Announcing - The New and Improved MONOCHROME Website
After a few months of intense work, discussions, tests and designs, we couldn’t be prouder to present the 2020 version of MONOCHROME. Refreshed, cleaned, more interactive and more dynamic, with new sections and improved navigation, this is the new face of your “Online Magazine Dedicated to Fine Watches”. But no worries, it is still MONOCHROME all the way!What’s new? First of all, we wanted to discreetly bring back our somehow forgotten but beloved “Monochrome Brown”, which has been used for years at MONOCHROME, changed to a full black-and-white scheme and now back in the game. This is our signature colour and we’re proud of it! Ad - Scroll to continue with article Besides this visual detail, we’ve worked intensively on the new homepage. This is where you’ll be able to navigate, discover, enjoy. There are more

SIHH 2018 - Fran?ois-Henry Bennahmias, CEO of Audemars Piguet, On The New Collection
As we told you in our previous video, our main focus this year for SIHH 2018 will be videos. This is the best way to show you what is about to be launched and what the watches actually look like in the metal. Nothing works better than images and words, and to officially kick off our SIHH series of videos, we have?Fran?ois-Henry Bennahmias, CEO of Audemars Piguet, talking us through the brand new collection.This year, Audemars Piguet is certainly presenting one of its most complete collections ever. It is huge. The main focus of this year is, as we told you in our hands-on articles, is the 25th anniversary of the Offshore collection, which was launched in 1993 as a brand new concept, a bold and highly masculine luxury sports watch. The two main models we already showed you: the re-edtition of the very first model and a true bold concept, with a redefined tourbillon chronograph movement and a new case architecture.That’s not all, as?Audemars Piguet has a superb concept watch, the R

Introducing: Seagull's $3,500 Split-Second Chronograph, The Most Accessible Rattrapante on the Market
When you think of split-second or rattrapante chronographs, you immediately picture high-end watches from Vacheron Constantin or Patek Philippe. Finding an accessible rattrapante chronograph, at least new on the market, is not an easy task, especially if you consider Swiss or European watch manufacturers. But something from the other side of the world is about to change that. In late December 2024, Seagull, the large movement and watch producer from China, celebrated its 70th anniversary. As part of a commemorative collection of complex watches, there was something fairly intriguing: the Seagull Split-Second Chronograph Limited, a 3.5K dollar watch that is not only China’s first rattrapante chronograph but very possibly the most accessible of its kind on the market now.For many years, the concept of a mechanical rattrapante chronograph was reserved for high-end watchmakers and sports stopwatches and hardly something accessible to a wider audience. Fragile and complex to develop a

The Collector's Series - Watch journalist Tomasz Kieltyka and his Panerai Luminor Base 8 Days PAM00560 - Monochrome-Watches
It's been three months since we started our voyage to circle the globe in search of collectors and their stories. Amazingly it is only until this week that we came across a Panerai owner. It was in Poland when we met Tomasz Kie?tyka, the founder and other half of Chronos24.pl (we first met with Luckasz and his Tudor Heritage Chrono). He's a watch insider and a fine collector – and here is the story of his Panerai Luminor Base 8 Days PAM00560 and his journey through watches.Tomasz was born the same year as Some Girls album by The Rolling Stones. He was destined to be an electrical engineer, but life had other plans. Following a period at a creative advertising agency, he then founded Chronos24.pl. He started the website as a means of expressing his passion for watchmaking rather than a purely commercial proposition. I believe it was the idea that by building a successful platform from which he could discuss his passion, that it would free up his spare time and allow him to find pi

History of the Patek Philippe Calatrava Part 1 - The Reference 96
Patek Philippe is a brand that needs little to no introduction. In the watch world, it is known for making high quality, highly sought after timepieces of exceptional complexity. In the real world, it is known as one of the most prestigious brands on the planet, an instant indicator of wealth, stature and, of course, good taste. Pioneers of numerous technical advances, including the first perpetual calendar, the first annual calendar and, surprisingly, the first solid-state quartz watch with no moving parts, Patek Philippe has always been at the forefront of innovation. Yet, it is one of its most understated collections that has proven to be the most consistently successful commercially; the humble Patek Philippe Calatrava, or the essence of the prestigious dress watch. Today, we start with part 1 of this history of the?Patek Philippe Calatrava by looking at the first of them all, the 1932 Reference 96.One the earliest versions of the Patek Philippe Calatrava Reference 96, from the Pat