Top 10 Indie Watches From Upcoming Ineichen November Auction
We don’t often cover auctions at MONOCHROME. Classic vintage watches, such as your regular 1960s Submariner or Daytona, are not our speciality or our primary focus. But since independent watchmaking is on the rise and has gained immense interest recently among the collecting community, it has motivated us to look deeper into what the auction market has to offer. And as you might know, independent and creative watchmaking has always been a great source of interest for us here at MONOCHROME. Next weekend will be the watch sale by Zurich-based auction house Ineichen. Among?the many watches offered, two themed auctions will take place: Alchemy of Gold and Shades of Grey. And yes, there are some pretty interesting indie watchmakers represented.Ineichen Auctioneers is an auction house that specialises in watches and jewellery. Founded in 1973 and based in Zurich, it’s the oldest auction house with a focus on watches in Switzerland. This coming weekend – November 20th-21st &

Hands-On Vertex MP45 MonoPusher Chronograph (Specs & Price)
The luxury watch industry is in somewhat of a confusing and unpredictable place at the moment. You have the Swiss and German giants behaving even more conservatively than usual (with some obvious exceptions, like the four-armed Patek Philippe Ref 5520P). You have Seiko doing some interesting things out of Japan. And you have a myriad of small - some even micro - brands, making legitimately cool and intriguing watches. British watch brand Vertex falls very much into this last category. The company's latest release is the MP45. We were lucky enough to get our hands on one for a few days. Here's what we thought.?BackgroundAs you may already know, Vertex is not a new brand, at least not in the traditional sense. Rather, it is newly “revived”. Established in London in 1916 by Claude Lyons as Vertex Watches Ltd, the company is arguably best known for being the only British member of the Dirty Dozen (more on that in a minute). Producing watches for both military and civilian use,

Watch from my year of birth - part 2 - Monochrome Watches
More about my quest for a watch from my year of birth. A few days ago i already blogged about this quest, now the story continues. I’m considering (a reasonably priced) GMT Master 1675 or Submariner no-date ref. 5512 or 5513. But there are of course other options. Heuer and Omega also had some incredibly nice watches in that time. And although i’ve searched the internet, i’m sure there are many more nice watches from that time, that i haven’t stumbled across yet. So i’m open to suggestions. Mostly i prefer chronographs, divewatches and GMT’s, so toolwatches from the past. I’m a Heuer fan, but i just can’t think of many vintage Heuers that would meet my requirements in this case. Maybe a vintage Heuer Monaco would do, but somehow i would feel uncomfortable wearing such a watch on a daily basis. Most other Autavia models would only be less interesting as the one i already have and the vintage Carrera or Camaro are less appealing to me. Th

Hands-On - Czapek Quai des Bergues Order of Malta Special Edition (with Video)
If you are a regular reader of MONOCHROME, you will be familiar with the independent watchmaker Czapek. A name with a lot of history (Fran?ois Czapek was a Geneva-based Polish watchmaker whose 6-year partnership with Antoni Patek gave birth to remarkable watches before the latter founded Patek Philippe with Adrien Philippe), the brand was revived in 2015 with the launch of the Quai des Bergues. The first modern Czapek creation was awarded the Public Prize at the prestigious Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Geneve in 2016. At Baselworld 2017, the brand introduced the Place Vend?me tourbillon featuring a GMT indication.Over the past months, Czapek has released variations, bespoke iterations and special editions of its Quai des Bergues model showcasing traditional crafts like Grand Feu enamel or hand-guilloche dials. The latest execution of this collection presented just ahead of Baselworld features a grene - iridescent silvered dial featuring a highly-detailed Order of Malta coat of arms paint

Music To Our Ears: Ulysse Nardin Performs Vivaldis Violin Concerto in E - Monochrome Watches
For us, this is the most wonderful time of the year. The manufactures have all been working so hard to prepare their latest offerings for Baselworld. Everyone honing and refining his or her novelties to capture the most attention from the press. Sometimes, the urge to show-off (or maybe psyche-out their competitors) is just too strong and we get a little peak under the tent as we have today. Ulysse Nardin bring us the second installment of their Musical Watch collection to prove that what makes a watch smart' is not always being able to sync to a satellite feed or trawl down to the depths of the oceans. A watch that plays music at the push of a button,?without an MP3 file anywhere to be found.It must be nice to not have anything to prove to people. Ulysse Nardin don't have anything to prove to anybody. They have ticked all the boxes for dress, dive and chronograph watches. They have offerings that present the highest traditions of watchmaking both in technical expertise and craftsmansh