Latest Watch News

Phillips Sells Steve McQueen's Heuer Monaco 1133B from 'Le Mans' for $ 2.2 Million, The Most Expensive Heuer Ever - Monochrome Watches

We knew this watch was a very important historical piece. We knew it was in the starting blocks to break a record, as possibly the most expensive Heuer ever auctioned… And it did. The reason is simple. The present vintage Heuer Monaco 1133B is not any Monaco watch. It once was one of the Heuer Monaco 1133B worn by Steve McQueen while filming his iconic racing film, Le Mans. As such, it is on...

2020-12-12

Retailers Need to Take the Personal Approach if They Are to Survive - Monochrome Watches

Even though the promise of a vaccine strikes a positive note in the current COVID-19 misery, the pandemic still holds everyone, and especially retailers, in a firm grip. However, this situation may also prove to be an opportunity for small and medium-sized jewellers and watch retailers to rethink the way they market their offer. Besides an impeccable online presence, both creativity and establishi...

2020-12-11

Video - Laurent Ferrier 10 Years, The Classic Origin, by Mister Ferrier

It’s hard to believe that the brand Laurent Ferrier is only 10 years old. The independent watchmaker has gained such a level of recognition in a single decade that you would think the brand has been around for far longer. Everything started in 2010 when Laurent Ferrier, an ex-Patek employee and race car enthusiast decided, with the help of one of his closest friends, Fran?ois Servanin, to st...

2020-12-11

Delma Oceanmaster Antarctica Dive Watch Hands-on (Specs & Price)

Delma is one of those brands that never fails to impress. Although not the most familiar of names, it has been producing watches in Lengnau, Switzerland since 1924 and remains independent and family-owned. Its first dive watch debuted in 1969, the Periscope, and Delma has specialised in sports watches ever since. The Oceanmaster Antarctica is the latest in the Oceanmaster collection and brings a s...

2020-12-11

Tissot Heritage Navigator Sageata Orientului Limited Edition

Tissot and its Romanian distributor Albini Prassa celebrate the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Franco-Romanian airline company CFRNA (Compagnie Franco-Roumaine de Navigation Aerienne), which was the first to connect Europe and the Asian continent by air. Tribute is paid by launching a limited edition of the Tissot Heritage Navigator, a well-known watch that we've covered here, renamed th...

2020-12-10

UNIMATIC x Massena LAB Marine ?U1-MLM

Massena LAB, the timepiece creation studio created by industry veteran William Massena, is slowly making a name for itself with an ever-growing collection of special watches created with renowned or accessible watchmakers. Think about the bronze Habring2 or the Jurassic-like MB&F clock. For its latest creation, Massena LAB joins forces again with UNIMATIC following up on the brown Modello Uno ...

2020-12-10

2020 Bvlgari Rainbow and Colour Wave Serpenti Watches

Hands down, the luxurious Serpenti watch has to be Bvlgari's most iconic timepiece to date. Inspired by Greek and Roman mythology and interpreting the stealth-like snake, the Serpenti watch collection has served as a cornerstone in the Roman brand's heritage. It underscored the brand's transition from lavish and highly detailed jewellery pieces to the addition of wristwatches for style-conscious w...

2020-12-09

Frederique Constant Highlife Perpetual Calendar Manufacture Review

Earlier this year, Frederique Constant, the brand known for its accessible luxury focus, entered the crowded and hyperactive market of the sports watch with its?Highlife collection. In addition to the classic time-and-date and Heart Beat models, a third and far more complex iteration was launched in the form of a perpetual calendar. In the rarefied world of perpetual calendars, the Frederique Cons...

2020-12-09

Introducing A. Lange & Sohne Saxonia Outsize Date Silver Dials (Price)

The Saxonia and the Lange 1 were two of the four pillars that trumpeted Walter Lange's resurrection of the brand in 1994. The Saxonia was Lange's answer to the classic elegant dress watch; the Lange 1, with its large ex-centred date window, would become Lange's ambassador at large. The Saxonia Outsize Date appeared in 2018, with lustrous black dials (in pink or white gold cases) and the elegant sy...

2020-12-07

A. Lange & Sohne Saxonia Thin Black Gold Flux - Specs & Price

Named after the state of Saxony, the cradle of German precision watchmaking, the Saxonia was one of the four watches that heralded the rebirth of A. Lange & Sohne in 1994. Elegance and purity are bywords of this family that includes the ultra-slim Saxonia Thin, the thinnest A. Lange & Sohne watch in the collection. With Christmas just around the corner, A. Lange & Sohne revisits its cl...

