Alternatives to Off-the-Shelf Swiss ETA and Sellita Movements, with Seagull, Seiko and Miyota - Monochrome Watches
When talking about contemporary watches, companies generally use either in-house or off-the-shelf movements, the latter supplied by various manufacturers. Many high-end brands like Patek Philippe, Piaget, and Breguet can produce in-house movements that are optimized for their portfolios. A watch company is considered complete when it can produce its own movement, but many still rely on outsourced ones from large Swiss manufacturers like ETA and Sellita. Yet, the market has changed. A few established brands have decided to offer entry-range automatic watches and mostly,?microbrands are all over the place, with the need to offer mechanical movements for accessible prices. Alternatives to?the usual Swiss generic?calibres have thus become crucial.The time and expense to design and build an in-house movement isn't a viable option for many smaller brands, and even major companies with their own movement production facilities also rely on off-the-shelf calibres for many models. It's been th

Buying Guide: Five Salmon Watches To Satisfy Your Horological Appetite
“Guess what? I got a fever… and the only prescription is more Salmon Dials!” It could be our horological equivalent of SNL’s famous “More Cowbell!” sketch with Christopher Walken. If you don’t know what that is, I strongly urge you to Google it and then come back here to continue reading. Regardless, it’s no secret the MONOCHROME Editorial Team has a strong love for dials in copper, pink-gold, salmon or whatever tone you want to call it. Heck, even our first Montre de Souscription had a salmon-coloured dial! So you can understand, we get a little bit more excited when a new salmon-toned watch comes along, as opposed to classical black, silver or blue. Case in point: the Chopard L.U.C. Lunar One that kicks off this tasty Buying Guide. Whip out your soy sauce and chopsticks, as we have some finely sliced horological salmon sashimi lined up to whet your appetite!Chopard L.U.C. Lunar OneAs mentioned, the Chopard L.U.C. Lunar One was the trigg

Introducing New Blue PVD Santos de Cartier Large Model (Specs & Price)
Since its introduction in 2018, the Santos de Cartier has been the best example of a sporty/luxury watch for the brand. With its interesting mix of traditional, dare I say emblematic design with casual elements and overall robustness, it has since been seen in various editions designed to add a touch of boldness to the collection. In addition to the classic steel models, but also versions with a gradient blue dial or a black-coated case, it now comes with a new blue-coated bezel and new dials, all featuring an unprecedented striped pattern. Meet the new blue Santos de Cartier for Watches and Wonders 2022.While faithfulness and traditional elegance are to be found in the Santos-Dumont collection, the classic Santos de Cartier is a sporty, casual luxury watch with daily wear in mind. Hence the relative heft of the case, its modern dimensions and decent water-resistance make it a weekend-ready Cartier. With this in mind, it’s also a great vehicle for colour combinations, playing wit

TAG Heuer Monaco Heuer 02 In-House CBL2111.FC6453 - Hands-On (Specs & Price)
The 50th-anniversary celebrations of the iconic Monaco watch and its early automatic chronograph movement aren’t over yet – it’s still 2019 after all. Yet, after a series of super-limited editions, one for each decade, it is time to come back to regular production watches. On the occasion of this commemorative year, TAG makes an important move on its classic blue dial, 3 o’clock-crown Monaco – the modern one, not the Steve McQueen-inspired model. Say goodbye to the Monaco Calibre 12 and its outsourced movement; say hello to the new TAG Heuer Monaco Heuer 02, with the brand’s own chronograph movement.BackgroundWe’re not going to review the full history of the Monaco here, but we’re going to focus on the TAG Heuer era. If you want the full story of the Heuer Monaco (understand the 1969 model), we’ve recently produced an in-depth video that will tell you all about this iconic chronograph watch. Ad - Scroll to continue with a

Roshan Martin Legende Tourbillon - Monochrome-Watches
Here, at Monochrome-Watches, we are used to see extreme horology and very high-end pieces. All with their own specificities, some brands as?Christophe Claret,?Greubel Forsey or Richard Mille had already impressed us with watches priced over half an million Euros / Dollars. We tried them, we played with them, we explained them to you because such a price has to be justified. Recently, we found a new brand, based in Montreux, Switzerland, that came to the world with an extra-thin tourbillon, the Roshan Martin Legende Tourbillon, priced over that symbolic ‘half-a-million’ step. Let’s see why!The first watch presented is an extra-thin tourbillon that takes inspiration in observatory watches, known for their accuracy and precision. The Roshan Martin Legende Tourbillon is entirely?designed, developed and produced in Switzerland, by a small group of people led by Roshan Martin, a young Swiss designer. The idea behind the brand and the collections is to ‘conceive the fi