Recap: The Best Pilot's Watches of 2023
It might not be the most productive of categories, but the pilot’s watch remains one of the all-time important watch styles, even though its real-world relevance is more limited these days due to flight management systems. Nevertheless, nostalgia and vintage inspiration are still important drivers of the watch industry’s creativity, and for that reason, some brands continue to release classic pilot watches. Continuing our selection of the best models released this year, following categories such as chronographs and dive watches, we’re now listing the MONOCHROME editorial team’s five Best Pilot Watches of 2023.Pilot’s watches are necessarily a fixed category. It’s not about the complication, which can range from simple time-only displays to more complex chronographs and traveller’s functions, but more about the overall purpose of the watch. Nevertheless, common design features will be found in most aviation-related watches, such as robustness, p

Hands-On - Montblanc 1858 Split Second Chronograph Limited Edition 100 Titanium
The universe of Montblanc watches is composed of two totally different categories. First are the classic watches, with “accessible luxury” positioning, like this handsome new chronograph. And then, there are the dream machines, the watches that are produced in-house with hand-finished, historical Minerva chronograph movements, like this 1858 Monopusher. Certainly, the design codes are shared but under the hood, it’s just another story. And today, the brand introduces a new desirable piece… Monopusher rattrapante, enamel dial and titanium case, all combined in the new Montblanc 1858 Split Second Chronograph Limited Edition 100.If you’re really into watches, this new model should actually ring a bell and feel familiar. Indeed, the 1858 Split Second was already available in 2019 with a bronze case and black dial. The advent of this blue version could have been foreseen with a unique piece created for Only Watch 2019, equipped with the same movement, a titaniu

Parmigiani Tonda 1950 - Reviewing an Elegant Classic Dress Watch - Monochrome Watches
Suppose you’re looking for a dress watch. Not just a dress watch but it has to be a pure, thoroughbred dress watch and it has to be among the best that money can buy. So you focus your (online) search queries on Haute Horlogerie, or high-end watches, and dress watch and hope you will find what you’re looking for. Unfortunately Google serves you too many results that simply do not apply. At least they don’t apply according to our standards. Today we’re going to show you an example that does qualify, and easily holds its own?with the biggest names in the industry. We’re talking about the superbly elegant Parmigiani Tonda 1950.When talking dress watches, we are not always straight in our classification, we have to admit that. Sometimes we classify an elegant watch that features?a moon phase and date as dress watch, while in its purest form a dress watch should only?indicates time with two or three hands (with or without seconds). There’s a lot of choice

First Look: The new Certina DS-1 Skeleton Collection
Certina's solid and accessibly priced DS-1 three-hander is the descendant of the brand's DS (double security) concept of 1959. Like the hard protective shell of a turtle, DS was designed to make watches more resilient, reliable and water-resistant to external aggressions thanks to the incorporation of O-ring seals. While this might not be headline news in the watch world today, it was a big deal 64 years ago. In 2021, Certina beefed up the resilience of the movement with the introduction of the Powermatic 80 calibre developed by Swatch Group. Keeping up with the latest trend for skeletonised watches, three new Certina DS-1 Skeleton models strip away most of the dial to reveal the mechanics of the automatic movement. The openworked dial of the Certina DS-1 Skeleton has a large circular cut-out area in the centre, exposing the matte grey bridges supporting the components of the Powermatic 80. Used by other mid-price brands like Tissot, Mido and Hamilton, the Powerm

Kees Engelbarts Platinum Tsuba Watch - Piece Unique - Monochrome Watches
When you want a unique watch, a truly unique watch, and I’m not talking about a highly limited edition of a few dozen or even a few hundred pieces, there’s actually not that much choice. Certainly, if?you can spare a few?millions, you can ask one of the oldest watch companies – Vacheron Constantin – to create the most complicated watch in the world. However you can also choose to go another route, namely the route of hand-engraved and open-worked watches. And than you’ll find that one person in particular is a master of that game, and known around the world, among a small group of esteemed collectors, for his Mokume Gane, stunning?dragons and highly open-worked movements. I’m talking about Geneva-based master-engraver Kees Engelbarts and today we’re going to have a closer look at his latest unique piece, the Platinum Tsuba Watch.Kees Engelbarts started his career as an engraver, however because of his personal interest in Japan and Japanese art