Introducing The Purple AP Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar 26598BC
Colour has played a determining role this year in the world of watches, and any article we write about colourful watches invariably features Audemars Piguet. No stranger to bold colours, this year, the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar, entirely swathed in blue ceramic, made our Top Five Colourful list of 2022. Today, we introduce another dynamic colour-popping 41mm white gold model with a purple Grand Tapisserie dial and a diamond-set bezel. Described as ‘purple’, as you can see from the pictures, the colour on the dial of this Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar is a far warmer and more attractive shade of purple verging on burgundy.?RecapJust over a decade after the launch of the iconoclastic luxury steel Royal Oak in 1972, Audemars Piguet released a Royal Oak with a perpetual calendar complication. With an incredible lineage of perpetual calendar watches starting in 1948 with the brand’s ref. 5516, the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar (aka ref. 5554, and 25554 from 1985 on), pick

Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Automatic 910P - World's Thinnest Automatic Watch - Review (Specs & Price)
Piaget and ultra-thin are two words that go together very well. For over 60 years now, the brand has developed a true expertise in ultra-thin watches and movements (don't forget that Piaget started its life as a movement manufacturer and not as a jeweller). From the Calibre 9P to the recent 900P, the brand has gone from one world-record to another. Last year, a certain Italian-rooted brand unveiled what was the thinnest automatic movement in current production… Today Piaget responds with their answer.?They took one the thinnest hand-wound watches in the world, the Altiplano 900P, and added a peripheral rotor making it an automatic. And not just an automatic but the world’s thinnest automatic wristwatch.Piaget and the Concept of Ultra-ThinPiaget was founded in 1874, in the village of La C?te-aux-Fees, as a movement manufacturer. From 1913 onwards, the manufacturer appeared in watch industry supplier catalogues as the specialist of ultra-thin components. The main evolution in

The Vintage Corner - A Watch Less Travelled - The Heuer Autavia Viceroy
Have you ever bought a vintage watch and wondered what life it led before it ended up in your hands? Well, this is a partial history of one such watch, a Heuer Autavia Viceroy 1163.In 2001 I had a long conversation with a retired Iowa farmer called Jim who had a vintage Heuer Autavia for sale on eBay. I wanted to buy the watch but the seller had stated No International Shipping' so I contacted him and we had a great talk about life. Me being a new father and him now retired, his children long gone and how he had learned to build his own website to communicate online, he was a really good chap and eventually we compromised and agreed he would ship the watch to a friend of mine's office at the Tribeca Centre in New York whom I was due to visit a few weeks later.So fast forward three weeks and after a rather busy weekend in New York and more than a few cocktails, I delivered the watch to my watchmaker here in the UK for service. I had bought the watch as stock for my small collector websi

Pre-SIHH 2019 - Introducing the Cartier Libre Jewelry Collection - Freedom of Shape and Colour
Cartier manages to fuse a unique touch of French sophistication with a very liberal attitude towards design. Cartier’s love affair with?fascinating shaped watches?has lasted for a century and you'd be hard pressed to find a straightforward round watch chez la Maison. Unusual shapes, like the square Santos, the rectangular Tank, the barrel-shaped Tortue, or even the weird and wild 1967 Crash watch inspired by a Baignoire Allongee model that was purportedly mangled and melted in a car crash, have been and still are very much an identity trait of the brand. Last year signalled the return of the Santos, and in 2019 the mood for nostalgia is still in full swing as we have witnessed with the pre-SIHH release of the Cartier Prive Tonneau watch for men inspired by a 1906 model with an elongated tonneau case. Women are also in for a treat with the pre-SIHH 2019 release of the Baignoire Allongee, a model that literally takes a dip in a sea of precious stones. Presented in white or yellow g

Omega Seamaster and James Bond 007 - A 20-year love story - Monochrome-Watches
The name is Seamaster, Omega Seamaster. And while this one doesn’t need to be shaken nor stirred, the love story between Omega and James Bond 007 is a long one, and they’re celebrating two decades of loyal service. Spectre, mr. Bond’s latest adventure will be released?on Monday 26th of October – and stay tuned, because on this exact day, we’ll have a very special feature on Monochrome, for your eyes only, with the brand new Omega Seamaster 300 Spectre Edition?and a very specific Aston Martin DB5!?For now, let’s have a look back in the past to?re-discover?all the Omega Seamaster models that James Bond used in the 007 movies.1995 – GoldeneyeJames Bond has worn watches by?Omega?since 1995's?Goldeneye. In that film, Bond, played by Pierce Brosnan, wears a watch with a remote detonator for bombs and a laser beam to help him escape from an armored train. This?Omega Seamaster Professional?featured a blue dial and quartz caliber – Ref. 2541.80. T