Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Tourbillon Chronograph for Watches & Wonders - Monochrome Watches
In 2011 Audemars Piguet introduced the first Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Tourbillon Chronograph. It was introduced in a carbon case, a daring choice from Audemars Piguet to introduce a tourbillon chronograph in the big Offshore, and even go for a carbon case instead of precious metal. For the upcoming Watches & Wonders fair, in Hong Kong, Audemars Piguet redesigned the watch to reveal the peripheral rotor mechanism on the dial. In 1993 Audemars Piguet introduced the Royal Oak Offshore, the Royal Oak’s more muscular sibling. Best known is the Offshore Chronograph (6 new versions have been introduced earlier this year) and the Offshore Diver. Maybe not the first thing to expect when you see this very robust and sporty watch, but it has also hosted a variety of complications, from an Annual Calendar to a Grand Complication. The first Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph was released in 2010. It came in a forged carbon case and featured a manually-wound movement inside. I

Value Proposition Martenero Kerrison Automatic (Specs & Price)
While a growing number of microbrands are producing well designed, high-quality watches that are nipping at the heels of brands like Hamilton, Tissot and Seiko, they don't have the marketing or mass production prowess of those established brands. Some of the watches themselves, however, are bonafide contenders. Martenero is a young microbrand based in New York that already has a handful of intriguing lines in its portfolio. It recently funded a sequel to one of its bestsellers on Kickstarter, the Edgemere Reserve. It follows the original Edgemere and adds three complications, a 24-hour sub-dial, date and reserve indicator (the original Edgemere was a time-only piece). One of my favourite Martenero lines is the Kerrison, which is clean and conservative, but also full of personality. They remind me of the Three Hand Automatics?from another young microbrand, Farer Universal. Both use splashes of colour to add a little fun to otherwise subdued (yet stylish) dials. Let's take a closer look

Christie's Sells the Unique F.P.Journe Rattrapante Only Watch 2017 for CHF 1,150,000 (Most Expensive F.P.Journe Ever, By Far...) - Monochrome Watches
We continue with Only Watch 2017 and the incredible prices that this charity auction is achieving. After the unique Patek Philippe 5208T sold for CHF 6.2 Million, what was under the hammer next was the unique?F.P.Journe Chronographe Monopoussoir Rattrapante, a watch created especially for the occasion of the auction – and not only unique in its style, but also featuring a movement created only for this watch, the first?Ever Split-Seconds Chronograph done by Journe, and most probably the only one, as the watchmaker said that it will remain unique. This watch just achieved?an impressive CHF 1,150,000, making it the most expensive?F.P.Journe ever auctioned… and by a long way. While in 2015, F.P.Journe created a unique watch based on an existing model, the Tourbillon Souverain, this year, for the charity auction Only Watch 2017, master watchmaker Fran?ois Paul Journe went much further in uniqueness, as he created his first ever?Rattrapante chronograph wat

We have a winner for the Montblanc Sweepstake - Monochrome Watches
Montblanc gave us the opportunity to visit the Montblanc watch manufacture in Le Locle together with one of Monochrome’s readers. So early February we posted the sweepstake and ended it, as announced, a month later on Friday the 8th of March.?An overwhelming number of 883 of our readers have registered for this sweepstake and I’m totally overwhelmed by this. Thank you all for registering for the sweepstake and Monochrome newsletter! But there is only one person who can join me for visiting the Montblanc watch manufacture in Le Locle. Ad - Scroll to continue with article Our winner, Andrew, takes absolutely gorgeous photos during the dives he made on all exotic dive spots around the world, like this photo of “Nemo”. And he’s an avid watch collector and actively shares his passion for watches online on Facebook and on watch forums. I

Oris ProPilot X Calibre 115 - Incl. First-Look Pics and Technical Overview - Monochrome Watches
From a concept of ? Real Watches for Real People ?, meaning no-nonsense, practical tool watches with not much horological depth but solid manufacturing, to a higher-end, highly mechanical piece that will define the brand's future Oris' latest watch had a long way to travel. We went down that same road with its creators to see what this new ProPilot X Calibre 115 is all about.It was only about a month ago that I wrote a piece on a EUR 7,000 watch with only hour and minute hands. One of the comments I got on the article was: Why can't this brand make a watch at an honest price when Oris can?”Just to keep our thinking clear, I won't mention that other brand (two brands cannot always be easily compared – prestige plays a role in pricing as well). But the gist of the comment was clear. And indeed, it made me realize something: apparently, Oris has become the benchmark for reasonably priced, well-designed and good-quality real watches. No one could have thought that about 15 year