What is SIHH? MONOCHROME Welcomes You To SIHH 2018 With an Insider's Video - Monochrome Watches
Well, as your Instagram feed has no doubt already informed you, SIHH 2018 is already well and truly under way. Firstly, if you're not already, click here to follow MONOCHROME for live pictures and updates from the team throughout the show. Secondly, for a quick summary of what SIHH actually involves, which brands exhibit and why it is so highly anticipated each year by watch lovers everywhere, watch this helpful introductory video by our Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Frank Geelen?and enjoy this insider’s tour of the show.This year marks the 28th edition of the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), with the show set to run from the 15th - 19th of January. In a first for the event, the last day is actually an open day, which means members of the public can attend. So, if you're going to be in Geneva this Friday, make sure you buy a ticket online from the official SIHH site so that you can enjoy an in-person preview of what will become some of the hottest timepieces of 2

Editorial - Analysis of the Prices in the Luxury Sports Watch Market
The luxury sports watch category is hotter than ever. Just try and get your hands on an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak or a Patek Philippe Nautilus at a retailer and you'll understand what we mean. More and more brands are responding to this unabating trend for luxury sports watches, including more recently independent watchmakers and more accessible brands. This results in a quite large spectrum of retail prices for this type of watches, ranging for instance from EUR 650 for a Tissot PRX Powermatic 80 to more than EUR 50,000 for a Laurent Ferrier Auto Sport. Here's a guide to get a better idea of the different price options – focusing entirely on retail prices and not second-hand value, for a more objective comparison.ZOOM TO ENLARGE – The watches listed in the chart above are a selection of automatic time only or time only – date models made in steel (or titanium for some of them). Prices are European retail prices as of 2022, with 20% VAT. The Patek Philippe 5711 is inc

Introducing The Hamilton Khaki Navy Frogman 41mm (Live Pics & Price)
One of the best marketing tools for a watch brand is an exciting, real-life action story. Whether providing field, dive, or even marine chronometer watches for US Army and Navy servicemen or appearing in cameos on the silver screen, many of Hamilton‘s historical watches have seen their fair share of action. The Frogman, Hamilton’s tough diver, got real-life experience with the US Navy’s underwater demolition teams and even appeared in the 1951 movie The Frogmen enacting dramatic missions undertaken by the combat divers. Revisited in 2022, Hamilton’s vintage military-grade dive watch resurfaced as the Khaki Navy Frogman in a formidable 46mm case with more contemporary aesthetics. Today, Hamilton expands the Frogman Auto with four new models in more compact 41mm cases.Action-readyHamilton’s tough purpose-built diver with an unusual locking mechanism on the crown was part of the Naval Combat Demolition Units (NCDUs) gear and used on mine-clearing missions in

Radial Engines in Cars. Who Said it Wasn't Possible? - Monochrome Watches
If you were asked to list the most common types of engines in cars, you'd probably answer: in-line, boxer, V-shape and end it there. And you'd be right actually, as these are the most widespread types of engines in the industry. Some might even mention rotary engines or electric engines, but that's probably it. Despite the fact that there are loads of configurations within these types of engines, there's an odd type of engine used ever so rarely in cars. And we're not talking about large-scale manufacturers, but rather hardcore enthusiasts and madmen installing radial engines into cars!An example of a radial engine used in aeroplanes.Radial engines were first developed at the very start of the 20th century. The first documented radial engines date back to 1901. The concept is rather simple; instead of having cylinders and pistons positioned in a straight line or opposed to one another, the cylinders are spread around a central crankshaft in a circle. The full technical details are expl

Video - Hands-On with the The Ulysse Nardin Blast Tourbillon
A couple of weeks ago, the MONOCHROME team visited Geneva Watch Days, which will probably be the only major watch fair for Europe this year. On this occasion, we visited brands, talked with their teams and, of course, saw some of the models recently introduced in the metal – and yes, after months of digital-only presentations, this really made a difference. And of course, some watches made quite an impression on us, such as the new Ulysse Nardin Blast Tourbillon, a bold, radical and modern take on the brand’s new design codes. And with our latest video, you can also discover this watch in motion.To explain this new high-end, complex and striking watch, we talk to Ulysse Nardin’s Chief Product Officer, Jean-Christophe Sabatier, giving us the full story on how the brand developed this new movement, how the watch was designed and how – something quite rare – both elements have been, from the very beginning, imagined jointly, and not as separate parts. In fact