Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet Smoked Dial & Two-Tone Case Hands-On
One year ago, Audemars Piguet launched what is probably its most important watch in the last 25 years: the two other major launches were the 1972 Royal Oak and the 1993 Royal Oak Offshore. An entirely new collection, a watch that we described as “the discreet Audemars Piguet, made for accomplished collectors” in our review, a watch with important new movements… and a watch that also generated frenzied discussions! Maybe Code 11.59 wasn’t bold enough. Maybe it was too discreet. Certainly, it has been misunderstood. A week ago, Audemars Piguet revealed a spiced-up, bolder take on the watch with new smoked lacquered dials and two-tone cases.The inaugural version of the Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet, with a monochromatic lacquered dial with a polished surface.While we’ve already introduced this new sub-collection of no fewer than 10 references, we had the opportunity to have a hands-on session with most of the models. As you know, press images rarely do justic

Richemont Group's Sales Show Slight Improvement for Q3 Ended December 2020 - Monochrome Watches
Richemont Group, the luxury powerhouse behind Cartier, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and more, like most conglomerates operating in the luxury industry, has been dramatically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with sales down 16% over the first nine months of its current financial year (April-December 2020). Still, the group has released its quarterly report, concerning sales over the last three months of 2020. If the situation remains tense, in a continuously volatile environment, with a varied performance across regions, the overall situation seems to slowly recover, the group reporting sales up by 1% at actual exchange rates and by 5% at constant exchange rates compared to the prior year period.For the period October-December 2020, Richemont claims that worldwide sales progressed by 5% – EUR 4,186 million vs. EUR 4,156 million over the same period in 2019 – driven by 25% sales growth in Asia Pacific where robust results in China (+80%) more than offset declines in other Asian lo

Why Do Clocks and Watches Use the Roman Numeral IIII instead of IV?
Roman numerals are one of the most classic designs found on clocks and watches. As far as we can go back in history, there have always been clocks, pocket watches and wristwatches with Roman numerals on the dials. However, owners of watches with Roman numerals might have noticed something weird, something rather unusual. While the numeral 4 is commonly written IV in the Roman?numeric system, most watches rely on the typography IIII. And of course, just like us, you might have asked yourself why? As always, there is no single answer to a problem, but here are some possible explanations for this absurdly important question. The Roman numeric system isn’t widely used anymore. Most of Western countries rely on Arabic numerals, Asian countries have their own numeric system and Arabic culture uses a typography that is different from the classical Arabic numerals. However, in watchmaking, Roman numerals have been used and are still in

Expert talk - The Montblanc 2015 Novelties with Ben Clymer from Hodinkee - VIDEO - Monochrome Watches
A few weeks ago we showed you the Expert Talk videos with Suzanne Wong, editor-in-chief of Revolution Asia, and Instagram powerhouse Anish Bhatt a.k.a. Watchanish. It’s always great to discuss new timepieces with fellow watch experts and today it’s time to show you the third video that we recorded during the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) earlier?this year. I’m discussing the new Montblanc timepieces with Ben Clymer, founder and executive editor of Hodinkee.com.?As you could see in the previous videos, we all got to pick a watch from the new collection, which we would wear and discuss during the recordings. Ben choose to wear one of my favourites, the Heritage Spirit Orbis Terrarum, which is a very nice world timer that we reviewed for you in December of last year. A great watch to talk about, however Montblanc?had so many nice watches to talk about. And that’s actually we at Monochrome noticed, and also?many of?our colleagues were impressed b

Two Norqain Independence 21 Models (Live Pics & Price)
For an independent family-run company that has only been on the scene for three years, Norqain is going from strength to strength at an impressive pace. We first covered the fledgling brand in 2020 when it announced its partnership with movement manufacture Kenissi (jointly owned by Chanel and Tudor/ ) and became acquainted with the three main collections: Adventure, Freedom and Independence. As their names indicate, the collections are sport-oriented watches with signature features like the customisable plate on the case flank. Following on the heels of last year's Independence 20 model that sold out in days, Norqain introduces two new Independence models in limited editions: the Independence 21 with a blue dial (200 pieces) and the Independence 21 DLC Skeleton model (100 pieces), the brand's first skeletonised movement.Independence 21 Scratched Blue DialLately, many brands have been pushing the urban sports watch' category. A loosely defined category, the ‘urban sports watch