2020-12-07

Eisenhowers Heuer, Jordans Datograph, Bond's Submariner... 5 Great Missing Watches

Some watches have gained true cult status, mostly because of who wore them. Notable actors, men of political and historical importance, some of the greatest pilots or even space heroes who walked on the Moon. Not only are these watches great horological objects, but their background has given them an unbeatable aura, which extends far beyond the small circle of watch enthusiasts. Some years ago, B...

2020-12-07

Top 10 Dive Watches of 2020 by MONOCHROME - Buying Guide

Dive watches… are not even a style or a category of watches anymore, but a proper market with its own codes, its icons, its contenders, its specifications and its aficionados. Needless to say that a well-built and nicely designed dive watch is almost a necessity for accessible or luxury watch brands, with only a minority not having its own take on the aquatic timepiece. And I’d go as f...

2020-12-06

Speake-Marin London Chronograph Triple Date (Price)

The new London Chronograph with a historical, restored Valjoux 88 movement from the 1950s belongs to Speake-Marin's Vintage collection. Speake-Marin might be based in Switzerland, but it likes to emphasise its British roots and its somewhat eccentric British styling. The latest model to join the Vintage collection is this London Chronograph Triple Date powered by a beautiful vintage Valjoux 88.Val...

2020-12-04

Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Heritage for Michel Parmigiani 70th Anniversary

On December 2, 1950 at 7:08 am, Michel Parmigiani was born. Seventy years later, this man, founder of a watch manufacture named Parmigiani Fleurier (among other companies) is still regarded as one of the most influential contemporary watchmakers. When the watch industry was suffering from the quartz crisis, in 1976, Parmigiani decided to establish his first workshop, specialised in the restoration...

2020-12-04

Oris Divers Sixty-Five Sunset Edition Steel and Bronze - Review, Price

Oris has been known for several decades for its robust instrument watches at fair prices. No doubt about that. More recently, the brand has also managed to infuse a dose of ‘cool’ to some of its creations replacing the rugged and functional aspects of some pieces (think about the Aquis) with a dash of charm and vintage inspiration. Thanks to two models, the Big Crown Pointer Date and t...

2020-12-04

A. Lange & Sohne 1815 Rattrapante Honeygold - Review, Price

Today, we’ll review a special watch… Sure, it looks stunning, but there’s far more to this watch than its pretty face. The 1815 Rattrapante Honeygold represents many things. First of all, it’s always a pleasure to see an A. Lange & Sohne made of 18k Honeygold, the brand’s proprietary gold alloy, always reserved for special occasions. Second, this watch celebrates ...

2020-12-03

A New Face for Time, Interview with the duo at the helm of Genus Watches

Genus appeared on the independent watchmaking scene in 2019 with the GNS 1.2 WG. A watch in a class of its own, the GNS 1.2 is technically complex and features one of the most fascinating time displays we have seen recently. This radical creation received a well-deserved industry accolade with the 2019 Mechanical Exception Prize at the prestigious Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Geneve. We hit the road...

2020-12-03

Bespoke Vacheron Constantin up for auction at the Louvre Museum

Over the last few years, Vacheron Constantin has extended on its tradition for combining horological complications with one-of-a-kind designs by way of its Les Cabinotiers. The special workshop is home to some of the world's most complex (thus most expensive) timepieces – each one made to measure by a very time-consuming and painstaking process. In this way, the Swiss watchmaker can demonstr...

2020-12-02

Oris Big Crown Pointer Date Bronze "Fratello" Edition

The Oris Big Crown Pointer Date is one of the brand’s all-time classics, a watch that has helped Oris weather the storm in the 1980s and a watch with a specific resonance on the Dutch market. This watch is special for the brand and, without surprise, it is the watch that the Fratello team selected for their new collaboration piece. Of course, Robert-Jan and his team wanted to make this watch...

2020-12-01

Claude Sfeir, Philippe Dufour's Partner: How the 20th-Anniversary Simplicity will be Allocated (Spoiler, It's a Lottery) - Monochrome Watches

A few weeks ago, a Philippe Dufour Simplicity “20th Anniversary” was the highlight of the Phillips “Retrospective 2000-2020” Geneva auction. The watch – marked 00/20 – hammered for over CHF 1.3 million. Admittedly, Philippe Dufour is one of the most respected craftsmen of the industry, and his watches are regarded as the ultimate expression of traditional hand-f...

