Hands-on: A Personal Take On The Stunning Moritz Grossmann Hamatic
To kick things off, this will be a very personal story, and yes, it is about a mechanical watch. When I first got into watchmaking, I knew very little about the history of the industry or the different regions in the world that dominate it. My knowledge came from magazines, movies and TV shows, billboards and the early days of social media, and that was about it. That is until I joined MONOCHROME in 2012 and started to seriously fall down the proverbial rabbit hole. My knowledge and experience grew, my interests shifted, and a whole world of new and exciting brands opened up, from very small one-man outfits to corporate behemoths. Over the years, my preferences continued to shift, and I have developed a deep love for German watchmaking, specifically from the Glashutte region. There’s just something special about how watches from this part of the world are made. And I’m not arguing if they’re better than Swiss or Japanese-made high-end watches, but the style is very pu

The Ateliers deMonaco Admiral Chronograph Flyback Saphir - Monochrome Watches
If some of you might know this watch manufacture by now (thanks to a?coverage here, at Monochrome),?Ateliers deMonaco is clearly not the most famous of them all… Which, in all honesty, is rather a pity, as the brand has a lot to offer. Forget about the affiliation with the Frederique Constant Group.?Ateliers deMonaco plays in a different league (with a collection that comprises tourbillons, minute repeaters or Hallmark of Geneva watches…) and their latest creation has some appeal, both?aesthetically?and technically. Here is our review of the?Ateliers deMonaco Admiral Chronograph Flyback Saphir.About the?Ateliers deMonaco brandAteliers deMonaco has been created in 2008, by Peter Stas and his head of watchmaking,?Pim Koeslag (now CEO of the brand), as a sister company of Frederique Constant. While the latter plays on the “accessible luxury” trend, by offering watches with nice technical content, in-house movements or even the cheapest perpetual calendar on the mar

Oris Aquis Date New York Harbor Limited Edition (Price)
Watchmaker Oris has been championing environmental projects around the world under its “Change for the Better” umbrella, always revolving around the theme of water. From whale and dolphin conservation to cleaning up the world's lakes?and rivers and saving coral reefs, Oris has struck upon another original project involving bivalve molluscs. This time, Oris is collaborating with the Billion Oyster Project, a non-profit determined to restore one billion oysters to New York Harbor. To help the Billion Oyster Project reseed the harbour waters with baby oysters, Oris is releasing 2,000 pieces of its high-performance Aquis diver's watch with a wonderful watery green mother-of-pearl designed to evoke the colour of the waters of New York Harbor.Billion Oyster ProjectAccording to a report by NY's Department of Environmental Projection, the Harbor is cleaner today than it's been in nearly 110 years, attracting humpback whales feeding on menhaden, or bunker fish that are now thriving

In-Depth: Why the TAG Heuer CH80 (now named Heuer-03) comes back? (and a visit of the relaunched Chevenez Manufacture) - Monochrome Watches
One week ago, we introduced to you?the first prototype of the TAG Heuer Autavia “Jochen Rindt”?reedition, one of the first customer-designed watches made by the industry in a long time. That’s already a good news on its own, and this watch was not the only point of interest, as inside its case ticks something we didn’t expect to see anymore from TAG Heuer: the Calibre Heuer-03 (previously calibre?CH80?that?was supposed to be a project ‘killed’ before its birth). During the Heuer collectors summit, we had the chance to visit the Chevenez Manufacture (the one that was?supposedly stopped), to see the new movement, to understand?the evolutions and finally to talk with the teams, including Jean-Claude Biver, just to shed some light on this complex?but, in the end, happy situation.BackgroundWhat happened at TAG… Didn’t?stay at TAG!?Why? The fact that?TAG Heuer is a large company, owned by a publicly listed group (LVMH), made the situation publi

Introducing the Ulysse Anchor Escapement - Monochrome Watches
Earlier this year at Baselworld, Ulysse Nardin introduced an entirely new escapement that is referred to as the Ulysse Anchor Escapement. While its name does not immediately give away what it’s all about, it can best be seen in relation to previous ground-breaking developments of the brand, who were the first to introduce a silicon escapement wheel, and for that matter silicon in a wrist watch movement. That was with the introduction of the Freak, back in 2001. Fast forward to the December 2012, when Monochrome broke the story of Girard-Perregaux’s new silicon escapement (and we’re not just talking about the escape wheel or pallet fork, but about the entire escapement) we immediately recognized the potential game-changing qualities. Ulysse Nardin’s new Ulysse Anchor Escapement works in more or less a similar way, and we believe it holds equal, or more, game-changing properties. Let us explain what the new escapement actually is, and why it is, potentially, such