Watch news, without the noise

June's upon us, everyone, and while technically it's still spring, let's all agree to go ahead and round up to summer right now. You're salivating for beach time, or checking the market for pointers about what to do regarding the SpaceX IPO, or you couldn't care about either, and your full attention is on what seems likely to be a wildly excellent NBA finals. Regardless of where your attention's generally pointed, let's look at some watches together before you're whisked off to full weekend mode. Scorekeeping last week's picks, the Universal Geneve Super went for a mere €550, the Movado for CHF 2,600, the Rotary Compressor for £350, while the Rolex Submariner Ref 16800 somehow sold for only $60,000 HKD ($7,655). The Louis Vuitton Monterey II also sold. Strays Photo courtesy FauveParis. No-name skin divers will always get under my skin, and this week there's this sweet-looking Allaine. Or are you after an overwhelmingly 1980s quartz perpetual calendar from Corum? As you wish. How about an extraordinarily clean manual-wind Seamaster dress watch? Get it. Someone, please bid on this and *also* pay once you've won: this Autavia has popped up thrice over the last two months, and certainly one of you has a soft spot for modular chronograph movements that'll lead your favorite watchmaker to curse you, right? A Heuer triple calendar in 14k gold, perhaps? Ta da. A fantastic Jaeger-LeCoultre? Have at it. Finally, I don't know if this Omega Speedmaster 145.022 is actually NOS, but ...

Seiko updates their Prospex Diver's Watch collaboration with PADI to celebrate the 60th anniversary of PADI, with red and blue accents.

A few weeks ago, my latest watch purchase, a Sinn 103 St Ty Hd, arrived. I can’t tell you how many times I have browsed the Sinn catalogs over the years, whether on the brand’s website or in the printed versions we receive in the mail every year. The company from Frankfurt holds a special […] Visit Hands-On With My Latest Purchase — The Sinn 103 St Ty Hd to read the full article.

As the EPHJ Geneva trade fair, the major annual gathering dedicated to precision industries, including watchmaking, medtech and high-tech manufacturing, approaches (from 16 – 19 June), several suppliers exhibiting at the show have started unveiling their latest developments. Among them is Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier, a movement maker well known to regular readers of MONOCHROME Watches, […]

Last year, we covered the launch of Marteau & Co., a new, small, independent-focused auction house that took a new perspective on what auction houses can (and, in their view, should) do for the watchmaking artists who have become such high-demand subjects. In Europe and the UK, artists are owed a portion of the sale fee when their work reaches the secondary market. It seems only fair, when a $100,000 watch these days can reach a million on the secondary market and the original maker doesn't get a penny. At Marteau, of the 20% fee added to the hammer price, the watchmaker receives 3% to acknowledge their work. Lot 6, a unique Voutilainen Regulator Decimal Repeater. Estimate of CHF 300,000 to 600,000. The current Marteau & Co. auction catalog recently went live, and bidding is open (online only) from June 10 to June 17. There are a lot of great watches to bid on, headlined by the return of an OnlyWatch collaboration, a unique Vianney Halter, and a unique Voutilainen Regulator Decimal Repeater. There are also a number of watchmakers who have only come to auction a handful of times, and I got to see a number of them in person. But I wanted to start with two watches that might potentially go for more affordable prices, watches from Baltic/SpaceOne and Furlan Marri. Lot 2, a Baltic x SpaceOne Seconde Majeure unique pieces. Estimate of CHF 3,000 to 6,000. Lot 1, a Furlan Marri Mechaquartz "Prototype" with a unique dial. Estimate of CHF 500 to 1,000. The Baltic x SpaceOne collabor...

The Timex Atelier line just added its first chronographs—a 42mm titanium automatic and a 40mm quartz—and the pricing raises some fair questions.

Another Friday, another list. Last week, we picked our five favorite iconic watches from the 1980s. This week, we move on to the 1990s. If the ’80s were the decade of bad, extravagant taste, the ’90s toned it down significantly. Having said that, we saw plenty of remarkable watch designs in the 1990s. Some of […] Visit Fratello’s Top 5 Iconic Watches From The 1990s to read the full article.

Online-only auctioneer Marteau & Co returns for its third sale, The Heat Wave. which opens at noon Geneva time on June 10, continuing with its focus on independent watchmaking. Marteau & Co was founded just last year by a duo including industry veteran Arthur Touchot, who spent several years as a journalist followed by a stint at a prominent auction house. The Swiss auctioneer sets itself apart with its intriguing “Maker’s Fee” concept, which rewards the maker of the timepiece with 3% of the hammer price for each watch sold, allowing a brand to benefit from the appreciation of its products. While artists’ resale rights, or droit de suite, is far from a new concept, and has been codified into law in the European Union and United Kingdom, Marteau & Co’s approach is the first instance of its application in watchmaking. Lot 6 – Voutilainen Decimal Repeater Regulator piece unique Kari Voutilainen needs no introduction, but this watch does as it is, like all Voutilainen minute repeaters, a unique piece. This example left the Voutilainen workshop in 2024, cased in 38 mm of unusual 4N gold, which sits between red and yellow gold, while the hands and dial, as you’d expect from any Voutilainen watch – excellent, but with a chiming twist. During a survey of vintage repeating wristwatches you’ll realize that many only have two hands. If you compared the movement of, say, a Patek Philippe ref. 2524 with a seconds hand to one without, the reason becomes clear. The two ...

Don’t say I didn’t warn you! Only a month ago in this very column, we had just about got over the new release season, but I alerted you all to the fact that we were far from done. Technically, we’re halfway through 2026 now, and it feels like every week there’s been at least one … Continued

Tudor drops the Black Bay Chrono to 39mm and adds a yellow-and-black Bumblebee dial. Here's what changes inside, what it costs, and why the size matters.

