Hands-on: A Personal Take On The Stunning Moritz Grossmann Hamatic
To kick things off, this will be a very personal story, and yes, it is about a mechanical watch. When I first got into watchmaking, I knew very little about the history of the industry or the different regions in the world that dominate it. My knowledge came from magazines, movies and TV shows, billboards and the early days of social media, and that was about it. That is until I joined MONOCHROME in 2012 and started to seriously fall down the proverbial rabbit hole. My knowledge and experience grew, my interests shifted, and a whole world of new and exciting brands opened up, from very small one-man outfits to corporate behemoths. Over the years, my preferences continued to shift, and I have developed a deep love for German watchmaking, specifically from the Glashutte region. There’s just something special about how watches from this part of the world are made. And I’m not arguing if they’re better than Swiss or Japanese-made high-end watches, but the style is very pu

Retrospective: What are The World's Thinnest Watches Per Category?
Ultra-thin watchmaking is a fascinating topic, one of our favourite areas of expertise here, at MONOCHROME. Ultra-thin watchmaking is horology at its purest, a no-compromise search for the slenderest movement that has to be considered a true complication. While high-watchmaking often seeks to bring as many complications as possible in a single movement, ultra-thinness is all about miniaturisation. We’ve recently published a video retracing the battle for the world’s thinnest mechanical watch, a race that implied Bulgari, Piaget and Richard Mille, ending up with a record thin watch of 1.70mm, the Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC. But let’s dive deeper into the topic, by looking at the world’s thinnest watches per category. The thinnest mechanical watch? The thinnest chronograph? The thinnest watch ever? We have them all here.?Note: this article is meant to become one of MONOCHROME’s classics and will be updated according to the state of the industry, depending on

Czapek Antarctique Rattrapante Silver Grey - Hands-on, Price
While the roots of the brand date back to Fran?ois Czapek, a Czech-born Polish watchmaker who fled to Geneva in 1832 after fighting in the Polish uprising, Czapek & Cie. was resuscitated in 2015 thanks to equity crowdfunding. In just a few years, the brand presented four different collections, the elegant Quai des Bergues, the Place Vend?me Tourbillon, the Faubourg de Cracovie Chronograph and, finally, the Antarctique luxury sports watch powered by the beautiful in-house SXH5 micro-rotor movement. Following the successful introduction of the time-only Antarctique, the model is now fitted with a spectacular split-seconds chronograph movement whose intricacies are visible dial side. Meet the Czapek Antarctique Rattrapante Silver Grey.If the chronograph is one of the most revered complications, the rattrapante' (or split-seconds) function takes it to a whole new level. The word rattrapante' translates from the French ‘to catch up’. Rattrapante chronographs feature two supe

Rado True Square Open Heart Silver Highlights
Rado is synonymous with trendy design-led watches and high-tech ceramic, a material the brand has been playing with since the 1990s. Last year Rado introduced the True Square Automatic, a slinky, smooth, high-tech ceramic model with openworked and regular dials. For 2021, Rado introduces a subtle colour variation on the openworked model, now with silvery grey accents. All the other specifications are identical to the 2020 version.Square ceramic watchesThe Rado Ceramica of 1990 was the brand's first square watch made from high-tech ceramic. Its sleek geometry and minimalism established the aesthetic we associated with Rado's ceramic watches. In 1988, the Ceramica was treated to another derivation of ceramic known as high-tech plasma ceramic, and in 2016 industrial designer Konstantin Grcic re-imagined the Ceramica in stark matte grey and black ceramic. ?As a sibling of the Ceramica, the True Square is obviously square but attenuates the rigid geometry of the square case with gently roun

Vacheron Constantin Overseas Dual Time Black Dial / Review & Price
Vacheron Constantin's Overseas family is the brand's luxury sports watch proposal, a well-furnished collection with everything from simple three-handers?to sophisticated perpetual calendars, tourbillons and chronographs. The third-generation Overseas family was introduced in 2016 and given its vocation as a travel watch, the appearance of the Dual Time model in 2018 was a welcome addition. The latest Dual Time model, which we have for our hands-on session, is this black beauty. With an automatic manufacture movement, a highly practical dual-time function, resistance to water and magnetism, a beefy power reserve of 60 hours, dashing good looks, not one but three different straps, and the easiest interchangeable strap system on the market today… the Vacheron Constantin Overseas Dual Time is packed to the gills with assets.?ProvenanceThe genesis of the luxury sports watch has been told countless times. Suffice it to say that the leader of the pack was AP's Royal Oak of 1972 followed