First look: The Breitling 140th-Anniversary Trio of New Perpetual Calendar models
Founded in 1884 and celebrating its 140th anniversary this year, Breitling is no stranger to innovation and important milestones. In 1915, it launched the first wrist-worn chronograph with an independent pusher. In 1934, it patented a watch with a second independent pusher. In 1969, it participated in the creation of one of the first automatic chronograph movements, the Chronomatic or Calibre 11. In 2009, the brand released its first in-house-developed movement, the Calibre B01. Today, it’s time for yet another important movement to be presented, the Calibre B19, the first in-house perpetual calendar movement of Breitling… And yes, there are watches to be equipped with it too.The Breitling Calibre B19In-house manufacturing became important for Breitling back in 2009, when the brand introduced the calibre B01, its first internally developed and produced movement. This movement, an automatic, integrated chronograph with column-wheek and vertical clutch, opened the door to fur

Introducing The Chopard Mille Miglia GTS Power Control Bamford Edition Desert Race
Chopard's latest Mille Miglia GTS Power Control fuses three big trends in watchmaking today: firstly, it is a collaboration piece with Bamford; secondly, it plays with contemporary bead-blasted and frosted textures; and thirdly, it has an incredibly long name! Christened the Mille Miglia GTS Power Control Bamford Edition Desert Race, this latest collaboration has been conceived by Geroge Bamford as the off-road cousin of the Mille Miglia. A limited edition of 50 watches, the Bamford makeover gives the watch an edgy, gritty, contemporary spirit.As our readers know, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele (co-president of Chopard) has been involved as the official timekeeper, partner and competitor of the famous Italian Mille Miglia race for 36 years. A daunting open-road race held between 1927 and 1957, the Mille Miglia made history thanks to some of the greatest racing cars piloted by the bravest drivers of the day. The event returned in 1977 as the Mille Miglia Storica, a classic car event eligible

LVMH 2020 Full Year Results, Resilience Despite Lockdowns, Impact on Watches
Following mixed mid-year announcements, grearly impacted by a series of lockdowns in Europe and Asia, we certainly not expected the world’s leader in luxury to present positive results for the full year 2020. Especially since the soft and hard luxury industries have been greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. LVMH just released its 2020 Full Year Results and the French luxury powerhouse shows resilience with sales down in a less dramatic way than expected and even strong recovery for the last quarter in certain markets. Altogether, sales are down 17% and profit, even though still positive, is slightly more impacted.Before having a closer look at our main topic of interest (watches), it must noted that the French luxury powerhouse still demonstrate its overall resilience and an impressive strength of its brands. Altogether, sales on the period are down 17% at EUR 44,651 million, versus EUR 53,670 million in 2019. Remember that, over the first semester of 2020, the group was re

The X-ONE H1 - A Pioneering Swiss-Made Mechanical Smartwatch, now Funding on Kickstarter - Monochrome Watches
Over the last few months, and even years, we've covered some pretty interesting start-up watch projects here on MONOCHROME. Advances in modern technology, combined with ready access to start-up capital via decentralised crowd-funding, have helped unlock the floodgates of innovation across multiple industries, injecting fresh blood and ideas. Today, we are pleased to bring you yet another one; the intriguing X-ONE H1 from Conex Watches, a Swiss-made mechanical smartwatch that packs some impressive functionality. Read on to learn more about this bold new timekeeper, including how you can get your hands on one for 50% off retail (for a limited time only, of course).When it comes to new technology, the luxury watch industry generally seems to follow the same trend. Initially, there are always a few pioneers who will trial the idea, be it a futuristic new case material, or the development of a more efficient movement component. Once it is shown to have real promise, widespread adoption of t

Introducing: The 2024 Kurono 34mm Calligra Special Project
The brainchild of Japanese independent watchmaker Hajime Asaoka, known for his high-end tourbillons or chronographs, Kurono Tokyo is the man’s vision of a more accessible brand. Still driven by an almost obsessive attention to detail, which somehow explains the low availability of these watches, Asaoka is here focussing on design more than watchmaking. Following the 2022 series of Art Deco watches, and the 2023 Sector Dial models, Kurono Tokoy’s 34mm timepiece is back with the Calligra Special Project and its dial with hand-designed Breguet numerals.“For this new 34mm series, I have adopted Breguet hour markers. Generally, it is very difficult to place and balance Arabic numerals in a circular pattern as indices, because they were originally meant to be placed in a straight horizontal line. but Breguet indices seem to have been designed from the beginning to be placed in a circular pattern on the dial of a watch,” explains Hajime Asaoka. Ad - Scroll t