Lange und Sohne Saxonia Thin - a Future Classic - Monochrome Watches
Last year A. Lange & Sohne restyled the Saxonia collection and introduced the all new Saxonia Thin. The thinnest Lange & Sohne ever, measuring just 5.9 mm in height. This year the pink gold Saxonia Thin gets a white gold sibling.Classic, beautiful and typical Lange & Sohne style, however thin… While Lange & Sohne is well known for their robust movements like those in the Double Split and Datograph, an extra thin movement is something that is slightly out of the ordinary for this German manufacture. Ad - Scroll to continue with article The slim case measures 40 mm in diameter and just 5.9 mm in height. While it remains relatively classic proportions, the diameter of 40 mm gives the watch a certain presence on the wrist. The dial is very balanced, featuring nothing more than thin baton hour markers and a small dot next to it. Printed on the s

In-Depth: A Comprehensive Overview of Patek Philippes Annual Calendar
Calendar indications are a classic of watchmaking. But not all calendar watches are born equal. As our own Xavier Markl explained in this Technical Perspective article, calendar watches range from basic date displays to the ultra-rare and highly complex secular calendar mechanism and everything in between. Next to the highly praised perpetual calendar, there is a complication that has gathered great interest in recent years following its invention in 1996, the annual calendar. An almost-perfect mix of complexity, practicality and reliability, its creation has to be credited to Patek Philippe. Today, in our latest in-depth historical and technical article, we're taking a closer look at what makes it such a great complication, how it came to exist and what are the most notable Patek Philippe Annual Calendar watches.?Calendars and clocksWhen monks in 14th-century medieval Europe first invented clocks, they were primarily designed as mechanical calendars to track the seasons, religious hol

IWC Portugieser Chronograph 3716 Steel Bracelet - Video Review, Price
Today is the opening of Watches & Wonders Shanghai, a new watch fair dedicated to the Chinese market. While the main idea for exhibiting brands is to display the watches introduced in April, some of them have decided to benefit from this physical and digital space to launch some new models. One of these is IWC, which brings an update to what is certainly one of its most emblematic models, the Portugieser Chronograph 3716, which comes for the first time on a stainless steel bracelet. And we have a video review of the watch above.BackgroundMinimalistic yet easily recognizable, well-designed and with a nautical sporty-chic vibe, the modern Portugieser finds its roots in the late 1930s following the request of two Portuguese merchants who wanted to have the precision of IWC's deck clocks in a wristwatch format for sailing. The result was a large wristwatch powered by a pocket watch movement with a distinctive design and a minimalist approach focused on legibility and precision.?The pre

Recap: The Best Pilot's Watches of 2023
It might not be the most productive of categories, but the pilot’s watch remains one of the all-time important watch styles, even though its real-world relevance is more limited these days due to flight management systems. Nevertheless, nostalgia and vintage inspiration are still important drivers of the watch industry’s creativity, and for that reason, some brands continue to release classic pilot watches. Continuing our selection of the best models released this year, following categories such as chronographs and dive watches, we’re now listing the MONOCHROME editorial team’s five Best Pilot Watches of 2023.Pilot’s watches are necessarily a fixed category. It’s not about the complication, which can range from simple time-only displays to more complex chronographs and traveller’s functions, but more about the overall purpose of the watch. Nevertheless, common design features will be found in most aviation-related watches, such as robustness, p

Technical Guide - The Difference Between Office GMT and Travel GMT Watches
The world of watches is full of complications. I know, the name can be somewhat deceptive since the idea behind a complication is to bring the user something practical… well, most of the time, at least. Dozens of functions can be added to a watch, but few are as practical in real life as the GMT or dual time complication. A true blue-collar complication, on the same level as the chronograph or the diving bezel (something that can’t be said about an equation of time), there isn’t, however, just one type of GMT watch. To simplify, we can break up the GMT category into two variants: the true or traveller’s GMT and the office or caller GMT. Today, we take a closer look at the complication, so you know exactly what to expect when looking for your next GMT watch.What is a GMT watch?The creation of the first GMT watches resulted from a shift in society. Following WWII and the advent of commercial and intercontinental flights, mankind started to travel more frequently.