Industry 2021 Marks Record Levels for Swiss Watch Exports
2020 was a very difficult year for the Swiss watch industry with a historic fall of 21.8%, the steepest decline since 2009. Following this sharp contraction of the global watch market, 2021 has seen a recovery from the pandemic and a return to growth, to the point of recording its best year ever! The FHS, the Federation Horlogere Suisse (or the Swiss Watch Federation), has just released export statistics for 2021. At CHF 22,297 million, exports were 31.2% higher than 2020, 2.7% higher than 2009 and 0.2% higher than the highest ever recorded by the industry, in 2014.Following the big hit taken during the pandemic, the watch industry bounced back to growth. Of course, the past two years have been a period of profound changes and the situation differs from one brand to the other. But top players like , Patek Philippe or Audemars Piguet seem to be immune to crisis and are stronger than ever; the surge of independent watchmaking has been remarkable over the past few months; Conglomerates R

Introducing The Bell & Ross BR 03-92 Patrouille de France
Parisian brand Bell & Ross?was founded?in 1992 with?a shared vision of functional and tough watches. It has a long history of military-inspired watches, but also watches issued for special forces, squadrons, astronauts, the French Naval Air Force?or elite squads such as the GIGN and the RAID. In 2021, following the release of several collections purely intended for civilian use, the brand went back to its roots, by announcing its partnership?with France's precision aerobatics demonstration unit, the world-famous Patrouille de France. In order to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the elite unit, Bell & Ross releases the limited edition BR 03-92 Patrouille de France.It felt rather?natural that the French Acrobatic Patrol Patrouille de France chose French brand Bell & Ross as its official watch partner, following Breitling, which was officially partnering with the Patrol since 2017 but actually made some watches with this team already since 1993.?The Patrouille de France is on

Hands-on - Hublot Big Bang Meca-10, With The Brand's New 10-day Power Reserve Movement (specs & price) - Monochrome Watches
Until recently, the concept?of Hublot was mainly focused on the look and the combination of extreme materials, such as ceramic of course, but also super-resistant gold alloys, carbon fibre printed with motifs?or sapphire. Hublot is first of all a design, a concept, not only?focussed on horology but also on the looks – and?with all respect to the brand, this has been very successful until now. Then came the first in-house movement of the brand, the Unico – but that was a chronograph. With the idea to emphasize more on watchmaking skills and integration, this year the brand introduced a new watch, with a brand new movement, where watchmaking is used to create style, architectural design and horological pleasure. Here is the?Hublot Big Bang Meca-10, with the brand’s new 10-day power reserve movement. A bit caricatural in the execution, but that’s also why Hublot is Hublot.The new?Hublot Big Bang Meca-10 is based on the traditional Big Bang case – so the point

IWC Pilot's Watch Chronograph TOP GUN Edition SFTI IW389104
Today, IWC Schaffhausen releases its Pilot's Watch Chronograph TOP GUN Edition SFTI. The watch – an extension to the company's Pilot's Chronograph TOP GUN model – is also the civilian version of a timepiece created in honour of the US Naval Aviation Community back in 2018. The Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor watch, which was exclusive to the wrists of TOPGUN graduates, was produced as a collaborative effort between the Swiss watch manufacturer and Naval Air Station Lemoore-based instructors in California. It equipped graduates of the Navy Fighter Weapons School with a reliable tool for soaring through the skies in supersonic jets whilst subject to extreme G-forces. Limited to 1,500 pieces worldwide, the new Pilot's Watch Chronograph TOP GUN Edition SFTI faithfully follows many design codes of the TOP GUN series. The robust instrument is geared towards flying officers responsible for handling tortuous manoeuvres whilst seated at the cockpit of aircraft like the F/A-18 Supe

Omega Goes Anti-Magnetic With The Master Co-Axial Calibres - the first truly anti-magnetic mechanical movement in the watch industry - Monochrome Watches
No, we’re NOT going to talk about a watch, we’re talking about movements. Omega starts introducing the new Master Co-Axial movements into the collection with 8 new calibres. These new calibres are the first truly anti-magnetic mechanical movements in the watch industry and they can easily resist magnetic fields up to 15,000 Gauss. That’s simply brilliant you’re going to love them for it. Read on to find out why! Last year we already told you about this movement, although Omega didn’t reveal anything else than the mere fact it can easily resist magnetic field of 1,5 Tesla (15,000 Gauss). In that article we explained everything you need to know about magnetism and mechanical watches, because the two don’t go very well together. Until now that is! Omega is revolutionizing mechanical watch-making. Ad - Scroll to continue with article