Today marks the start?of the “Monochrome Video Week“. Over the next?five days we will be showing recent, as yet unpublished videos that we shot on?location in Villeret, Neuchatel and Geneva. The week culminates on?Friday with our most-viewed videos, also filmed on location in Glashutte (Germany), and in Switzerland in Biel, Geneva and Villeret. Just to be clear, these aren’t?corp...
Time for the next give-away on Monochrome to celebrate our 10th anniversary, and this time we can give away 5 sets from A. Lange & Sohne. The beautiful German watch brand, who just launched the renewed Lange 1 Moonphase Day/Night, ?provided us with 5 x the book “Sign of the Times”, 5 x a Lange notebook and 5 rollerballs.?The book, written by Christoph Scheuring, is a historic novel...
Following our previous guides about the best sports watches, the best dress watches and the best ultra-complicated watches of 2016, it’s time for us now to look at one of the main watch categories of them all, and I mean by that the chronographs. Chronographs are amongst the most sold timepieces, they are amongst the most sought-after in auctions and two of them?are certainly the most iconic...
I must admit that, when the Tudor Heritage Black Bay 36 Ref. 79500 was introduced at Baselworld 2016, I was quite indifferent towards it. Instead my attention?was focused on?all the other Black Bay's, the black, the total black and the bronze. These I said to myself were proper watches, bold, and greatly executed. The 36mm meanwhile was a watch I just could not understand. However, when I finally ...
Today, increasing numbers of shark species are facing extinction. More than 100 million sharks are caught every year whilst continued over-fishing depletes their nutritional resources. To help awareness about this issue, IWC is about to launch a specific limited edition of its Aquatimer Chronograph, the?Edition “Sharks”, with specific dial and engraving.?Brief History of the IWC Aquati...
The?Montblanc 1858 Collection certainly is one of our favorites here, at Monochrome. It indeed pays tribute to the military roots of the Villeret manufacture and the 1930s pilot watches produced at that time by Minerva (now part of Montblanc). Large diameters, highly contrasted dials, cathedral hands… all sounds perfectly vintage and faithful to the Minerva heritage. To even reinforce that v...
The Lange 1 has been?the?anchor?of the A. Lange & Sohne collection since the brand’s re-emergence in 1994. Back then it was considered quite a disruptive piece, although still exceptionally elegant… and it still is. Another recurring theme at A. Lange & Sohne is the moon, which can be found on several watches from?the Saxonian Manufacture – for example?the Saxonia Moon Ph...
A few days ago, right from the Miami Contemporary Art week, TAG Heuer and its CEO, Jean-Claude Biver (also President of the LVMH Watch Division), announced the appointment of American street-artist Alec Monopoly as Art Provocateur for the Avant-Garde brand. Well, as you may have seen already (it was all over social medial feeds), some reacted quite?fiercely to this announcement, judging the collab...
After going through some of?2016's best sport watches and 2016's best dress watches, it is now time for our Christmas shopping guide to gather some of the most striking complicated watches released in 2016. Be ready to break the piggy bank open as we'll go at the cutting edge of watchmaking, with some of the most inventive, complex and intricate mechanisms unveiled in 2016. We sat down with the te...
Following its?launch in 1995, the IWC Portugieser Chrono-graph Rattrapante (Ref. 3712) quickly gained?the status of icon. For a start it was?a?Portugieser (which alone makes this watch totally emblematic of the?Schaffhausen-based manufacture) plus it?also featured?quite a special split-second chronograph complication. Yes, it is a rattrapante but that’s not what made it special per se. It...
The Alpina Diver Heritage, a homage?to the vintage Alpina Seastrong 10, is another retro re-edition of an old vintage diver ‘Super Compressor’ model from?the 1970’s. I think that in this case it’s fair to say Alpina has chosen wisely in?responding to the vintage-inspired trend, a strategy successfully adopted by many other brands already. So, what is the Seastrong, and how?...
After going through some of 2016’s best sport watches, it is time for our Christmas shopping guide to make dressing up easier. You might have noticed that we have a weak spot for nice and stylish dress watches, and we’re pleased that so many new dress watches saw the light of day in 2016. We sat down with the team and selected ten of the best dress watches of 2016, models focusing on e...
Earlier this?year we introduced you to the stainless steel Ulysse Nardin Classico Manufacture with enamel dial, which?we loved.?Now it’s time to introduce its sister (yes, a watch is female: la montre), the Classico Manufacture with blue sun-ray dial. The other day we had the opportunity to?view this incredibly beautiful looking dress watch?with one noticeable drawback: the dial is so appeal...
When we gave away the first IWC Wall Clock, Monochrome’s managing editor Brice Goulard was enjoying a well-deserved vacation. Today he’s on his way to Miami to join the TAG Heuer team at Art Basel in Miami. However back on topic… we’re giving away a second IWC wall clock! The first give-away was already hugely successful and I’m very happy that IWC agreed to make anot...
Today, our readers on the other side of the Atlantic are celebrating Thanksgiving, and while this day doesn’t make a lot of sense for those in Old Europe or Asia, it however opens the?festive?season. And who says festive season says Christmas and our usual buying guides – and also an overview of the best watches we’ve seen this year. After long debates and fights at?the Monochrom...
