into the upper echelons of watchmaking, not by shouting over its competitors, but by offering an alternative for a growing demographic of collectors who had grown weary of the noise.

For Terreni, a timepiece’s elegance is structurally tethered to how seamlessly it rests on the wrist and how effortlessly it integrates into daily life. In past dialogues, he frequently returns to the tactile reality of horology, noting that a designer must look beyond the flat render to understand the statistical ergonomics of the human anatomy, shaping bracelets and cases that conform to the body rather than forcing the body to accommodate the object.

This pursuit of pure, unimpeded utility birthed what Parmigiani Fleurier terms “Invisible Complications.” The concept debuted with the GMT Rattrapante, a watch born out of a post-pandemic collective desire to travel again. Instead of relying on a crowded 24- hour bezel or a secondary sub-dial, Terreni’s team engineered a dual-time function that remains entirely hidden until called upon. When local, a gold hand hides perfectly beneath the rhodium-plated hour hand; only when the pusher is engaged does the mechanical split occur, revealing the second time zone. Once home, another press collapses the complication back into a minimalist two-hander. It is a complication that prioritises the internal experience over outward display.

In this comprehensive discussion, Terreni helps us understand the next boundary of this minimalist architecture: the Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux. The discussion traces the fine lines between mechanical stiffness and tactile intent, the deep historical roots of the brand’s restoration heritage, and why the ultimate future of luxury will belong exclusively to those who possess the knowledge to see it.

I was talking with Pascal Brandt about the Tonda PF (Chronograph Mystérieux). Since we had the prototype, I wanted to know what the actual pusher would feel like. I know it controls five hands – not necessarily at the same time – and there are three clutches. It’s not going to be like butter; there is going to be a certain stiffness.

The fact that we want a sharp moment in which the chronograph is activated is important. The GMT and the Minute Rattrapante don’t have this exigence, so they have a soft push. But here [with the Chronograph Mystérieux], you need a moment in which there is a sharp start. That is to be expected for a chronograph function.

It is true that, compared with a standard chronograph, the pusher here is a bit harder. This might be something we fine-tune in the future, but for the moment, it was a clear statement that we needed a frank start-and-stop moment.

And because the pusher is at 8 o’clock, you use the thumb, which is very powerful. It’s the most ergonomic position you have to press something on a watch.

This is a great watch for people who admire the mechanics of the chronograph – like me – but don’t necessarily like the “busy” aesthetics of a traditional chronograph. Too many sub-dials, too many scales on the flange and the bezel. This doesn’t have any of that. Was that your intention?

That intention is part of the philosophy of the Invisible Complications. Starting with the GMT Rattrapante, that function emerged out of a need for something as the world was exiting the pandemic. Everybody wanted to go back to traveling. We wanted to give the Parmigiani Fleurier customer a very elegant watch that changes its look only when the function is activated.

When you are not traveling, you aren’t “bragging” at the restaurant that you are an international person; you just have your two-hander, which is the maximum elegance you can have. But when you are traveling, you want a flawless experience. That’s why
the pusher is at 8 o’clock for the dual time, and why the (on-demand) function allows you to (toggle between states, of having a traveller’s watch and having a classic two-hander) in a magic moment.

Having the chronograph function on-demand is something else!

The chronograph is a monumental function. This is often not understood by the wider public, but a chronograph is extremely complex – second only to chiming watches in difficulty of conception. We wanted a simple, solo-tempo look when you aren’t using Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux to time something, (by way of contrast). By the way, this is the only Tonda PF that has a central seconds hand; the others are all, on purpose, without a second hand to convey the elegance of the collection.

To achieve the invisible function in the Chronograph Mystérieux, we have the aforementioned mono-pusher. You have three hands that act in concert as a triple flyback; they are united at noon and start with only one activation of the pusher. You measure your time at the maximum scale because you aren’t confining the chronograph to small and difficult-to-read counters. Then, when you
stop it with a second activation of the pusher, you read the elapsed time and the chronograph is disconnected from your running time. A third push returns the hands to local time.

