Editorial - What I Will Remember from 2021 Regarding Watches
2020 has been a difficult year for many of us. The combination of a pandemic and lockdowns has been dramatic for our lives and, because you're reading a magazine dedicated to watches, for the watchmaking industry. This year, 2021, has certainly been better on multiple levels, but not yet ideal, as we're still living in a world full of uncertainties. Looking at the bright side of things, 2021 has been a great year for MONOCHROME. We've enlarged our core team with new members, we've published more articles than ever before (over 1,100 articles in total) and we successfully launched two collaboration watches – the Montre de Souscription 1 and the Montre de Souscription 2 – that sold out faster than we ever dreamed of. In this regard, I think 2021 has been a great year for us. But, as said, not everything was perfect. As we're about to turn the page on this year, I wanted to share with you what I will remember from 2021, the ups and downs, the trends, my feelings on the overall

WATCH & ACT! - Together with Time+Tide, Help Fight the Australian Bushfire Crisis With Great Watches To Be Auctioned - Monochrome Watches
Today we have a very special story… A story that I’m both sad and happy to write. Sad, for the main reason that it is all due to one of the world’s worse ecological events, the current Australian bushfire crisis. Yet, I’m also happy to write these words as multiple actors within the watch community – watch manufacturers and watch media – have decided to join a cause and to act. For once, all together, we can let our love for watches go a long way further than our wrists. We can make our passion be a solution to raise funds to help a cause. This cause is “Watch & Act!”, an auction of 16 watches with 100% of proceeds to be distributed across charities to help fight Australia’s environmental nightmare.The bushfire situationIf you’ve watched the news in recent weeks, you can’t have missed what’s happening in Australia. The “Bushfire Crisis” is now known as one of the most terrible ecological events of t

IWC Big Pilot's Watch Big Date Bucherer BLUE IW5105 Introducing, Price
A little over two years ago, MONOCHROME covered the?Portugieser Chronograph Classic Bucherer BLUE – a red gold model with a blue dial, but other than that, an identical base design of IWC Schaffhausen's Ref. 3904 made in 2013. Fast-forward to last year and we reviewed the IWC Portugieser Chronograph Bucherer BLUE, another collaborative effort between the Swiss watchmaker and the world's largest watch retailer. To mark its fourth anniversary with the aviation watch specialist, Bucherer launches a timepiece that draws from IWC's Big Pilot's Watch collection for the very first time. Of course, it also features Bucherer's signature blue colour on its dial. The IWC Big Pilot's Watch Big Date Bucherer BLUE, limited to just 100 pieces worldwide, is also the first partnership edition to feature a big date complication on its dial.This new IWC Big Pilot's Watch should certainly appeal to collectors of Bucherer's BLUE lifestyle collection (which has celebrated partnering with some of the w

Review - The Oris Carlos Coste Mk IV - and a view on the Oris Carlos Coste series of watches (live pics & price) - Monochrome Watches
Born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1976, Carlos Coste is a legend amongst the free-diving community. To give you an idea of his achievement's, in 2003 he became the first person to break the 100-meter barrier in the free immersion category. Carlos set the world record for free-diving in the variable weight category with a crazy depth of 140 meters in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt on May 9th 2006. In 2010, Carlos Coste set a new Guinness World Record for free-diving, by completing a 150-meter underwater swim using no apparatus through Dos Ojos, a colossal cenote (cave network) that twists for 31 miles under Yucatan, Mexico. The Venezuelan was armed with only a torch and a monofin when he made this death-defying dive. Oris continue to honor his great achievements by creating another special Oris Carlos Coste limited Edition watch; the Mk IV.The Oris Carlos Coste series of watchesOris started its partnership with Carlos Coste in 2006 and cemented the high performance aspect of the brand's diver colle

UNIMATIC x Massena LAB Marine ?U1-MLM
Massena LAB, the timepiece creation studio created by industry veteran William Massena, is slowly making a name for itself with an ever-growing collection of special watches created with renowned or accessible watchmakers. Think about the bronze Habring2 or the Jurassic-like MB&F clock. For its latest creation, Massena LAB joins forces again with UNIMATIC following up on the brown Modello Uno here. This time, the inspiration comes from Massena’s country of origin; the UNIMATIC x Massena LAB Marine ?U1-MLM is inspired by the dive watches used by the French Navy in the 1960s – think Tudor Marine Nationale.Just like its predecessor, the ?U1-ML6, this new take on UNIMATIC’s Modello Uno is an ode to the past. However, it fast-forwards a decade and takes its style cues from the 1960s, specifically the professional dive watches used by French military frogmen – a navy-blue diving instrument with a typical olive green strap. All of these elements have been adapted i