Collector's Series - @chronoapothecarist's Gronefeld One Hertz Techniek
The man who operates under the alias @chronoapothecarist must have the weirdest combination of interests ever. This 40-year-old pharmacist from San Diego, California, who strives for innovations and developments in the pharmaceutical field, is equally interested in the intricate workings of a fine watch movement. Hence his love for the Gr?nefeld One Hertz Techniek Titanium, made by the horological brothers from Oldenzaal in The Netherlands.Frank Geelen, MONOCHROME – Gronefeld is not one of the big brand names. How did you come to know them?@chronoapothecarist – My first memory of the Gr?nefeld brand was around the time when they released their One Hertz and reading about the brothers on various prominent watch forums/blogs, such as Monochrome. At this time, I had always been intrigued by independent watchmakers for their design and craftsmanship and dreamed about owning an independently made watch in the future. It is amazing, though, how over time, on one's collecting jour

Recap: The Best Of Colours During Watches & Wonders 2024 and The Geneva Week
While colours have always been part of brands’ collections, they have long been used mostly for the dials – and sometimes, but not always, for the straps… We’ve seen trends for blue or green dials in recent years, as well as a continuous love for salmon-toned watches and even purple making a discreet appearance. But this year, not only we’ve seen dozens of brightly coloured watches, but there’s more than just dials. Colours were everywhere… Unexpected ones mostly, but also in all sorts of watches and combined with textures. Another trend is clearly about colour-matching these coloured dials with the straps, or even using colours for the cases. Here are some of the most appealing and striking coloured watches we’ve seen during Watches & Wonders 2024 and The Geneva Watch Week.Cartier Santos-Dumont Lacquered PeacockFirst presented in 2022, the Santos-Dumont collection with lacquered cases made quite an impression… Available back th

The Vintage Corner - The Story of Aquastar Deepstar Dive Chronograph
Aquastar is a very niche brand, specialized in diver's instruments. It is also a rather young brand, in the vintage field, as it was only established in 1962. The brand started supplying watches to Jacques Cousteau's dive team in 1965, and it seems that the brand’s founder, Frederic Robert, working under the umbrella of the JeanRichards Company, was not wrong in his push to create dedicated dive watches, including today's specialized chronograph, the Aquastar Deepstar. It may not be the most practical and functional dive watch ever created, but its visual appeal can't be denied. This is why we'll take a closer look at it, in today's episode of the Vintage Corner.This Aquastar Deepstar diving chronograph was created in an era of new world of exploration. While NASA and the USSR were reaching Space and planning for a moon shot, others were using advanced technology to explore the depths of the oceans on Earth. The rush of technological development in materials, plastics and new all

Take my breath away! IWC booth at SIHH 2012 - Monochrome Watches
It’s probably no surprise that the brands exposing at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, or short SIHH, are competitors. What is maybe not as well-known is that during this show the biggest competition is not about watches. It’s about the booth! In 1986, a movie turned a famous actor into a worldwide super star. Tom Cruise was playing the role of a young and talented fighter pilot joining the elite Navy fighter Weapon School based in Miramar, north of San Diego, in California. This school is world famous under its nickname: Top Gun! Ad - Scroll to continue with article If you ever get the chance to pilot a jet aircraft, this is great, no it’s spectacular. If you can fly an american high-tech jet aircraft, this is absolutely awesome. Now imagine the very few pilots who get to fly the latest and greatest aircrafts, take off from an a

Introducing the Montblanc Heritage Chronometrie Ultra Slim - Hands-on with an Attractive and Affordable Dress Watch (Photos, Specs and Price) - Monochrome Watches
When we think of a classic dress watch, the first brands that come to mind are Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin and Jaeger-LeCoultre. There are of course more watch brands with classic dress watches in their collection, however not many of these watches share all the features of a classic dress watch: small, slim, two hands (hour and minute), manually wound movement, and preferably executed in a precious metal. Now there’s new one, that honours all codes of a classic dress watch, and that is also very affordable, and elegant. And it’s made by non-other than Montblanc; let’s have a closer look at the new Montblanc Heritage Chronometrie Ultra Slim.Unofficially Montblanc’s new dress watch was already shown to the press during the SIHH, earlier this year, however the official launch is now. The observant Monochrome reader has probably already seen the Montblanc Heritage Chronometrie Ultra Slim in the ‘expert talk’ video of Ben Clymer and I. Ben (execu