At London Watch Week 2026, Pragma announced two developments that mark the next phase of the young independent brand’s journey. First, the company announced it’s partnering with retailer Ace Jewelers for the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Second, it unveiled the first of the Pragma P1 Perseverance Stone Dial Editions 2026. The exclusive P1 Perseverance […] Visit Introducing: The First Of The Pragma P1 Perseverance Stone Dial Editions 2026 to read the full article.

Indie watch brand Ming was founded by Malaysian photographer, designer and engineer Ming Thein in 2017. Since then, Ming has amassed a devoted following for its contemporary design-led watches distinguished by minimalism, luminescence, layering and colour. The latest 37.06 Lightning, a joint project between Ming and J.N. Shapiro Watches, a Los Angeles-based watchmaker, is the […]

Girard-Perregaux turns last year's 50th-anniversary limited edition into a four-watch core collection. New 36mm sizes, two enamel dials, and the in-house GP4800.

Back in March, I found myself on an Amtrak train from Philadelphia to Lancaster, PA, a small city that many think of as the ancestral home of American watchmaking. I’d been to Lancaster before, with Hamilton, some years ago, and even though their old factory is no longer in use, the brand’s history is woven throughout the town in any number of ways. But I wasn’t traveling to Lancaster for Hamilton, I was there to see RT Custer, founder of Vortic. The coincidental nature of the line that connects Hamilton, RT, Vortic, and the city of Lancaster is almost beyond belief, and a new layer to that connection would be added in a matter of hours, as RT worked to secure a purchase of vintage pocket watch movements that would take his brand through another year (at least) of production.  RT grew up in Lancaster, and his father still lives in town. Hamilton’s history there, of course, would have been something he encountered in his younger years, working its way into his memory the way a knowledge of baseball might if you happened to grow up in Cooperstown, or movies if you grew up in Hollywood. I don’t know, though, that anything could have predicted that RT would one day find himself running a company that would be so inextricably linked to the history of American watchmaking.  A collection of very early Vortic watches Vortic is one of the most unique watch brands you’ll ever encounter. Founded in 2013 and based in Fort Collins, CO, Vortic repurposes vintage pocket wat...

Seiko's Astron 5X63 gets two colorful summer limited editions, Crystal Pink and Crystal Green, each limited to 1,200 pieces.

Over the past few years, Paris-based brand Laps has been offering watches built around graphic design and artistic expression. Collections such as Signature Art Print presented affordable quartz-powered references with fun dial designs inspired by architecture, photography, illustration and contemporary culture. The emphasis was always on visual storytelling rather than traditional watchmaking. Now the brand […]

The Le Locle manufacture launches a new collaboration program, and its first partner is the <em>most talked-about independent in Japan</em>

If you’ve seen me around in the watch community, it’s very likely you’ve noticed me wearing a Girard-Perregaux Laureato. While I’ve fooled many into thinking I own one of these beauties, the model is in fact my number one requested loaner whenever I have the privilege to borrow a timepiece for a special event. In my years adoring the Laureato, I’ve had the pleasure of trying out several iterations from the bold 42mm (proving that yes, even my rather small 5.75-inch wrist can rock a 42) to the more pared down 38mm. In all the sizes and dial colors that have graced my wrist, one of my favorites has to be the 38mm copper, which, in my humble opinion, is the ideal twist on a two-tone look. Today, Girard-Perregaux is complicating things for me yet again with some incredibly compelling new takes on the Laureato. First up, we have two variations with a solid 18-karat rose gold dials, one in 39mm and one in 36mm. Unsurprisingly, these deeply rival my former-favorite with the copper dial. I would say the copper is a bit more subtle and subdued with a slightly more matte appearance and a rich shade that lands somewhere between yellow and rose gold. The dial of the new models is decidedly shinier and more reflective with a true rose gold color that is both bright and soft at the same time. In addition to feeling torn between the previous copper dial version and the new 18-karat rose gold, I’m equally undecided on my favorite proportions for the Laureato. I thought the 38m...

Quite a radical departure from the usual classic German style of the Pano and Senator collection by Glashütte Original, the Seventies range, now exclusively available as a chronograph, is characterised by its TV-shaped case and integrated bracelet, but also by a great audacity in colours – which reflects the era after which the watch is […]

Grand Seiko adds to their Heritage Collection with the new Cherry Blossoms Sakura Wakaba SBGH376, released in WWG26. Hands on review.

What We Know The Timex Atelier line doubles in size today, adding four new references and continuing to expand into new complications with the announcement of the Chronograph Automatic M1a Ti and the Chronograph Quartz M1q. Designed by Giorgio Galli, the new models join the existing Diver and GMT, bringing the collection to a total of six references. The M1a Ti is built from titanium with a stainless-steel middle case and a black IP coating, measuring 42mm in diameter with a 20mm lug width. The M1q is a skeletonized stainless steel case with the same black IP middle case treatment at 40mm, also with a 20mm lug width.  Both get a fixed tachymeter bezel, a double-domed sapphire crystal with a triple-layer AR coating, and come on either a metal bracelet or an NBR rubber strap with a deployant buckle. The major difference here is that the M1a Ti has an exhibition caseback showcasing the automatic movement beneath. Both feature two-register chronographs—a first for the Atelier line—with matte black dials, silver subdials, and high-polished silver hands. The M1q adds guilloché texture to the dial and a date window at 6. The M1a Ti stays flat matte. Powering the duo are two different sides of the spectrum. The M1a Ti features a Swiss-made Landeron L72 automatic chronograph at 4Hz with a 43-hour power reserve and 28 jewels. The M1q uses a Swiss-made Ronda 5021D quartz movement with a battery. The M1a Ti comes in at $2,250 on a bracelet and $2,100 on a rubber strap. The M1q i...