“We wanted to give the Parmigiani Fleurier customer a very elegant watch that changes its look only when the function is activated”

That requires a kind of mechanical memory.

Yes…It is part of the rattrapante function here with a heart-shaped cam that makes the chronograph hands go back to running time. The hour hand of the chronograph is linked to the hour hand of the running time (and so on). The wheels connected to the hands have to know exactly which “teeth” they have to go back to, because when you started the chronograph, you separated the hands. The movement has kept that in memory (and the hands return not to the moment in local time that you started the chronograph but to the correct time, whenever you stopped the chronograph).

We chose 4Hz because of energy consumption; 5Hz wouldchave consumed too much in terms of power reserve. It would have been too energetically expensive in terms of having the chronograph function as we have it, and 60 hours of power reserve. We have a column wheel to master the chronograph function, a vertical clutch to engage the second hand (connecting the chronograph mechanism to the regular power train), and then two horizontal clutches for the double rattrapante function to hide the hands,

For the 30th anniversary Toric pieces, you’ve added the new double-guilloché decoration on the movement. This seems to go back to the brand’s roots in restoration. How do you choose which decorations to add?

Being a commemorative piece, it had to celebrate Michel Parmigiani’s legacy. Michel, in his monumental work of restoration, worked on a pocket watch that had a beautiful hand-engraved finish on the movement. We took inspiration from that.

But where that was a unique piece, this is a collection – 30 movements for the Perpetual Calendar and 30 for the Tonda PF Micro-Rotor. You cannot do that with hand-engraving. We used a dial technique on a movement, as you said. It was a bet because it’s very rare. Our guillocheur came up with the first prototype last summer, and we were actually a bit disappointed at first because the tool traces were very evident; it looked rough.

The engraver didn’t want to give up. It took him three months to find the solution. The result is a light reflection that is very beautiful and pays tribute to the origins (of Michel’s work). Our engraver surpassed himself to save this creativity.

You also introduced a new hand-hammering technique for the dials in the Toric collection…

Yes. For the anniversary models, we wanted to provide a luxury experience through an interpretation of a traditional technique. This is a hammering technique using a hammer with a small sphere. You are basically “breaking” the surface of the gold dial in
an irregular way. The light reflects like water on a lake. We toned down the brightness, so it wasn’t flashy, but it isn’t matte either.
It’s very poetic.

“Lovers of watchmaking are going deeper into what they buy. They are less moved by a social purchase to indicate status and more by an intimate purchase for private pleasure”

I see models like the Arctic Rose in 36mm as an interesting proposition for women. Is this an area you want to get stronger in?

You can’t do everything in five years, which is when we started with the Tonda PF! Our priority was to establish the soul of the brand through the concept of private luxury. We haven’t addressed ladies specifically yet. A lot of ladies are looking at men’s watches downsized, but they aren’t necessarily looking for a “feminine” execution.

I think it is much more difficult to design a lady’s watch than a man’s one. You have to do very strong introspective work on what the brand stands for, what it means for a woman. We aren’t going to serve a “mainstream” lady; we will serve a lady who is into mechanical arts. Until we find that specific idea, we won’t come up with anything, because nobody needs just another watch.

What do you think is the future of watchmaking generally?

We have a privileged point of view because we serve the pinnacle of the audience. What we are feeling is that lovers of watchmaking are going deeper into what they buy. They are less moved by a social purchase to indicate status and more by an intimate purchase for private pleasure.

It’s not about how much money you have that you want to show; it’s what you do with the money you have. That is the difference between a purchase that is refined and educated versus one that is just about what is expensive. Taste is something money does not buy. The future of luxury belongs to the knowledgeable.

This story was first seen as part of the WOW #84 Summer 2026 issue.

For more on the latest in luxury watch reads, click here.