Among the historic Swiss watch manufactures, Piaget stands out for its unique expertise in both watchmaking and jewellery. On the occasion of Watches and Wonders Shanghai, Piaget unveils five exceptional tourbillon watches brilliantly showcasing this alchemy between Haute Horlogerie and Haute Joaillerie.Piaget Polo Tourbillon RelatifOne of Piaget’s most intriguing creations, the Tourbillon R...
Recently, Ulysse Nardin has demonstrated its boldness by designing ultra-modern watches with architectural openworked movements or complex displays. The brand is also about complications and, ironically, the simplification of these complications. One should keep in mind the work undertaken by the brand with Dr Ludwig Oechslin to simplify its perpetual calendar. In the same vein, one of the most em...
Earlier this year at the digital edition of Watches & Wonders, Jaeger-LeCoultre presented two Master Control Memovox models. The one which interests us today is the limited edition Master Control Memovox Timer model, a classic Memovox alarm watch with a twist. Along with the traditional alarm function (typically JLC), the Memovox comes with a novel complication in the form of a timer indicatio...
When Ferdinand Adolph Lange laid the foundation stone of his workshop in the town of Glashutte on 7 December 1845, he also laid the foundations of Saxony’s esteemed watchmaking tradition and put Glashutte firmly on the map. Today, 175 years later, A. Lange & Sohne commemorates this historic milestone with three Homage to F.A. Lange limited edition pieces, including the 1815 Rattrapante H...
Today, A. Lange & Sohne releases a trilogy of limited edition watches to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the foundation of the Saxon brand by F. A. Lange in 1815. The Rattrapante Honeygold is perhaps the most special watch in the trilogy because it is ‘new’. Admittedly, we've seen the rattrapante combined with a perpetual calendar in the past, but this is the first time Lange le...
On an icy winter's day, 175 years ago, 30-year-old entrepreneur Ferdinand Adolph Lange laid the cornerstone of his pocket watch workshop in the small town of Glashutte, Saxony. To celebrate this milestone in Lange's watchmaking saga, A. Lange & Sohne presents the 1815 Thin Honeygold “Homage to F.A. Lange”. A straightforward two-hand watch in a limited edition of 175 pieces, the cas...
If you follow MONOCHROME, even occasionally, you know that we're all about mechanical watches. It takes something really special to get us excited about something battery-powered, but every now and then, that something comes along. The retro Hamilton PSR is a recent example, along with the quartz Citizen Calibre 0100 that's accurate to +/-1 second per year. Also, we sometimes dig into our own coll...
Today is the opening of Watches & Wonders Shanghai, a new watch fair dedicated to the Chinese market. While the main idea for exhibiting brands is to display the watches introduced in April, some of them have decided to benefit from this physical and digital space to launch some new models. One of these is IWC, which brings an update to what is certainly one of its most emblematic models, the ...
Today marks the opening of the first edition of Watches & Wonders Shanghai, the Chinese version of the haute horlogerie show normally held in Geneva. One of the exhibiting brands is Vacheron Constantin, which has something new in its luxury sports watch range… Well, something more luxury than sports in the present case, as Vacheron Constantin unveils its Overseas Self-Winding 4500V for t...
Frederique Constant is, without doubt, one of the most impressive entrepreneurial success stories in the recent history of the watch industry. Created in the late 1980s, the Geneva-based brand gained international recognition by manufacturing elegant, classic watches at reasonable prices, even demonstrating a certain mechanical savoir-faire with in-house movements and complications – such as...
After a rather controversial initial impression and some noise in the collecting community,?Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet is now finding its way in both AP’s collections and in the heart of collectors. The brand is now working on expanding the range, adding some extravaganza and boldness, with for instance the greatly designed two-tone versions or the new smoked colours launched earlier this...
A couple of weeks ago, the MONOCHROME team visited Geneva Watch Days, which will probably be the only major watch fair for Europe this year. On this occasion, we visited brands, talked with their teams and, of course, saw some of the models recently introduced in the metal – and yes, after months of digital-only presentations, this really made a difference. And of course, some watches made q...
Last week, a large part of the MONOCHROME team attended Geneva Watch Days, a self-managed event combining physical and digital presence with a flexible, lighter format. And an important one, since it will be one of the only major watch fairs to be organised this year – the result of the current sanitary situation. Altogether, it gathered 17 brands from mainstream manufactures to independent ...
Today, we’re not going to talk about watches. We’re going to talk about watchmaking, in the purest sense of the word. Today, it’s all about a movement, not yet a timepiece – this will certainly come in a few weeks/months. And what a movement it is. Today, Grand Seiko climbs up the complications ladder with a leap as it introduces the Grand Seiko T0 Constant-Force Tourbillon...
A couple of days ago, Omega announced a new edition of its Seamaster Diver 300M. Not just a new colour scheme, but a watch with solid environmental conservation credentials that reflects Omega's support of the Nekton foundation. A leading UK not-for-profit association, Nekton is committed to protecting our oceans by accelerating scientific exploration. The new Seamaster Nekton Edition comes with a...
