Gerald Charles Maestro 8.0 Squelette - Hands-On, Price
The mission of Gerald Charles, an independent family-owned watch company based in Lugano, is to perpetuate the legend of the late Gerald (Charles) Genta, the foremost watch designer of the 20th century. With a portfolio of watches built around an extravagant Genta case design known as Maestro, the brand launches the Gerald Charles Maestro 8.0 Squelette, a skeletonised version of the watch designed by Octavio Garcia – ex-artistic director of Audemars Piguet and founder of Gorilla Watches. The choice of Garcia was surely intentional, given that Gerald Genta's meteoric career took off with a watch design he made for Audemars Piguet in 1972 that is now more popular than ever.Frederico Ziviani, CEO of Gerald Charles, and Octavio Garcia, designerThe MaestroGerald Charles Genta (1931-2011) was the brainchild behind the luxury sports watch. Following a renewed and highly successful design for Omega's Constellation watch in 1959, Gerald Genta's design career took off. Icons like the AP Ro

Baselworld Will Be Back in 2022... But It Will Be Very Different - Monochrome Watches
What has just been announced by the MCH Group, the company behind the Basel watch fair, came as a surprise. We thought and even announced that Baselworld had gone, replaced by another show called Hour Universe. Baselworld was held for the last time in 2019. Seriously hit by the coronavirus pandemic and the departure of most of the large exhibiting brands, the organisation cancelled the 2020 and 2021 editions. However, the MCH Group has just officially announced that the show will be back with its historical name but makes clear that Baselworld 2022, expected in March/April next year, won’t be the same as past editions of the fair.?As Michel Loris-Melikoff, Managing Director of the show, explains, “the Baselworld brand must remain, but it must fundamentally change“. On both statements, we couldn’t agree more. While we’re quite happy to see the return of the emblematic watch fair, it has to change drastically… In fact, it is forced to change since most

Introducing: The 2023 Editions Of The Chopard Mille Miglia GTS Chronograph & Classic Chronograph
Just as every year, Chopard launches new iterations of its iconic racing chronograph, named after one of Italy’s most famous racing events, the Mille Miglia. This daunting open-road race was held between 1927 and 1957 and made history thanks to some of the greatest racing cars piloted by the bravest drivers imaginable. The event returned in 1977 as the Mille Miglia Storica, a classic car event eligible for pre-1958 cars that registered or raced the original Mille Miglia. Chopard has been the title sponsor for this highlight event of the year for 36 years and named its racing-inspired watch collection after it. New for 2023 is a limited edition of the GTS Chronograph with a charity incentive as parts of the proceeds are donated to the victims of the recent Emilia Romagna floods. Also joining the collection is a quartet of new models of the Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph, with a new size and new colours.The Mille Miglia road raceAs said, the Mille Miglia event is one of the most

Introducing: The Ming LW.01, Possibly The World's Lightest Mechanical Watch
While it’s dangerous to be overly triumphant, claiming that your brand has just produced the world’s lightest mechanical watch, Ming errs on the side of caution and proclaims that it has probably produced the two lightest mechanical watches on the market. Two new releases, the Ming LW.01 Manual and the LW.01 Automatic, sail in with flyweight credentials, tipping the scales with a watch head weight (not including strap) of 8.8 and 10.8 grams, respectively. That being said, the strap and buckle assembly is 1.8 grams, so that makes for quite a feather-light duo of watches…When it comes to lightweight watches, the first name that usually pops up is Richard Mille, with its RM 27-01 Rafael Nadal watch weighing in at 19 grams. But there are even lighter candidates like the Montblanc TimeWalker Phythagore Ultra-Light Concept, weighing just 14.99 grams and the 17-gram Remontet Ultra-Light, which was produced in small quantities and sold out. Ad - Scroll to continue

Live from SIHH 2017 - The new Girard-Perregaux Laureato collection ticks all boxes - Monochrome Watches
On the opening day of SIHH, last Monday, we had a spectacular start to the show with Vacheron Constantin, where we got to see and enjoy the impressive Atelier Cabinotier Celestia. Later that morning we got a nice surprise at Girard-Perregaux. Last year the brand, which is by the way one of the oldest manufactures in the watch world, launched a renewed Laureato limited edition. This year it further improved many small but very significant details on the watch and now I’m convinced that this is a serious competitor in the field of luxury sports watches, plus its price point is only half of its competitors. Sounds good, doesn’t it??And it is good. We here at Monochrome get to handle quite a few watches, and during fairs like the SIHH we’re in meetings, back to back, to see the brand’s new creations. In all honesty, I was not convinced by last year’s limited edition of the Laureato (or maybe I was hoping too much for something extraordinarily good), so when I