Monochrome
Benrus, founded in 1921 in New York City, is an American brand that tends to fall in the shadows of historic counterparts like Hamilton and Bulova, but it played a comparable role in supplying military personnel in the mid-20th century. The latest Type 2 Mil Spec was originally produced alongside the lauded Type 1 Mil […]
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A relatively young brand founded by two close friends, Andrea Furlan and Hamad Al-Marri, Furlan Marri started its life on Kickstarter in 2021 with a nicely designed collection of meca-quartz chronographs. The goal of the brand was to “bring back emotional watchmaking with thoughtful design (…) with details rarely seen at this price point”. And […]
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Yema continues its close partnership with Alpine, the legendary French racing car brand, with a new limited series celebrating the Alpine Elf Cup. In this championship, the modern A110 cars prove the competitive edge on Europe’s most iconic circuits. Among the latest Alpine Cup Series releases, one stands out for mechanical watch enthusiasts: the Yema […]
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Alpina gained a head start in the sports watch market in 1938 with its Alpina 4, a robust model featuring shock and water-resistant properties, anti-magnetic capabilities, and a sturdy steel case. The heavy-duty Alpiner Extreme, revamped in 2022, is the rightful heir of the Alpina 4. Designed for outdoor adventures, the Alpiner Extreme is also […]
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The Classics Carrée collection is Frederique Constant’s take on a timeless style for the watch industry, the rectangular dress watch. Indeed, the Classics Carrée isn’t exactly carrée (square in French) as its name suggests, but more of a compact, lightly elongated shape. First introduced in 2003, the watch has been reimagined over the years in […]
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Presented in late 2024, the Independence Skeleton Chrono 42mm marked a significant milestone for Swiss brand Norqain, particularly with its new, exclusive 8k flyback chronograph calibre developed in partnership with AMT Manufacture. The young, independent, family-owned watch brand now introduces a new version of the model in bold orange and a stainless steel case. The […]
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Celebrating its grand 250th anniversary, Breguet turns its attention to the Reine de Naples, a women’s collection with a royal backstory and a distinctive oval-shaped case. Fit for a queen, the new moon phase reference 9935 and the time-only 8925 are packed with novelties, a new gold bracelet and a generous sprinkling of diamonds. As […]
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It’s a well-known fact that many people express their personality through their clothing. Your personality can be reflected by your choice of clothes, hairstyle or the jewellery you wear. The same goes for watches, which are often considered an extension of the person wearing them. Nomos caters to personal expression with multiple (sub-)collections, such as the […]
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The Freak, Ulysse Nardin’s avant-garde masterpiece, marked a before and after in contemporary watchmaking. Designed by wizard watchmaker Ludwig Oeschlin under the inspired leadership of Rolf Schnyder, the Freak was unleashed in 2001. With no dial, hands, or crown, the Freak upturned conventional time displays, relying instead on the movement’s rotation to tell the time. […]
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Formex extends its Essence line with a new 41mm COSC-certified model, a permanent addition that bridges the gap between the existing 39mm and 43mm editions. First presented in the Space Ghost limited edition and later added to ceramic variants, this mid-size case now arrives in stainless steel as part of the regular collection. The 41mm […]
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Launched in 2021 for the Manufacture’s 25th anniversary, the L.U.C Quattro Spirit 25 was Chopard’s first in-house jumping hour watch, pairing a pure 40mm case with the long-autonomy L.U.C 98 calibre and a Grand Feu enamel dial. That model has since spawned further variants (including rose-gold reference with a gold-based dial graced with green straw […]
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Czapek unveils the second special series created to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the brand’s rebirth in 2015. Following the Antarctique Tourbillon introduced in April, this new release presents an exceptional interpretation of the maison’s integrated-bracelet sports watch, distinguished by a plique-à-jour enamel dial. Plique-à-jour is an intricate and delicate enamelling technique distinguished by its […]
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Petermann Bédat is an independent watchmaking brand based in Renens, near Lausanne. The founders, Gaël Petermann and Florian Bédat, first met at the Geneva Watchmaking School. After gaining experience at prestigious houses such as A. Lange & Söhne, Harry Winston and Andersen Genève, or restoring vintage timepieces, they decided to create their own brand. The […]
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Arnold & Son introduced its first integrated luxury sports watch last year with the Longitude Titanium, featuring three dial colours. The 2025 Longitude Titanium 5°W Edition is the latest variant with a single dial colour inspired by the hue of the North Atlantic’s surface as autumn storms approach. Specifically, it’s from the waters off Lizard […]
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Now that is something paradoxical… An Urwerk watch equipped with centrally-mounted hands rotating traditionally on top of a round dial, with concentric counters underneath. That’s nothing what you’d expect to see from Urwerk, a brand known for its unconventional displays of the time with wandering hours and satellites. Look at our retrospective of the entire […]