With the cancellation of Baselworld and Watches & Wonders, the Geneva Watch Days event was one of the very few multi-brand watch events of the year. Seventeen brands? showcased their novelties between August 26 and August 29 in the “capital of luxury watchmaking”. The event was decentralised as each brand was presenting novelties in their individual showrooms. We masked up and vent...
The brand Carl F. Bucherer was born in Lucerne in 1888 and is proud of its rich history. But it’s the recent evolution of the manufacture that engages our interest here, and the impressive technical developments advanced by the brand. The brand has become the master of peripheral technology, used first and foremost for automatic winding. Based on this concept, the brand recently applied this...
In addition to its main 2020 novelty, the Free Bridge, Girard-Perregaux also benefits from the Geneva Watch Days to announce an exclusive distribution agreement with retailer Wempe across Germany. To celebrate this partnership, the brand is unveiling a special version of its steel sports watch with integrated bracelet fitted with a handsome black onyx dial, initially available exclusively from the...
It seems to be a never-ending success story. Another year, another new ultra-thin model, another world record… Once again, Bvlgari introduces a new, ultra-technical, ultra-impressive model in its Octo Finissimo collection, once again, it sets new standards for thinness, and once again, it proves that when it comes to ultra-thin movements and watches the brand is amongst the best in class. Th...
Bringing back an icon of the 1990s… Today, Bvlgari reintroduces its famed Aluminium Watch, a sporty, accessible, superbly designed and very cool collection comprising three models – two time-and-date automatic and one automatic chronograph – presented in matte aluminium cases with contrasting black rubber bezel and bracelets. After the introducing article published yesterday on M...
As some of you certainly know, there’s much more to Gerald Genta than his fame as the designer of the Royal Oak. The man also founded his own watch brand, which was acquired by Bvlgari in 2000 and is one of the pillars behind today’s impressive Octo Finissimo collection. Last year, we saw the name “Gerald Genta” printed again on the dial of a 50th-anniversary model. For 202...
Today Bvlgari is unveiling its new models during Geneva Watch Days, an event uniting several leading watch brands (16) and the only significant gathering for the Swiss watch community in 2020 that has not been cancelled due to the pandemic. Among the novelties is the 2020 Bvlgari Aluminium Watch collection, a contemporary sports watch with its unmistakable Bvlgari seal.? Back in black and white in...
It has become something of a ritual. Year after year, Bvlgari continues its streak of record-breaking ultra-thin watches. With the release of the Bvlgari Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Chronograph Skeleton Automatic, the brand accumulates its sixth world record in six years. But it would be reductive to think that the Octo Finissimo is just a story of record performances. Above anything else, the sleek...
It has been quite a while since we’ve heard from independent German watchmaker, Bernhard Lederer. One of the first members of the AHCI (Academie Horlogere des Createurs Independants), Lederer established a reputation with several disruptive horological concepts. In 2002, he launched the brand BLU (Bernhard Lederer et son Univers). Now based in Saint-Blaise, on the outskirts of Neuchatel, Ber...
Ulysse Nardin unveils an even more radical take on its Skeleton Tourbillon with its latest Blast models. Today, during the Geneva Watch Days event, the brand releases four new supercharged Blast models with edgier, sharper cases meant to emulate the lines of stealth aircraft and a double X traversing the skeletonised dials. The latest arrivals – White Blast, Rose Gold Blast, Black Blast and ...
Even though the flow of new models launched on the market is certainly less intense this year than in the past, some important watches have made their debut. And among these releases, we’ve seen numerous dive watches – a perennial of the industry that never loses its appeal. We’ve decided to list some of the new diver’s watches that made an impression on us… five seri...
When talking about affordable field watches, brands like Hamilton and Seiko come to mind with reliable, no-nonsense mechanical pieces. Of course, you can spend more on luxury watches from the likes of Weiss or Longines, but a mature field watch from Glycine with an upscale complication can be had for a surprisingly accessible price. The Combat 6 Classic Moonphase offers the requisite field watch l...
When talking about the Royal Oak, blue dials are a natural fit. After all, the first Royal Oak featured a blue Tapisserie dial in 1972 and the colour has become somewhat of an Audemars Piguet trademark. The Royal Oak Offshore debuted in 1993 and has been a successful, highly masculine sequel to the original series. Although many sported blue dials in the past, the Bucherer BLUE Royal Oak Offshore ...
During the 2020 online edition of Watches & Wonders, IWC unveiled this complicated Portugieser flying tourbillon, retrograde date and flyback chronograph model. Marking the top-end releases in the new Portugieser collection, along with an equally impressive Portugieser Perpetual Calendar Tourbillon, the tourbillon chronograph watch was presented in precious metal cases of gold or platinum. If ...
Rumour has it that the Oris Aquis Depth Guage is going to be discontinued soon and that Oris is working on a follow-up timepiece. The original Oris Aquis Depth Gauge remains a quirky, yet emblematic watch and a perfect statement as to why the Holstein-based brand is so popular among watch enthusiasts. The bang-for-buck philosophy, mixed with unconventional yet useful features is a strong selling p...