2020-11-30

Montblanc 1858 Monopusher Chronograph - Review, Price

Who would have predicted that the trend for vintage watches would become a consolidated sector of practically every watch brand with a history of more than 100 years? What started as a nostalgic trip down memory lane has entrenched itself as an enduring phenomenon. Dedicated collections are now the repositories of golden oldies, some more faithful to their ancestors than others, but all picking up...

2020-11-30

Top 10 Chronographs of 2020 by MONOCHROME - Buying Guide

As the end of the year is fast approaching, it was time for MONOCHROME’s editorial team to sit around the (virtual) table and to have a look back at all the new watches that have been introduced in 2020. Despite a complex situation and sales that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen plenty of new models launched this year. Following our list of the most impressive co...

2020-11-29

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked Ceramic

Looking at the vast range of Royal Oak watches available, which goes from classic Selfwinding models to Grande Complications, the question of which are the most sought-after models arises.?Besides the Extra-Thin Jumbo watches, the full ceramic Royal Oak and the Double Balance Wheel Openworked are clearly very high in terms of desirability. So what if you were to combine both concepts? You’d ...

2020-11-27

IWC Big Pilot's Watch Big Date Bucherer BLUE IW5105 Introducing, Price

A little over two years ago, MONOCHROME covered the?Portugieser Chronograph Classic Bucherer BLUE – a red gold model with a blue dial, but other than that, an identical base design of IWC Schaffhausen's Ref. 3904 made in 2013. Fast-forward to last year and we reviewed the IWC Portugieser Chronograph Bucherer BLUE, another collaborative effort between the Swiss watchmaker and the world's larg...

2020-11-26

TAG Heuer Aquaracer Bamford Limited Edition - Hands-On, Price

Collaborations between watch brands and external designers or watch customizers are a growing thing in the industry, the idea being to infused a different take on the watch, less ‘horological’, more design-oriented. So what happens when TAG Heuer, the avant-garde brand known for its robust sports watches, meets Bamford Watch Department, the famous UK-based personalisation house? Well, ...

2020-11-26

Longines Heritage Classic Tuxedo Small Seconds - Review, Price

Longines' archive is the envy of many watchmaking brands, a rich source of material to furnish the highly popular and ever-expanding Heritage collection. Earlier this year, Longines produced two Heritage Classic Tuxedo models that stole our hearts with their stylish two-tone, black-tie looks. We've reviewed the Classic Tuxedo Chronograph, so now we'll take a closer look at the less complex, but pe...

2020-11-25

The Airain Type 20 Re-Edition (Specs & Price)

If the concept of pilot’s chronograph is well-established today, it owes its origins to a series of legendary watches. Think about the WWII Flieger Chronographs for the Luftwaffe, the 1953 Breitling Co-Pilot Avi 765 and, of course, the Type 20 Chronograph of the French Aeronavale. The latter has gained true cult status among military and pilot watch enthusiasts and has come to define an enti...

2020-11-24

Rado Captain Cook Bronze Burgundy (Hands-on, Price)

Since 2017, Rado has found a spot in the market for cool, vintage-oriented dive watches with its successful Captain Cook model. Largely associated with the use of high-tech ceramics, Rado also benefits from a rich history, and several emblematic watches from the past have been reintroduced. Inspired by a 1962 piece with a distinctive case/bezel design, the Captain Cook has been released in multipl...

2020-11-24

Ulysse Nardin Freak X "Qatar Watch Club" Edition (Price)

Watch clubs are certainly a growing phenomenon, with more and more local initiatives to encourage collecting. Clubs are a great way to generate passion and increase horological knowledge among their members. Among the many clubs that have popped up recently, one seems very active and even creates special watches for its members, the Qatar Watch Club – remember that special Tudor Pelagos earl...

2020-11-24

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Titanium Hands-On

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, in addition to being one of the most emblematic watches on the market, the watch that created the luxury sports watch category and one of the hottest pieces currently for sale, has hosted a variety of complications in its complex case. The tourbillon is no stranger to the RO but has always been sort of a rara avis in this watch. About a week ago, Audemars Piguet intr...

2020-11-23