Hands-On: The Maen Skymaster 38 MKIII, a Cool & Accessible Racing Chronograph
Racing chronographs… It might not be as packed as a category as dive watches, but in all fairness, finding the right one for you is not going to be a walk in the park. Hundreds of alternatives (and good ones, on top of that) exist, ranging from affordable quartz models to attainable Swiss mechanical options, followed by classic luxury icons or high-end watches with basically no limit of price. But let’s say you’re looking for a cool, compact, vintage-oriented racing chronograph with a timeless appeal, powered by a reliable mechanical movement… In that case, the Stockholm-based, Dutch-rooted microbrand Maen might have a very compelling solution for you: the third iteration of its chronograph collection, the Skymaster 38 MKIII.?By no means competitors, but you’ll get the racing chronograph vibe and inspiration…Even if we narrow down our search for a racing chronograph to accessible watches powered by mechanical movements, there are still dozens of watc

Business Richemont Appoints Jer?me Lambert As COO of All the Maisons (Ex. Cartier/Van Cleef) and Announces Strong 2017 Half-Year Results - Monochrome Watches
Since a year, the Richemont Group is operating a deep internal restructuration. First of all, the group announced the appointment of both Lambert as Head of Operations and Kern as Head of Watchmaking, Marketing and Digital, followed by the “Big Reshuffle” at the head of several Maisons. Yet, this plan completely shattered on July 14th, 2017 when Georges Kern announced its departure from the group, as joining Breitling as new CEO. With the need to take action, Richemont is today?appointing a new chief, in the name of?Jer?me Lambert,?to the newly created role of Chief Operating Officer. Lambert will be responsible for all the Maisons other than Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. In addition to that, Richemont also published its mid-year results, and they are quite reassuring.Jer?me Lambert Appointed COO of Richemont Groupit’s no big surprises to see?Jer?me Lambert taking over most of the brands of the Richemont Group (with the exception of Cartier and Van Cleef & A

News: IWC Ceralume, The First Fully Luminous Ceramic Watch
The use of luminescent materials on watches is far from new… Soon after the discovery of radium and its properties (and dangers…) by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898, watch dials – markers, numerals and hands – have been coated with radium and then different substances (tritium, Super-LumiNova) to produce light in the dark. Fully luminous watch dials are a far more recent trend, and fully luminous watch cases are still a rarity that we only covered twice in this magazine – with Bell & Ross and Tockr. IWC, which has already shown its appeal for lume, now unveils Ceralume, a proprietary luminous ceramic technology and the first fully luminous ceramic watch… But don’t get crazy too soon, it is still a concept and isn’t commercialized.While the idea of a fully luminous watch case isn’t new, the difference with IWC is that the brand’s engineering division XPL has developed an unprecedented luminous ceramic compound – Bell &

Business Richemont Announces Solid Double-Digit Sales Growth at Annual General Meeting - Monochrome Watches
While times have been difficult for the industry in the last 2 to 3 years (see the 2016/2017 results of Richemont Group), signs of recovery are now more and more apparent. Indeed, Swatch Group’s?Half-Year Report 2017 showed growth (with increase of sales and better profitability). It’s now time for the other?luxury powerhouse, the Swiss-based Richemont group, to announce a massive increase in sales for the five months ended 31 August 2017, as we’re talking double-digit numbers and no negative data to be seen in any region or segment.It’s hard to hide that Richemont Group was in a difficult situation for the last 3 years. Indeed, sales, as well as the overall profitability of the Group, were clearly at half-mast. The latest yearly results of the group reported that?sales decreased by 4% and operating profit was down by no less than 14%. Even worse, the specialist watchmaker division?saw sales fall 11% and operating profit fell 57%. In terms of business, the situa

Glashutte Original Senator Chronometer Regulator // Hands-On, Price
The Senator Chronometer Regulator made its debut in 2013 but can trace its layout all the way back to the 1870s when the tiny Saxon town of Glashutte was an important purveyor of precision chronometers and other timekeeping instruments like regulator clocks. Let's take a closer look at the Senator Chronometer Regulator in red gold and see how a historic precision regulator display can add a refreshing twist to a classic Senator.Marine Chronometers and RegulatorsGlashutte, the cradle of Germany's watchmaking industry, is proud of its history, and rightly so. As a thriving centre of production following Ferdinand Lange's establishment of a watch factory in 1845, the town welcomed watchmakers to establish itself as a true production hub. Two specialities to emerge from the workshops of Glashutte were marine chronometers and regulator clocks. We recently reviewed the Senator Chronometer and its evocation of historic marine chronometers. However,? for a chronometer to provide accurate time