Pre-SIHH: Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Acoustic Research - Minute Repeater 2.0 - Monochrome Watches
Audemars Piguet will be introducing an entirely new sort of minute repeater at the upcoming Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, or short SIHH. They spent eight years of sound research, involving a carefully chosen community of watchmakers, artisans, technicians and academics, which lead to three pending patents and this new minute repeater that sounds much louder than any repeater watch: the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Acoustic Research. Audemars Piguet has used a Royal Oak Concept watch before, to launch new technologies. That started with the Royal Oak Concept Watch 1 back in 2002, that was released for the 30th anniversary of the Royal Oak. The RO Concept Watch 1 was created of an entirely new alloy, comprising (for the watch industry) novel materials like cobalt, chrome, tungsten, carbon, silicon and some good old-fashioned steel. That one showcased not only the new alloy called Alacrite 602, but also a tourbillon with a unique shock protection system and a mechanism

Revivals: old designs and brand new delight - Monochrome Watches
Our contributor Time2tic shares his views on re-editions. And in the mean time he shares something we at Monochrome really like a lot as well… gorgeous photos of his Longines Legend Diver. Watch brands either have designers working full time for them or regularly use the services of designers to come up with suggestions for the designs of new products for the next year(s). This is an established cycle just like in the fashion industry, although in the watchmaking industry, we don’t have seasonal collections, at least not yet. Ad - Scroll to continue with article The new models will be presented to press and public in Geneva or Basel at the start of the new year year , but passionate watch enthusiasts?haunting internet forums and blogs, can enjoy sneak previews a few weeks or days before the official launch. Many new models come to market every?year,

Buying Guide: We Travel To France For Some More Exciting Non-Swiss Watches
A week ago, we covered?some of the best watches coming from the Netherlands for the simple reason that both our founder Frank and myself are Dutch. However, part of the team comes from France, and as such, I thought it would be fun to have a look at French watches this time around! And when I’m talking about French watchmaking, the spotlight immediately shines on the likes of Breguet, Cartier, Hermes and Louis Vuitton. But since watches by those four brands (and most of the other names that come to mind) are made in Switzerland and labelled as Swiss Made, I’ve tried to narrow it down to watches produced in France. For the most part, at least. And the result is yet again a surprising mix of playful and creative watches!Depancel allure automatic chronographDepancel is a relatively young brand from France, named after the fabled French carmakers Delage, Panhard and Facel Vega. As such, automotive inspiration is ensured in pretty much any watch coming out of their Annecy atelie

The Collector's Series: Up Close and Personal with the URWERK UR-103
Readers of The Collector's Series and the Collector's Corner know that I sometimes contribute to the column - writing articles for the series is just one more way for me to get excited about vintage watches. I read a little about a specific watch, go deeper down the rabbit hole, and before I know it, I'm looking for listings on Chrono24. Sometimes, I write weird, off-kilter posts like that time in October 2022 when I visited Ond?ej Berkus' atelier (and also a couple of weeks ago) and spent the day talking about watches and life with him. For this artistic freedom, I thank the team at MONOCHROME! This piece falls in that same vein. Call it my way of becoming better acquainted with a piece I own; call it the ramblings of someone who has now well and truly lost all his marbles. In any case, I hope you enjoy the ride. Because the story of this Urwerk UR-103 is quite a complex one.Editor’s Note: @aaaaaaaaaarian should be credited for some of the photos found in this article (images wi

Tissot Heritage Porto Mechanical - Hands-On Review, Price
Tissot's Heritage collection is full of classic throwbacks. Drawing upon a heritage that spans over 165 years,? suffice it to say that the Le Locle-based watchmaker knows exactly what it's doing when it comes to creating retro-inspired timepieces that nod to a bygone era. Towards the end of last year, MONOCHROME covered the Tissot Heritage Visodate Automatic, a value-for-money 1950s dress watch,? and a little before that, the vintage-looking Tissot Heritage Petite Seconde watch based on a former model from 1943. This time around, we look at something even older, slightly unusual and from an era rarely covered by vintage-inspired watches, the Tissot Heritage Porto Mechanical, an elegant and fairly-priced tonneau-shaped design influenced by the Art Nouveau period.?Firstly, the Tissot Heritage Porto watch comes in a mechanical version crafted from either steel or 18k rose gold, or a steel quartz version with a simpler dial that foregoes the small seconds sub-dial – a feature that is