Introducing The Audemars Piguet x 1017 ALYX 9SM Collection Of RO and ROO Models
It is not a secret anymore… More and more watchmaking brands are collaborating with external designers. The mission is to reach out to new customers and to cater to a clientele more and more influenced by streetwear and high-end urban fashion. Modern, influenced by street art or urban fashion, we’re talking about merging luxury watchmaking with a contemporary approach to design. Today, Audemars Piguet announces a new collection of four Royal Oak and Royal Oak Offshore watches designed in collaboration with Matthew Williams’ fashion brand 1017 ALYX 9SM. It’s polarising all right, but there’s something oddly appealing in this sleek, minimalist and almost rough take on the emblematic luxury sports watch.?1017 ALYX 9SM (what a name…) is a fashion brand founded in 2015 by Matthew Williams, a Chicago-born creative director active in the world of art, music, photography and fashion throughout his decade-long career. On the other side is Audemars Piguet, whi

Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda 1950 Tourbillon - Hands-on with the Worlds Thinnest Automatic Flying Tourbillon with Micro-Rotor (live photos, specs & price) - Monochrome Watches
Achieving a record thinness is one of the watchmakers’ favorite games. We’ve seen the world’s thinnest watch being launched recently (that also is a skeletonized one), we’ve seen the world’s thinnest tourbillon arriving on the market and finally the world’s thinnest hand-wound flyback chronograph. Brands are clearly pushing the boundaries of watchmaking with these ultra-thin movements and cases. Such thinness is extremely complicated to achieve (and mostly to combine with reliability). In terms of world’s records, there’s another one that has to be mentioned, as the watch you’re looking at now is the world’s thinnest automatic flying tourbillon. Hands-on with the?Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda 1950 Tourbillon.Ultra-thin watches are interesting for 2 reasons. The first one could be seen as a marketing gimmick. Having the world’s thinnest watch, the?world’s thinnest tourbillon or the?world’s thinnest minute repeater

Squared off: The Bell & Ross BR 03-90 B-Rocket - Full Review (Live photos, specs & price) - Monochrome Watches
Collaborations are not uncommon within the watch industry. We've seen projects between watch brands and charitable causes take a surge over the past years, and we've even seen brands work with artists or sculptors to create unique pieces. One branch that is often contracted for a cooperative creation is car and bike manufacturers. Bell & Ross teamed up with Shaw Harley Davidson, official dealer and customizer of the brand, to create a pair of watches. One of these creations is the Bell & Ross BR 03-90 B-Rocket we will be reviewing here.First off, the combination of a purely aeronautical inspired watch brand and a legendary bike manufacturers seems a bit strange but there is more to it than you might think. The Parisian brand teamed up with Shaw Harley Davidson in 2011, to create the Nascafe Racer, a unique custom Harley Davidson bike with a BR-01 Carbon mounted onto a center console. For the second installment of their collaboration, the B-Rocket was inspired by the heyday of t

Review Tissot PRX 40 205 Powermatic 80 (Specs & Price)
The trend for 1970s-inspired sports watches with integrated bracelet doesn’t seem to slow down. In fact, multiple brands are entering the race, whether in the entry-level segment or all the way up in haute horlogerie. One of the latest contenders in this very highly prolific segment is coming from Tissot, with the PRX watch. While already presented (but not here… more on that in a few) with a quartz movement, today the Swatch Group-owned brand unveils a more desirable mechanical version. And we have a closer look at this new Tissot PRX 40 205 Powermatic 80 in the metal.If you’re a web-surfing, social-media-connected watch enthusiast, you’ve probably already seen the quartz edition of the Tissot PRX. While some fellow watch blogs/magazines jumped on the occasion, we at MONOCHROME decided to wait before having a look at the PRX. Call us posh if you want, I’d call us true to ourselves and to our love for watchmaking… Mechanical is our passion, battery-p

Introducing The New And Minimalistic Oris Artelier S
Oris is mostly known for its dive watches and instruments for pilots, some of them being part of the most focussed pieces on the market. Think about the Depth Gauge watch or the ProPilot Altimeter… But there’s also a more elegant and restrained side to Oris, with the Artelier collection. Classic, smooth and sometimes even mechanically impressive, this collection might not catch most of the attention but remains an interesting alternative on the market for classic watches. The new Oris Artelier S, which relies on an existing case and technical base, pushes the idea of subtle elegance very, very far.Meet one of the most “nude” watches of the year. It has to be one of the cleanest dials the brand has ever done. This new Oris Artelier S is all about making a watch discreet and elegant by removing, and not by adding adornments. A deliberate choice, resulting in a watch that is more about its shapes and colours than anything else. That being said, if it was me, I woul