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The latest Blancpain releases are classical watchmaking refined with a purpose. Long before the Villeret collection officially gained its name in 2003, Blancpain had already set the template in the early 1980s with a small, classically framed complete calendar moonphase (Cal. 6395). The look with the double-stepped bezel, Roman numerals, and slim cases became the […]
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Angelus and Massena LAB return with a second collaboration that once again leans hard into classic mid-century chronograph codes. After the first collaborative project, the 2023 Chronographe Médical, which reintroduced the brand’s vintage tool-watch spirit and the La Fabrique collection, and the recent Chronographe Télémètre established a small-case, hand-wound monopusher as a core design, the […]
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This year marks Zenith’s 160th anniversary, which has already been celebrated with the launch of several blue-themed watches. With this specific collection, the brand is in for an encore of its best watches or movements, including the return of the legendary calibre 135. The story continues today with two very limited Defy Zero G models […]
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The Carrera Extreme Sport series by TAG Heuer returns for 2025 with three new references: a travel-ready Twin-Time chronograph that merges a true GMT into the openworked Extreme Sport template; a rose-gold chronograph that disrupts the collection’s tool aesthetic using precious metal; and a Tourbillon Extreme Sport F1 75th Anniversary limited edition that celebrates seven-and-a-half […]
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Bremont has a solid portfolio of rugged tool watches designed for airborne, seaborne and land exploration. Recently restructured under Davide Cerrato, Bremont’s 2024 Terrra Nova collection was the CEO’s trial by fire. With its cushion-shaped cases, vintage details, and excellent legibility, the Terra Nova collection is designed to capture the elemental spirit of yesteryear’s military […]
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Omega turns its head once again to the Dark Side… of the Moon, of course. A now-classic member of the Speedmaster collection, the Dark Side of the Moon lineup, also known as the DSOTM, has been around for over 10 years now, always with a cool, monochromatic take on the brand’s emblematic space chronograph, made […]
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Parmigiani Fleurier, the elite watch brand founded by master restorer and watchmaker Michel Parmigiani in 1996, underwent a management change in 2021 with the appointment of Guido Terreni. Terreni’s roadmap for Parmigiani involved streamlining the collections and focusing on a new collection derived from Michel Parmigiani’s Tonda watch. Released that same year, the Tonda PF is a lineup […]
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Japan is known for being one of the most mature and fascinating markets for new and vintage watches, home to serious collectors, as well as long-established manufacturers. In recent years, we’ve also seen the rise of a proper independent scene, ranging from accessible to ultra high-end, with Hajime Asaoka being on both ends of the […]
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Once the domain of high-end brands, the integrated sports watch genre is on fire and the market is flooded with thousands of models, ranging from downright affordable ones, such as Tissot’s PRX, all the way up to AP’s Royal Oak, and everything in between. A somewhat unexpected move, the latest player to take the plunge […]
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Not so long ago, this summer, ArtyA, the avant-garde, family-run Geneva atelier steered by Yvan Arpa, launched the Luminity Wavy collection, debuting 40mm timepieces, pairing sculpture-like titanium or full-sapphire cases. Inside was the brand’s first proprietary micro-rotor calibre, AMR-02, developed with the specialist movement maker Telos. The idea was to let movement and light do […]
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Monovant is a new brand founded in 2024 in Greece with watches designed in both Athens and Paris. There’s a unique virtual showroom on its website that allows enthusiasts to interact with a digital version of watches, a concept Monovant calls phygital timepieces (the blending of the physical and digital worlds). This concept extends to […]
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At MONOCHROME, there’s often debate about various aspects of watches. Size, materials, colours, and so on are all regularly scrutinised by the team. And they should be, as we love to offer you our best perspective on watches possible. One thing that always crops up in these discussions is price. Do we think a watch […]
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Hublot loves creative collisions and has turned collaboration into a design language. Beyond frequent partnerships with contemporary artists like Richard Orlinski, Maxime Plescia-Buchi, Takashi Murakami and Samuel Ross, the brand has also produced conservation-minded SORAI editions and an eco-driven Nespresso watch in recycled aluminium and rubber. In 2024, Daniel Arsham’s MP-16 Arsham Droplet, a pocket […]
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Approximately 30 years ago, car enthusiasts, journalists and collectors were baffled by power figures in the five-hundreds, or six-hundreds, even. Icons like the McLaren F1 and Bugatti EB110 pushed the output envelope with engines producing about 610 horsepower each. Then, in 2005, the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 became the first production car to break the 1,000-horsepower […]
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Since its introduction in 2022, the Citizen Tsuyosa collection has been a resounding success. Stylish, inspired by a cult 1990s model but refreshed according to modern tastes, available in two sizes (40mm and 37mm), the Tsuyosa is a well-equipped and fairly priced option. We’ve come to know the watch in this form, and while there was a […]
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