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A few days ago, the MONOCHROME team delivered our yearly forecast of potential launches for the 2024 Rolex Collection. As always, we try our best to guess what the Crown will be presenting at the watch industry’s largest fair, Watches and Wonders. While trying to imagine and design these potential Rolex models, we also started […]
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First released in 2005 as a more powerful version of the Omega Seamaster, the Planet Ocean 600m has now become an entire collection with various complications, sizes and colours/materials – without even mentioning its bigger brother, the mighty PO 6000m. Discreetly released by Omega, six new references join the collection – three time-and-date 43.5mm and three […]
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Part of the nouvelle vague of watch brands born in France, March LAB was created in 2008 with a focus on design and vintage inspiration. A distinguishing element that has to do with the founders’ origins is France’s Atlantic coast; to be precise, France’s top surf spot on the Basque Country’s coastline. Moving from a […]
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Furniture that looks old but is made today is usually classified as reproduction furniture, models that take design cues from the past but are crafted with contemporary materials. This very same phenomenon also applies to the watch world, especially for brands that don’t have reams of historical catalogues to dip into and select the next […]
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Born in 1963, the Superman quickly became Yema’s most emblematic watch and, incidentally, one of France’s most famous watches too. A so-called skin diver, meaning a dive watch intended for recreational dives and more restrained proportions, it remained nevertheless a competent aquatic tool. Revived in 2018 with a faithful re-edition, Yema has, for the past […]
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Any serious watch buff is familiar with the story of Zenith’s El Primero high-frequency automatic chronograph calibre of 1969. Fast-forward to the 21st century, and Zenith’s iconic movement ticks on thanks to upgrades and ever-higher frequencies to track elapsed times. A variant of the brand’s famous Zenith Chronomaster – itself a descendant of the iconic […]
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The Moon, our beloved neighbouring satellite, has a huge influence on life on Earth; it slows down the rotational speed of our planet, affects the tides of our oceans and forms the foundation of our convention of time. As the Moon is an ever-present celestial body, completing one cycle around our planet in approximately 29.5 […]
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The Petrolhead Corner is going offroading today, but not for the sake of competition, thrills or entertainment, but for the sake of saving lives. While that might sound like a very dramatic intro, it’s very much true that in an emergency situation every second counts. Especially when you’re stuck in hard-to-reach places like a barren […]
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In only two months, the watch community will focus all its attention on Geneva. In early April, the largest watch fair of the year, Watches and Wonders Geneva 2024, will open its doors. As a yearly tradition for the past decade, it’s time for the MONOCHROME team to get creative and predict what Rolex might […]
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A couple of days ago, we received the news that Tudor, a brand owned by Rolex and focused on military, diving and aquatic activities, was back in motorsport. To be more precise, the brand announced joining the brand-new Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team as an official partner. Yesterday, the Red Bull-owned team unveiled […]
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At the stroke of midnight, Chinese New Year kicks off with a magnificent display of fireworks and firecrackers to scare away evil spirits and welcome the Year of the Dragon. In true Jacob & Co. style, the brand releases a spectacular dragon-themed model on the eve of China’s most important festivity bristling with horological fireworks. […]
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Piaget’s CEO, Benjamin Comar, sits at the helm of the company at a momentous point in its history, its 150th anniversary. Georges Edouard Piaget set up his workshop in 1874 in the small village of La Côte-aux-Fées in the Swiss Jura mountains. There, Piaget made a name for himself first focusing on manufacturing parts and […]
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Union Glashütte is a brand that must enjoy a remarkable reputation among a specific group: German vintage car enthusiasts. The company has established longstanding partnerships with events like the ADAC Deutschland Klassik tour and renowned German car rallies such as the Paul Pietsch Classic, the Silvretta Classic, and the Sachsen Classic rally. Recognised for its […]
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Zenith captured the attention and resonated strongly with enthusiasts in 2021 by unveiling the Chronomaster Sport collection. Setting itself apart from its predecessors, the series introduced several distinctive elements. Notably, the bezel graduated to 1/10th of a second, a departure from the traditional and arguably redundant tachymeter scale found on many chronographs. Following multiple variants […]
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By far one of the most popular collections of Grand Seiko, the 62GS design was revived in 2019 and is now mostly represented by the “24 sekki” series and its flagship model, the SBGA413 Shunbun watch and its highly attractive light pink dial. Even though highly attractive, the 62GS design is a bit more niche […]
