Richemont "Destroys" More than EUR 450m of Unsold Watches in Two Years - Monochrome Watches
It is not ‘breaking news’ to say that the watch industry faced hard times in 2015 and 2016. Business had been tough due to decreasing sales. The Richemont Group – the luxury powerhouse that owns Cartier, IWC, and Montblanc among others – had also been affected by this situation,?as reported by MONOCHROME here. Part of Richemont’s plan to improve the situation was a massive buyback strategy designed to reduce stock at retailers and enable them to invest in new collections. What was not known, until recently, was the total value of watches bought back by the group… According to The Guardian, we’re talking about approximately half a billion Euro/Dollar.?The situation is simple. In 2015, 2016, and 2017, sales of watches declined, including watch brands that are part of the Richemont Group (A. Lange & Sohne, Baume et Mercier, Cartier, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Montblanc, Panerai, Piaget, Roger Dubuis and Vacheron Constantin, among others). This led

Recap: The Best Dive Watches of 2023
The end of the year is near, so it's time for the MONOCHROME team to sit down and look back at everything that happened during what was objectively a rich year for new models With so many new launches, there was a lot to pick from in all categories and all price ranges. Today, we continue our series of buying guides representing our selection of what we think are the best watches in each category, with one of the industry’s most important and productive categories, one that is a must in all respectable watch collections: dive watches. Here are the Best Dive Watches of 2023, according to the MONOCHROME team.There’s no denying the continuous interest of watch enthusiasts for a good diving instrument. This year, again, we’ve published over 160 articles under the “dive watch” tag. Once again, it’s been challenging to narrow this selection to only five watches. If we look at everything the watch industry has released this year, we had to exclude watches t

Fortis sends its manufacture calibre Werk 17 into the stratosphere
Field-testing is something we talk about regularly, but we rarely test a watch beyond normal, everyday use. Sure, on occasion, we send a dive watch into the depths of the ocean on the wrist of our resident diver, but that's about it. The (sad) reality is that most testing takes place in boring, sterile laboratories under very specific conditions. Yet, there's something immensely cool about pushing a watch, or movement for that matter, to the extreme in a real-world situation. Case in point, the Werk 17 manufacture chronograph calibre developed by Fortis. Closely tied to aviation and space in its own right, the brand has now sent a batch of this new manufacture movement into the stratosphere to see how the watches hold up.November 2021, Kiruna, Sweden. This location is home to the Esrange Space Centre, a facility used by the Swedish Space Corporation. Initially dedicated to scientific research on the Aurora Borealis phenomenon, it is now also used to launch helium balloons, rockets and

Tudor Black Bay Black Bezel / Red Triangle 79220N - EXCLUSIVE HANDS-ON REVIEW (live photos, specs & price) - Monochrome-Watches
The Tudor Black Bay is undoubtably a success story. You can’t deny its beauty, its quality or its darn right coolness. We loved?it at first sight here, on Monochrome-Watches, whether in its first Burgundy / Red 79220R execution?and even more with the?Midnight Blue 79220B edition, with it’s more subdued?colour?pallet. With the latest novelties from the brand?(Pelagos & North Flag), we we concerned Tudor may not continue to the?evolution?of the Black Bay – but thankfully, they didn’t, and we now have now a new edition, the Tudor Black Bay Black Bezel / Red Triangle ref. 79220N. And here is our?exclusive hands-on review of it.Designed by / for Monochrome-Watches?Well, clearly this is presumptuous of us. Of course, we didn’t designed it and we didn’t participate in the conception of this new?Tudor Black Bay Black Bezel / Red Triangle 79220N. However, let’s rewind and look back a few weeks before Baselword 2014. If you’re a regular reader

The New 2020 Hamilton Jazzmaster Skeleton (Specs & Price)
Hamilton is no stranger to openworked watches, spreading the style across several collections with models like the Ventura Skeleton Limited Edition, Khaki Field Skeleton Auto and Jazzmaster Viewmatic Automatic Skeleton. The Hamilton Jazzmaster Skeleton simplifies the name and is the brand's latest with a multi-level dial forming the iconic spiky H logo over a decorated Swiss automatic. Although there are many standouts in its portfolio, this one seems to be the most purpose-built and well-thought skeletonized design yet. It's classy, refined and very eye-catching, and is one of the best overall offers in its price range. It even earned a spot in our Buying Guide of 8 Skeleton Watches. Let's take a closer look.BackgroundHamilton has an illustrious history and was well-known as an American brand with deep military roots before becoming a Swiss subsidiary of Swatch Group. Named after Andrew Hamilton, the original owner of the first Lancaster, Pennsylvania factory, the brand's American rei