Hautlence Vortex Bronze - Extreme High-End goes Bronze as well - Live Photos, Specs and Price - Monochrome Watches
Over the last five years the use of bronze as material for watches has become quite a popular thing, and although not necessarily a commonplace, we see more bronze watches today than ever before. Bronze has found its way into almost every price segment; however it’s mainly used for?sports watches. Hautlence thinks otherwise, and actually, we wouldn’t expect anything else from them! The brand that makes a point of ‘crossing the line’ now comes with their most complex timepiece in a bronze case, and it looks just brilliant! Here’s the Hautlence Vortex Bronze.?The use of bronze…Bronze has gained in popularity since the introduction of the Panerai Bronzo PAM382, back in 2011. This wasn’t the first watch in bronze; however it was the one that ignited the interest from collectors, and subsequently that from other?brands. Before Panerai came with the much-famed Bronzo, there was the Gerald Genta Gefica (Gefica Chronographe in 1995) and later, in 2008,

SIHH 2017 - Ulysse Nardin Regatta (Hands-On, Specs & Price)
Live from SIHH 2017, where Ulysse Nardin is exhibiting for the first time, we’ve just been introduced to what could be one of the (if not the) most ingenious?Regatta watches ever.?While most regatta watches are basically reversed chronographs (which count-down instead of timing an event), this watch is able to do?both, in the most practical possible way. How? By having a bidirectional second hand that goes?counterclockwise during the count-down and once it hits zero, changes direction automatically to become a chronograph. It is impressively clever?to say the least. Check out the video below and then read on to find out more about?how the?Ulysse Nardin Regatta works.Regatta watches: A quick refresherTo help?understand how this Ulysse Nardin Regatta works, it’s worthwhile going over a bit of the technical background with regards to?regatta watches in general. Firstly, what is the purpose of such a watch? Unlike?car racing, the start of a sailing regatta is rather complex, be

Interview Jean-Christophe Babin on Geneva Watch Days and LVMH Watch Week
Last year, 2020, the planned dates for Baselworld and Watches & Wonders were pretty late in the year. Usually, the SIHH, predecessor of Watches & Wonders, took place in January and Baselworld was often around March. These proved to be good moments in the year for the watch business, as retailers purchased new watches, new inventory, shortly after the Christmas sales and that kept a healthy dynamic in the luxury ecosystem. However now the two major watch fairs were planned for April/May, that important sales moment in January was missing and Bvlgari Group CEO, Jean-Christophe Babin, wanted to do something about that. Within a short timespan, he created the LVMH Watch Week in Dubai, which took place early 2020, and filled the void of a missing watch fair early that year. And when the pandemic put a halt to last year’s Baselworld, it was again Mr. Babin who initiated a new fair, the Geneva Watch Days, which took place just after the summer. The reason for the LVMH Watch Week

Zenith El Primero - 40 years - Monochrome Watches
I recently blogged about the world’s first automatic chronograph, Calibre 11, developped by Heuer, Breitling, Buren en Dubois-Depraz. Not much later Zenith launched their first automatic chronograph, the famous El Primero. This means that the Zenith also celebrates the 40th of the El Primero. To celebrate this Zenith comes with 5 Anniversary models.Caliber 3019 – the first El PrimeroThe El Primero was developed in 1969 and rapidly became a standard of reference among automatic movements. The El Primero is still considered by many to be the best automatic chronograph. The first was a caliber 3019 column wheel chronograph with 31 jewels, beating at 36,000 beat per hour, it capable of measuring short time intervals to 1/10th second.The El Primero with it’s precision enables it to succeed in passing the tests of the COSC (Swiss Official Control of Chronometers). The chronograph function can be operated with two push-buttons and it features an instantaneous date-change mec

Omega Speedmaster History Part 3 - The rare and limited editions - Monochrome-Watches
Here is the last of our series about the Omega Speedmaster. For this one we’re going to show you some highly rare and limited editions of the ‘Speedy’, including a real Astronaut watch! In our two first articles, we’ve been explaining you how all about the early pre-moons and how the Speedmaster became the Moonwatch and then showed you some very cool 1970s editions and the premises of the Alaska Project. Some of them are?very rare birds, but coming from the serial?production. Now we’re moving to the limited production, and not the worst one to be true.The Apollo XI commemorative seriesThe Speedmaster has been produced in many limited, numbered or commemorative editions. However, one of this editions is more famous and highly collectible, the Apollo XI: the series that pays tribute to the largest achievement of the Speedy, when the Eagle' landed on the Moon, the 20th July 1969. Thus, it became the Moonwatch. The whole collection of the Speedmaster Apollo XI