Watches NEWS
Best Of 2019 - Our Top 5 High-End Complicated Watches / Buying Guide
As 2019 is coming to an end, we've gathered the MONOCHROME redaction team and started to think about the watches that most impressed us this year. After a look at the best chronographs, the best dive watches,?the best traveller's watches?and our favourite accessible watches, it is time to look at the stuff dreams are made of… The inaccessible, the exceptional, the watches without compromise – but not those that are unattainable just to show off, but because what’s inside is pure high-horology. So here are the 5 high-end and complicated watches that we consider our Best of 2019.?Armin Strom Minute Repeater ResonanceThe past couple of years, Armin Strom has been demonstrating impressive innovation spirit and cutting-edge technology, first and foremost with its one-of-a-kind Resonance concept – one of the few that truly works. After several watches with this technology only, the brand has decided this year to combine it with one of the most complex of functions, th
The 5 Best Watches From Geneva Watch Days 2023 - Monochrome Watches
After another week of a smorgasbord of watch news presented in the heart of Geneva, it’s time to have a first look back at what we think are the watches that stood out the most. There are a few trends that could be identified, such as the mix of black and gold in some watches (H. Moser & Cie, Bvlgari, Doxa) and blue finished movements (Armin Strom, MB&F). So, with that in mind, and after some discussions within the MONOCHROME editorial team, here are our top 5 watches from this year’s Geneva Watch Days.Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic Carbon & GoldAs said, the combination of black and gold was popular among several brands, including Bvlgari. The brand decked out its wonderful Octo Finissimo Automatic and Perpetual Calendar in forged carbon and rose gold for an intense look on the wrist. The simpler of the two comes with rose gold applied indices, a rose gold mainplate and a plaque set in the baseband. Pretty much everything else is done in carbon, including the
The History Of The IWC Da Vinci - From 1969 to 2017
Over several decades?of existence, the IWC Da Vinci has drastically evolved and has seen dozens of versions and style. Yet, even if this watch is certainly not as popular as the Portugeiser or the Big Pilot’s Watch, it has been a playing?field for multiple innovations and milestones for the brand. Before we go hands-on with the latest version of the Da Vinci, in what we think is the key model of the 2017 collection, the Perpetual Calendar Chronograph, as a tribute to the famous 1985 watch created by legend Kurt Klaus, a short history of the IWC Da Vinci could be more than useful, a story that has been eventful, innovative, sometimes unloved, sometimes iconic.The early Days of the IWC Da VinciEverything started in 1969, with the very first IWC Da Vinci, equipped with the infamous Beta 21 quartz movement. Indeed,?IWC was?involved in the development of the Beta 21, a wristwatch calibre with quartz control (frequency 8192 hertz). This first edition, the Da Vinci Quartz Electronic (re
Introducing: The Return of the Triton Spirotechnique Dive Watch
While the Submariner, Blancpain Fifty Fathoms and Omega Seamaster ruled the 1950s enthusiast and military diving scene, it was the Triton Spirotechnique in 1963 that briefly became the most expensive dive watch of its times, although never the best known. It was developed for the Spirotechnique company (Aqualung), founded by oceanographer/filmmaker/French naval officer Jacques Cousteau in 1946, and was used by both American and French navy divers. Like many watchmakers, the brand didn't survive the Quartz Crisis in the 1970s, but was revived in 2015 by a pair of watch enthusiasts.?The Triton Spirotechnique Classic Black (applied markers)The original Triton Spirotechnique was developed by a retired French Air Force colonel, Jean Rene Parmentier, who developed the protected (and patented) 12 o'clock crown system, shrouded by an articulating lug. The watch was manufactured in France by Dodane and sold in Spirotechnique dive shops (now named Aqualung) alongside professional diving equipm
Pre SIHH 2015: Introducing the Montblanc Heritage Spirit Orbis Terrarum (Live photos, specs and price) - Monochrome Watches
Montblanc introduced the new Meisterstuck Heritage collection at the 2014 edition of the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, that was held in January of this year. A very interesting new collection that includes the most affordable perpetual calendar on the market, and with the Meisterstuck Heritage Pulsograph they introduced the first “Villeret” movement (calibre MB M13.21) in a non-Villeret collection, and many more classically styled watches. Beginning of 2015 they will introduce the new Montblanc Heritage Spirit Orbis Terrarum, a stunning worldtimer that is part of the Heritage Spirit collection, that we can already show you here with lots of hands-on photos, the specs and price.In terms of style, the Heritage Spirit collection embodies all the codes of fine watchmaking, with a refined case design and elegant, clear dials. And now they’re introducing what is probably the most useful complication in a wrist watch, a worldtimer, into this Heritage Spirit col
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