Collector's Series - Gavin Douglas And His Custom Habring2 Chrono-Felix
Today’s instalment of The Collector’s Series focuses on a watch that might look familiar. Several weeks ago we wrote about this very nice Habring2 monopusher chronograph that we, here at MONOCHROME, liked a lot. It was a limited edition from the Japanese retailer Shellman, and this particular one was for sale as a pre-owned watch. At some point in the process of designing our own Montre de Souscription with Habring2, we had also seen that Shellman edition, and oh did we like it! Since the launch of our collaboration with Maria and Richard Habring was planned for last week, Gavin kindly agreed to postpone his interview in the Collector’s Series until after the launch of our Montre de Souscription. Of course, I’m head over heels in love with ‘our’ Habring2, but Gavin’s version with a similar dial as the Shellman edition is just drop-dead gorgeous!?Frank Geelen, MONOCHROME – Do you remember when you first laid eyes on this Austrian brand?Gav

Is the IWC Pilot Automatic Top Gun still the Cool Cat of the Collection? - Monochrome Watches
I strapped the new IWC Pilot Automatic Top Gun around my wrist and started thinking. Is this contemporary, black ceramic interpretation of the world's most famous war watch actually the coolest iteration to date? Is the predecessor of the famous Mark XI now the cool cat of the collection??Understanding IWC's ever-expanding Pilot's collection is an art in itself. The essential differences between Classic', Top Gun' and Spitfire' (not even mentioning the Petit Prince' and Antoine de Saint-Exupery' editions), are not really worth getting into –? the watches are too cool to lose ourselves in those silly details. Let's just start with sorting things out. Both the Classic' and the Top Gun' collections contain tool watches, but the best way to describe the difference is the latter is the first one with a contemporary twist. The Top Guns are a bit more fashionable and a little bit younger. Also, the prices differ. Ad - Scroll to continue with article

First Look: The new David Candaux DC6 Titanium, When Tradition meets Modernity
Late last year, we reviewed the latest edition of David Candaux DC1, crafted in titanium. A few months earlier, we had the pleasure of sharing an interview with the talented independent watchmaker from Le Solliat in Vallee de Joux, who has earned a reputation for his exceptional craft, having contributed to the creation of ultra-complicated timepieces during his work at Jaeger-LeCoultre and later as an independent concepteur horloger for renowned brands such as Bovet, Chronometrie Ferdinand Berthoud and MB&F, just to name a few.In 2017, Candaux debuted his first creation under his eponymous brand, the DC1, followed by the intricately guilloche-decorated DC6. Both models feature the brand's distinctive design elements: a bassinet-shaped case, a clever retractable “magic crown” at 6 o'clock, a 30-degree inclined flying tourbillon at 9 o'clock, a time dial at 3 o'clock, and a meticulously finished manually wound titanium movement. Now, at the dawn of 2025 and ahead of the

Introducing The Oris x Bracenet A Special Edition Of The Aquis Date
Oris has been embracing sustainable materials for years, such as with the Oris Aquis Date Upcycle back in 2021 or the Dat Watt series. The brand also has a comprehensive sustainability report from 2022 that details many efforts to contribute to a cleaner, more sustainable world. A partnership with the social enterprise Bracenet has brought new upcycled dials from ghost fishing nets, which are debuting in the Oris X Bracenet. Benjamin Wenke and Madeleine von Hohenthal, founders of Bracenet, recycle these abandoned fishing nets that wreak havoc in the world's oceans, creating bracelets, bags, keychains and now watch dials.The two Oris X Bracenet special editions of the Aquis Date are differentiated by size, 43.5mm and 36.5mm in diameter, and both are 316L stainless steel. They're otherwise aesthetically identical with unidirectional rotating bezels and grey ceramic inserts, partial crown guards and screw-down crowns. A domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating protects the dial

A New Face for Time, Interview with the duo at the helm of Genus Watches
Genus appeared on the independent watchmaking scene in 2019 with the GNS 1.2 WG. A watch in a class of its own, the GNS 1.2 is technically complex and features one of the most fascinating time displays we have seen recently. This radical creation received a well-deserved industry accolade with the 2019 Mechanical Exception Prize at the prestigious Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Geneve. We hit the road to meet the co-founders of the brand, Catherine Henry and Sebastien Billieres.No hands, no dial… time has a different face at Genus. Twelve satellites rotating at the periphery of the watch show the hours, orienting themselves in an upright position as they travel and get ever-closer to the fixed hour pointer at 9 o'clock. The tens-of-minutes are shown by a mechanical centipede crawling over and around two 30-minute circulating wheels. Last, the precise minutes are displayed at 3 o'clock thanks to a fixed index and rotating disk. Independent watchmaking as we like it: radical, creative,