Hands-On Green Ceramic AP Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon GMT
For many of us, a concept watch is designed to show off a brand's technical skills and potential direction for the future. Like the concept cars the idea was borrowed from, concept watches tend to be cutting-edge, humongously complex, far-out timepieces that are eventually toned down and evolve into tamer commercial editions or never see the light of day. At Audemars Piguet, the first Royal Oak Concept watch was unveiled in 2002 and, in an unusual turn, evolved into a full-fledged collection known as the Royal Oak Concept. One of its members, the Flying Tourbillon GMT, is back in the limelight with a new green ceramic bezel - a first for this collection -, green accents on the openworked dial and the imposing 44mm titanium case built like a rampart to protect the in-house movement.Royal Oak ConceptTwenty years ago, AP celebrated the 30th anniversary of its iconic Royal Oak with the launch of a 150-piece limited edition inspired by a concept car. Not to be confused with the beefed-up Ro

Watch from my year of birth - part 2 - Monochrome Watches
More about my quest for a watch from my year of birth. A few days ago i already blogged about this quest, now the story continues. I’m considering (a reasonably priced) GMT Master 1675 or Submariner no-date ref. 5512 or 5513. But there are of course other options. Heuer and Omega also had some incredibly nice watches in that time. And although i’ve searched the internet, i’m sure there are many more nice watches from that time, that i haven’t stumbled across yet. So i’m open to suggestions. Mostly i prefer chronographs, divewatches and GMT’s, so toolwatches from the past. I’m a Heuer fan, but i just can’t think of many vintage Heuers that would meet my requirements in this case. Maybe a vintage Heuer Monaco would do, but somehow i would feel uncomfortable wearing such a watch on a daily basis. Most other Autavia models would only be less interesting as the one i already have and the vintage Carrera or Camaro are less appealing to me. Th

Hands on with the Jaeger LeCoultre Memovox Tribute to Deep Sea - Monochrome Watches
Our contributor from Down Under gets hands-on experience with the Jaeger LeCoultre Memovox Tribute to Deep Sea. A memorable timepiece and one of the best re-issues that ever crossed our path.?Earlier this year Monochrome brought you the news of two special new Jaeger-LeCoultre models for 2011, the Memovox Tribute to Deep Sea? and the Reverso Tribute to 1931.? Recently, I was fortunate enough to be able to get ‘hands-on’ with both of these watches at a local AD.?I'll do separate posts about each of them, so first up is the Memovox Tribute to Deep Sea. Ad - Scroll to continue with article The specifications have already been covered?here,?so I’ll?get straight down to my experience with them.?In total there are 1,318?pieces of teh Memovox Tribute to Deep Sea available; 359 with what is called ‘the American dial’ and 959 with the ‘

SIHH 2016: Introducing the Montblanc 4810 ExoTourbillon Slim and three 110th Anniversary Limited Editions - Specs and Price - Monochrome Watches
This year Montblanc celebrates the 110th anniversary of the Maison, and they have worked on something rather exceptional to highlight this year. To understand the gravity of this we have to look at last year’s novelty, the Montblanc Heritage Chronometrie ExoTourbillon Minute Chronograph. It featured the very clever and patented ExoTourbillon that used to be exclusive for the ultra high-end Villeret 1858 collection, and finally found its way into the rest of the collection. To celebrate the 110th anniversary, Montblanc developed a robust dress watch that features this magnificent ExoTourbillon, and it is immediately the most affordable tourbillon watch on the market. On top of that there are three additional iterations with hand-painted dial. Let’s have a look at?three limited editions and one non-limited edition of the new Montblanc 4810 ExoTourbillon Slim.?All in all it’s going to be a big year from Montblanc and the best way to celebrate an anniversary is to introdu

Hands-on with the Montblanc Heritage Chronometrie Quantieme Complet (Complete Calendar) - Photos, Specs and Price - Monochrome Watches
This year Montblanc introduced the entirely new Heritage Chronometrie collection, which immediately sparked interest from collectors. The collection features classic looks coupled with classic complications, and even classically sized watches. The Montblanc?Heritage Chronometrie Quantieme Complet is also part of this new collection, featuring a quantieme complet – or complete calendar in English – in a beautiful 40 mm timepiece that is only 9.7 mm thick. Classic looks, Classic dimensions and a classic complication and all that for a very competitive price.?The various calendar watchesThere are several types of calendar watches, from the simplest calendar that displays the date, to day/date indications, to the so-called complete calendars, annual calendars and even perpetual calendars. All calendars need adjusting, however the first three (simple, day/date and complete) have to be adjusted most often: five times per year, in every month with less than 31 days.?The?annual cal