Pairing up what is certainly the most emblematic sports-car manufacture, Ferrari, with what might be the most hyped watch brand, Hublot, and you have as a result a?strong, flamboyant bond. Since 2011, these two?brands joined forces to create watches that are in the vein of the philosophy of both the car brand and the watch brand: strong, bold, highly masculine and, using Ferrari’s expertise,...
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Duometre is a collection that really stands apart in?JLC’s catalogue. The?watches?boast a unique style, practical?complications and exceptionally interesting movement architecture. Ahead of the upcoming Geneva Watch Fair, the SIHH 2017, the brand is previewing?3 new?versions from this collection that will be launched next year. Please welcome the?Jaeger-LeCoultre Duometr...
Breitling was founded in 1884 and right from the start the company specialised in chronographs. In fact?it’s fair to say that many of the modern-day chronograph characteristics?we know and love can be attributed – at least in part – to developments undertaken by?the company. In 1942, Breitling introduced the first watch with a circular slide rule, the Chronomat. Some years later ...
There's a common saying that car' guys are watch' guys. Behind this aphorism though is a real connection fueled by the love of fine mechanics, performance and passion. As a result collaborations between watch and car manufacturers have flourished - for the better or worse. Case in point, Zenith and Land Rover recently announced their first watch collaboration. Now regardless of what you think of ...
Crafted for adventures. Panerai's history was shaped by the needs of the Italian Navy, that it has supplied with precision instruments and watches for years. Designing tool watches, robust products for facing the most extreme situations, is the brand's raison d'tre. This rugged character made Panerai the perfect companion for Mike's Horn expeditions. Following Arktos (2002-2004), the North Pole W...
At Baselworld 2016, Doxa introduced its 50th Anniversary Sub300 model, a great dive watch with unquestionable pedigree. So we, at Monochrome, eagerly waited for a prototype to arrive at the HQ for a review. Once a black-dial Sharkhunter variant received, we immediately put it to its paces comparing, debating and discussing about it. That is the purpose of this article: make you understand how impo...
After several collections based on the Heritage Black Bay, Tudor Watches gets back into the game of the rugged, professional-oriented and modern watches with a new version of its tool watch: the Pelagos. After a first version introduced in 2012, with a black dial, followed by a revamp in 2015, with the addition of a blue dial and the introduction of the manufacture movement, the Pelagos is back ag...
As you probably?know,?Ulysse Nardin will no longer be exhibiting at?Baselworld and?will instead be part of the Geneva-based show, the SIHH – alongside all the Richemont brands, many independents and the other Kering-owned brand, Girard-Perregaux. Thus, we bring you the first piece of?pre-SIHH piece of news related to Ulysse Nardin. Ahead of?their inaugural attendance at?the show, the brand h...
When it comes to unique displays of the time, you probably thought you’ve already seen everything: wandering hours, chains, magnetic balls, liquid-filled capillary, rotating prisms… Same goes in terms of complications and construction?of the overall watch. Well, think again. The?Ressence Type 3 features both a highly unusual display and an almost unique construction. Certainly, the Typ...
Debuted in 2014, the Bulgari Octo Finissimo (Italian for extra-flat) collection is both a design statement and a testament to the brand's watchmaking expertise. This collection is part of Bulgari’s Octo line that comprises of three collections: the Octo Solotempo, the Octo Velocissimo (two years ago we showed you the special edition for Masserati) and the Octo Finissimo collection. Today we&...
When we refer to Japan and its watch industry everyone, and rightly so, instantly think of one company: Seiko. However, there is more than that. Although Seiko has produced a large number of excellent, iconic and historical timepieces, it is unfair to forget other companies like Citizen. In this article we are going to examine one of the most iconic dive watches coming from Japan of all time. No, ...
Master crafts fuse together again? What do hunting arms and watches have in common? Hunting arms are meant to kill or to keep wildlife growth under control. Watches may be used to kill time but usually it is to read time. Continue reading if you want to know what the similarities are? And why Lebeau-Courally, a sponsor of the Zoute Grand Prix event decided to acquire the IMH Manufacture in Le Locl...
Just like?the media and?entertainment industry, the watchmaking world has its own set of awards; the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve or GPHG 2016 – affectionately known as the Watchmaking World’s?Academy Awards. Last year, the Grand Prix was given to Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey?for their Tourbillon 24 Secondes Inclined Vision, and a?Jury Award for Watchmaking?was given to...
As we’ve seen in our two first episodes of “Tudor and its Heritage“, the brand made an important move into sports watches in the middle of the 1950s, starting with the Submariners, followed by the Ranger. These vintage pieces formed the basis for the creation of two current watches, the Heritage Black Bay and the Heritage Ranger, which pay tribute to the rich past of Tudor Watche...
Yes, this watch is advertised as a ladies’ watch. Yes, it does celebrate 40 years of Royal Oak for ladies (as the first one was introduced in 1976 and?designed by Jacqueline Dimier). But, on the other hand, this watch has everything of?the iconic 1972 Jumbo and the current 41mm men’s version, just in a smaller 37mm case – ?which isn’t that small in reality. It has the iconi...