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Despite offering a plethora of well-designed and attractively priced watches, coupled with a rich history, Junghans relishes its somewhat under-the-radar reputation. Integral to Junghans’ contemporary image are the original Meister timepieces dating back to the 1930s and the iconic Max Bill collection, which debuted in the 1960s when the esteemed Bauhaus designer collaborated with the […]
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Regarded as one of the most refined luxury retailers, Hermès is renowned for its exquisite artisanal craftsmanship and intrepid artistic flair. The Maison’s unique style, safeguarded by current creative director Philippe Delhotal, is often transversal, taking design cues from one product line and incorporating them into another. Recently, Hermès watchmaking sector has turned to the […]
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Numbers can be reassuring in a world of change and upheaval. One constant and finite number is the speed of light, a numerical value used to measure distances with extraordinary precision. Urwerk‘s latest take on the UR-100V gravitates around the speed of light, or, rather, the time it takes the Sun’s rays to reach eight […]
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Set in a distant apocalyptic future, Studio Ghibli’s anime fantasy film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was released back in 1984, and as such is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. It tells the story of Nausicaä, the Princess of the Valley of the Wind, who becomes entangled in a fight with Tolmekia, […]
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Introduced last year as a project, the Louis Vuitton Watch Prize for Independent Creatives has to be seen as one of the most interesting recent initiatives in the field of independent and high-end watchmaking. Even though backed up by the world’s largest luxury conglomerates, the LV Watch Prize aims to become a biennial prize that […]
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With its Captain Cook, Rado, a brand part of the Swatch Group, is merging two important sides of its history. First, this watch collection revived one of the brand’s greatest watches of the past, a 1960s dive watch with a rather peculiar yet attractive design. Second, it is used as a vessel to showcase the […]
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The 2024 Formula 1 season hasn’t started yet. Teams are yet to present their new cars and liveries. And yet, the season seems to already be on a rapid pace. Following the announcement last week of a global partnership between H. Moser & Cie. and Alpine Motorsport, which includes the BWT Alpine F1 Team, it […]
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In our exploratory trip around the world to uncover some of the most interesting independent watchmaking stories, we make a stop in Denmark this time around. The work of Rune Bakkendorff, a young and upcoming watchmaker from Denmark has recently been brought to our attention through our friends of The Limited Edition. Curious to learn […]
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When it was relaunched with a modernized and sleeker design in 2016, the Piaget Polo adopted the design cues of luxury sports watches, slightly changing the face of the collection to become a cushion-shaped watch. However, this isn’t how the model started its life. This year, Piaget celebrates its 150th anniversary, and to whet our […]
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It might sound surprising, but the Dutch watchmaking scene is much more active than many imagine. One of the most prominent and enduring names in the Netherlands is, without a doubt, Christiaan van der Klaauw. Specialised in astronomical timepieces – think about the Planetarium – CdvK has recently been acquired by Pim Koeslag (ex-Frederique Constant) […]
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Even though its development started during the 1970s, it took some years for Seiko and Grand Seiko to finally present their first movement equipped with the Spring Drive technology (the very first was a Seiko in 1999). In 2004, after more than 2 decades of research, the first generation of Grand Seiko Spring Drive was […]
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This year marks the 20th anniversary of Grand Seiko‘s introduction of the 9R movement, featuring its revolutionary Spring Drive technology. The concept, conceived in the 1970s and which took decades to implement, aimed to blend the force of a mainspring with electronic watchmaking technology and surpass the precision of conventional mechanical watches. Now, 9R-family calibres […]
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Like clockwork, every Sunday, we group together a bunch of watches around a common theme in our Buying Guide. This can revolve around a whole range of topics, such as colours, shapes and materials but also a certain style or even complications. Very rarely do we go deep into the movement to distinguish a series […]
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It’s no secret Porsche is extremely capable of building race-winning cars in all forms of racing. From Formula 1 to Rallying, the brand has conquered it all. But its biggest legacy perhaps, is in endurance racing, with a record-setting 19 overall wins at Le Mans and 18 overall wins at the Daytona 24 Hours race. […]
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It’s tempting to delve into the detailed backgrounds of the individuals behind this independent creation, the Artime ART01 Tourbillon. Each name, obscure to the general public, speaks volumes to watch professionals and enthusiasts with a deeper knowledge of who’s who. Initially, I felt it imperative to provide profiles for each of them when tasked with […]
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