Industry News: Richemont Reports Stable Sales For Q1 2024, Results Down for Watches
Following the announcement yesterday of decreasing sales for the Swatch Group, particularly impacted by the industry's challenging situation in China and South East Asia, it is time today for one of its main competitors, Richemont Group, to announce its sales for the first quarter ended 30 June 2024. Contrary to expectations, global sales are to be seen as stable despite uncertainties, with sales up 1% at constant exchange rates. The owner of Cartier and watchmakers such as Lange, IWC, Vacheron or Jaeger however reports contrasted results depending on the regions and business areas, with a difficult situation for the Specialist Watchmakers.?Looking at the large picture, the Richemont Group seems to resist the current macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties, with sales up 1% at constant exchange rates compared to the same period in 2023 – April 1st to June 30th. The Group reports sales at EUR 5,268 million for Q1 2024 versus EUR 5,322 million for Q1 2023, a decrease of 1% due

Introducing Kristian Haagen's new book 'Hashtags and Watches' (Interview) - Monochrome-Watches
This is his sixth book and his first in English. I am of course referring to one of the finest watch photographers on the planet, Kristian Haagen. For the launch of his new book, ‘Hashtags and Watches‘ we thought it would be cool to find out a little more about the man behind the lens. The book consists of 176 pages of original horological photography. In this short interview we find out who inspired Kristian to start taking photo's nd he tell us the story surrounding a particular shoot that caused quite a reaction on social media!When did you get into photography? Ad - Scroll to continue with article I was inspired by my dad. He was an avid photographer and he taught me how to develop in the dark of his workshop.Are you self taught?I have been into photography since I was a kid, but it is not until the last three years that I started to do photograp

Introducing: The Ming LW.01, Possibly The World's Lightest Mechanical Watch
While it’s dangerous to be overly triumphant, claiming that your brand has just produced the world’s lightest mechanical watch, Ming errs on the side of caution and proclaims that it has probably produced the two lightest mechanical watches on the market. Two new releases, the Ming LW.01 Manual and the LW.01 Automatic, sail in with flyweight credentials, tipping the scales with a watch head weight (not including strap) of 8.8 and 10.8 grams, respectively. That being said, the strap and buckle assembly is 1.8 grams, so that makes for quite a feather-light duo of watches…When it comes to lightweight watches, the first name that usually pops up is Richard Mille, with its RM 27-01 Rafael Nadal watch weighing in at 19 grams. But there are even lighter candidates like the Montblanc TimeWalker Phythagore Ultra-Light Concept, weighing just 14.99 grams and the 17-gram Remontet Ultra-Light, which was produced in small quantities and sold out. Ad - Scroll to continue

Cuervo y Sobrinos Historiador Doble Luna (Specs & Price)
The brand that started life in Havana, Cuba, in 1882 and winged its way across the Atlantic to resettle in Capolago, a tiny Swiss village on the shores of Lake Lugano, proposes a double moon phase indication to reveal the cycles of the Moon in both Hemispheres. Staged against an anthracite dial with golden touches, the day, date and month are also featured on the dial. Playing on the brand's Havana links, the functions are housed inside the brand's vintage-inspired Historiador case with its prominent lugs and showy black and gilt dial.This is not the first moon phase and full calendar watch in the Historiador collection. Last year we saw a similar watch, the Luna Negra, with a partially skeletonised dial but limited to moon phases in the Northern Hemisphere. By far the best-stocked collection at Cuervo y Sobrinos, the Historiador has appeared in simple time-and-date, retrograde, GMT, small seconds, moon phase and now, the Cuervo y Sobrinos Historiador Doble Luna. Ad - Scroll

TAG Heuer Appoints Alec Monopoly As Art Provocateur & J.C. Biver explains us why
A few days ago, right from the Miami Contemporary Art week, TAG Heuer and its CEO, Jean-Claude Biver (also President of the LVMH Watch Division), announced the appointment of American street-artist Alec Monopoly as Art Provocateur for the Avant-Garde brand. Well, as you may have seen already (it was all over social medial feeds), some reacted quite?fiercely to this announcement, judging the collaboration rather irrelevant. However, we were there and we took the time to sit down with Mister Biver and Alec Monopoly, to understand what was behind this appointment. And we can tell you that first, it’s far from being a stupid idea, then it’s a real first in the industry and finally, it’s a great idea for an industry that faces a lack of creativity.Who’s Alec Monopoly? Alec is a famous street-artist (while usually a rather underground field of art, he is well-known, at least in this sector), born in New-York, now based in California and in his thirties – ps. don