Hands-On - Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Skeleton (specs & price)
Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Skeleton - The record-breaking Octo Finissimo Tourbillon now comes in a skeleton' version. The perfect opportunity to satisfy our curiosity, taking advantage of the now unobstructed view of the inner workings of the thinnest Tourbillon ever. A testament of the Bulgari watchmaking expertise, the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Skeleton combines several smart technical solutions. More than that, its open-worked movement illustrates the brand's design capabilities down to the very last details.At Baselworld 2014, Bulgari set the record for?the world thinnest tourbillon with the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon. Its movement (1.95mm thick), housed in a slimmed-down Octo case (5mm thick), is now proposed in an open-worked version - and the most impressive is that, even if now skeletonized, the watch and the movement keep the exact same dimensions. After having?the slimmest tourbillon movement ever created (with the non-skeleton version), Bulgari is now holding the title

@winewhiskywatches and his IWC Safari Big Pilot (AKA the Tribute to 5002) - Monochrome Watches
When Chris Granger-Herr, the CEO of IWC, posted a photo of himself wearing the prototype for this updated version of the original 5002-generation Big Pilot in matte titanium while on his African Safari, collectors took notice. Shortly after, IWC announced a limited edition of 100 watches, which sold out almost instantly via Instagram (despite a six-month wait for them to be built). The watch was immediately nicknamed the Safari Big Pilot, while IWC officially named it the Tribute to 5002. Today we’re talking to @winewhiskywatches about his IWC Big Pilot Tribute to 5002 ref. IW501007 AKA the “Safari” Big Pilot.?When Chris Grainger-Herr posted that picture on Instagram, I was travelling from the Netherlands to Switzerland to film one the MONOCHROME videos. So by the time I found out about this particular “Safari” Big Pilot, it was long sold out and that was that. So when I saw that @winewhiskywatches (who recently told us about his Armin Strom Resonance) own

Hands-On: Fam Al Hut sets a new Benchmark for Chinese Indie Watchmaking
This article is a guest post by one of our readers and contributors to the Collector’s Series, a gentleman who prefers to remain anonymous but who’s very active on Instagram @winewhiskywatches.We've long suspected that Chinese cost structures might provide compelling competitive advantages for high-end watchmaking, assuming that a Chinese watchmaking brand could effectively establish credibility with an original aesthetic vision, advanced movement design, chronometric precision, durability and exceptional movement finishing. Fam Al Hut, a new independent watch brand based in Chongqing, China, aims to be the first to do exactly that. And we’re taking a closer look at its Mark I Bi-Axis Tourbillon.Editor’s Note: Over the past few years at MONOCHROME, we have covered several interesting independent watchmakers from China, proving that the country has far more to offer than just entry-level movements and fake watches. We can, of course, talk about the rise of brands

Tissot Heritage Petite Seconde - Value Proposition Review (Specs & Price)
Vintage-inspired watches are all the rage these days with military and dive watches usually grabbing the spotlight. Tissot has been around since the early 1850s and knows a thing or two about vintage watches. The brand's Heritage collection is full of throwbacks, celebrating milestones in both engineering and design. For instance, the Visodate line looks back at the 1950s when the date complication was integrated with an automatic movement. The recent Heritage 1973 Chronograph Limited Edition celebrates the brand's long ties with racing. The Tissot Heritage Petite Seconde is inspired by a dress watch from 1943 that was marketed as an elegant piece for men in big cities. Anti-magnetism was an innovative feature at the time with ongoing developments, and this actually created a bit of controversy with this new watch (more on that below). The Heritage Petite Seconde might be aesthetically faithful to the original but its timeless design still works well today. Let's take a closer look.Bac

Video Interview - 5 Questions For Davide Cerrato, Managing Director Of Montblanc Watch Division, About 2017 Collections - Monochrome Watches
At the SIHH 2017, Montblanc launched an entirely?redesigned TimeWalker?collection, transforming these watches from “modern-urban” to real sports timepieces, mainly chronographs and racing-car-oriented stop-watches. This is an extremely important collection for the brand, which was until now rather absent from the critical sports-watch category. That being said, you can imagine how crucial this new TimeWalker collection was for Montblanc. The mission of?Davide Cerrato, Managing Director Of Montblanc Watch Division, who’s experience in sports-watches is undeniable, was clear… and now that we’ve seen the watches, we can tell you that he successfully managed the?transformation of the collection. Instead of trying to explain it ourselves, let’s simply hear what the creator has to say about it. Here are?5 Questions For Davide Cerrato, Managing Director Of Montblanc Watch Division, about the 2017 Montblanc collection. Ad - Scroll to continue with