In-Depth - The Audemars Piguet Calibre 4400, The New In-House, Integrated Chronograph
The launch of the Code 11.59 collection is a crucial moment for Audemars Piguet. There has been no product launch of this magnitude over the past 20 years for the brand. In this respect, the Code collection presentation was the perfect opportunity to introduce a long-anticipated development that was announced a few years ago: the Audemars Piguet Calibre 4400, an in-house, integrated chronograph movement – by no means a small achievement since chronographs are extremely difficult to develop.Long awaited, finally here!Until now, Audemars Piguet has manufactured a few high-end chronographs in-house in the Le Locle APRP manufacture. However, the brand relied mostly on outsourced chronograph movements – either integrated with the Piguet-based?FP1185, or modular with Dubois-Depraz modules on top of the in-house 3120 Calibre. At last, the long-awaited Audemars Piguet in-house, integrated chronograph is now here! Ad - Scroll to continue with article

5 Sophisticated Dress Watches with Blue Dials Launched Recently - Monochrome Watches
A dress watch is the epitome of elegance and every well-dressed man should consider having one in his wardrobe. James Bond might get away with wearing a dinner jacket and a Seamaster 300M, but most men don't have to abandon the casino table and engage in life and death battles. Simplicity, understatement and elegance are operative words in this genre. Unlike those loud watches bristling with complications, a dress watch simply (and quietly) tells the time. Designed to be worn with a suit or even more formal attire, the understated spirit and timeless elegance of a dress watch mean it is the kind of watch that should last you a lifetime – and more. Blue, in all its tonalities, is the colour of the moment, but as you will see, the five models we have chosen embrace a wide range of styles. ?Breguet Classique 5177 Grand Feu Blue EnamelWhen it comes to classic styling, Breguet is the name that springs to mind. Abandoning the brand's hallmark silver guilloche dials, Breguet ventures in

First Look: The MkII Fulcrum 39, an Accessible Mil-Spec Diver from Pennsylvania
Being a watch enthusiast/collector often requires looking at things with more than a little bit of romance. To make us want to keep acquiring the same tiny combination of metal, gears and springs over and over and over again, a watch must be more than the sum of its parts. Sometimes, that means looking back into the past at a certain watch and a specific time it was worn to add a little bit of that magic to our own lives. Maybe this specific model was worn underwater by James Bond whilst scuffling with SPECTRE over an atomic bomb, and maybe this other one is currently worn by RAF fighter pilots, and maybe this one was actually worn on the Moon! Whatever the flavour, these watches add a powerful bit of romance to what is otherwise a fairly mundane object. The irony being that probably none of the aforementioned adventurers gave so much as a second thought to their watches at the time, but I digress.?A second type of romance that can be had with watches comes through vintage pieces and a

Case study about the Chronometer - the Zenith Calibre 135 - Monochrome Watches
In a previous article, we explained you a bit more about what is a chronometer, why they were so important and why the chronometry contests had been so crucial for the evolution of the industry, for the innovation. A chronometer (in the noble way, meaning a watch created with?one single goal, being as precise as possible) is certainly one of the most complicated type of movement to create for a watchmaker, certainly more complicated than a tourbillon or a perpetual calendar – and precision is difficult path to achieve. In order to illustrate our words, and after the first explaining article, here is a case study, applied on the Zenith Calibre 135.The Zenith Calibre 135Ephrem Jobin was the brains and hands behind the Zenith Calibre 135. Introduced in 1948 at the height of a battle to achieve increased precision fought among several watch manufacturers in the Observatory competitions, Caliber 135 included several innovative technical features that enabled it to win numerous prestig

Vacheron Constantin FIFTYSIX Self-Winding and Complete Calendar with Blue Dials (Hands-On) - Monochrome Watches
This year, Vacheron Constantin will introduce striking blue dials to its popular FIFTYSIX collection. While it may be an obvious iteration for the brand, it is certainly not an unwelcome one, adding another element to Vacheron's entry-level offering. Today, we're taking a quick look at the new FIFTYSIX Self-Winding and FIFTYSIX Complete Calendar dressed in blue.By way of a quick refresher, Vacheron introduced the FIFTYSIX collection last year at SIHH 2018. Intended very much as an entry-level range designed to attract younger buyers to the brand, it was initially met with mixed reviews. Some - including us here at MONOCHROME - found the idea of an affordable' (relatively speaking, of course) watch a bit at odds with the brand's prestigious reputation for Haute Horlogerie. Ad - Scroll to continue with article To be fair, this opinion was mainly formed on the basi