Ulysse Nardin Marine Tourbillon Blue Grand Feu - Pre-SIHH 2018 (Specs & Price)
Last year, for their first attendance at the Geneva watch fair (a.k.a. the SIHH), Ulysse Nardin surprised?guests and collectors with an impressive collection, which aimed to merge the classical style of the brand, with refined crafting techniques and very decent prices. One of the best examples of this strategy was the?Ulysse Nardin Marine Tourbillon, a steel watch with white enamel dial and very nice movement, priced at just (relatively speaking) CHF 28,000 – making it one of the most accessible tourbillons on the market. As a preview of the SIHH 2018, Ulysse Nardin has a new version of this?Marine Tourbillon, this time with their classic?Guilloche/Grand Feu Enamel blue Dial.Part of the SIHH 2017 collection, the?Ulysse Nardin Marine Tourbillon was a great surprise on its own, not only because of the cool design of this watch (which felt 100% Ulysse Nardin, yet slightly more refined?and?less complex than before) but mainly because of the price tag. As it is coming? in for a littl

Hands-On - Bvlgari Serpenti Misteriosi with Ultra-Small Piccolissimo Movement
If you are a fan of Bvlgari’s Serpenti watch and passionate about mechanical movements, we have news for you. The Italian brand renowned for its ultra-thin movements is shifting gear and using the formidable know-how obtained with its Octo Finissimo collection to create the new Piccolissimo watch movement, a teeny-weeny micro-mechanical calibre designed to fit inside the head of its legendary Serpenti watch. Marrying the two most resplendent facets of Bvlgari as a celebrated contemporary watchmaker and a lifelong master of high jewellery, four new Serpenti Misteriosi secret high jewellery watches snake their way into the limelight beating to the new Piccolissimo calibre?BVL 100. Just ahead of the launch, MONOCHROME interviewed Bvlgari’s gifted creative director, Fabrizio Buonamassa, to understand why the brand considered it was high time to dedicate the same “attention and obsession” to women’s watches as it has lavished on its men’s Octo Finissimo c

Breaking Phillips Sells Paul Newman's Paul Newman Daytona for $17,752,500, Being The Most Expensive Wristwatch Ever Auctioned - Monochrome Watches
This is it… This is the big one. The watch that the entire collecting community was expecting to see surfacing one day has gone under the hammer. This watch, as auctioneer Aurel Bacs explained to us in this video interview, is not only a celebrity’s watch; it represents much more than that. It’s the very?watch that created an icon (the Paul Newman Daytona), the very watch that is, in fact, the reason why collecting steel sports watches is now so popular. Well, it’s official, Paul Newman’s Paul Newman Daytona has been sold just a few minutes ago, for a record price of over $17.7 Million, making it the most expensive wristwatch ever auctioned (and that’s with buyer’s premium).As a reminder (all prices including buyer’s fees) $3,717,906 – The most expensive Daytona ever auctioned – the?Oyster Paul Newman “The Legend” In Gold with Lemon dial, sold by Phillips at “Geneva Watch Auction: Five” on May 14th, 2

A new take on the Diver X Skeleton by Ulysse Nardin
All eyes are on Dubai these days as watchmaking brands unveil their novelties for the fifth edition of the Dubai Watch Week. As a participant of the Dubai watch fair and to celebrate its partnership with leading watch retailer Seddiqi, Ulysse Nardin has prepared a pre-launch of just 10 timepieces of its new Diver X Skeleton Black. Although 175 watches will be produced and launched worldwide in 2022, Ulysse Nardin wanted to offer a sneak preview of its radically skeletonised Diver with a black Carbonium? bezel and bright yellow accents.The Call of the SeaSwitzerland might be landlocked, but Ulysse Nardin, a young watchmaker from Le Locle, consolidated his reputation with the production of precision marine chronometers. By the 1870s, the manufacture supplied more than 50 navies and merchant marine companies with chronometers to calculate longitude at sea. Today, 175 years later, Ulysse Nardin continues to produce marine-inspired collections, ranging from classical watches in the Marine c

Ochs und Junior - Luxury 2.0 - Monochrome-Watches
What is luxury? Luxury was the topic of conversation at the lunch we had with Beat Weinmann, CEO and cofounder of the brand Ochs und Junior. The brand's technology and design maestro, Ludwig Oechslin, recently retired curator of the Musee International d'Horlogerie, was absent for our gastronomical affair, which happened in Lucerne, far, far away from the bustle of Baselworld 2014. Given that the discussion centered on luxury, you may be surprised to know that the Ochs und?Junior's headquarters sits several blocks away from the prestigious retail enclaves near the lake, and appropriate to the minimalist ethos of the brand, the shop/headquarters sits in an unassuming storefront. Inside is a spartan workshop with large tables for viewing Ochs und Junior watches, which as a rule have an unadorned, industrial feel. Where are the fashion models who waited on us in Basel? Where is the champagne? Where are the precious metals, which are polished to within an inch of their lives? In a word, wh