Monochrome
Introduced in 1996 with the reference 5035, Patek Philippe’s Annual Calendar was neither a simplified perpetual calendar nor an upgraded complete calendar, but an entirely new mechanism protected by a patent; we explained the full story of its creation and evolution in this article here. By automatically distinguishing between months with 30 and 31 days, […]
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Travel has always been at the heart of Louis Vuitton, and the Escales Autour du Monde collection, like all Escale watches, has a great poetic sound to it. The name, which translates as “Stopovers Around the World,” recalls Francisca Mattéoli’s celebrated book documenting Gaston-Louis Vuitton’s remarkable collection of hotel labels gathered during his travels; there’s […]
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Earlier today, we reported the increase in sales indicated by the Swatch Group (+8.5% at constant rate), which follows almost identical signs reported by Richemont about a week ago (+8% for Specialist Watchmakers and +20% in total, with a growth mostly driven by Jewellery brands). Now, it’s time for the Federation of the Swiss Watch […]
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Following two difficult consecutive years, with sales down 12% in 2024 and 7% in 2025, the Swatch Group, the Swiss watchmaking giant owner of brands such as Omega, Breguet, Longines, and Tissot, is now back to growth. Indeed, as indicated by its half-year 2026 report, Swatch Group recorded “a strong increase in sales, up +8.5% […]
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Chopard, the Official Timekeeper and World Sponsor of the famous Italian endurance rally since 1988, has released countless chronographs inspired by the Mille Miglia race, its drivers and its iconic route. The Raticosa Pass has already been honoured once before, with a limited-edition series in 2021, and this 2026 Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph Raticosa pays […]
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RGM Watch Company has never been a brand to chase trends or pop culture. Founded in 1992 by Roland G. Murphy in Pennsylvania, the brand has built its reputation on traditional watchmaking, producing around 400 watches annually while preserving crafts such as engine turning, movement decoration, and even in-house calibre production. Its latest release, however, […]
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Another collaborative project has just launched, and one that is certainly not meant to be conservative. On one side is young indie brand Toledano & Chan, founded by Phil Toledano and Alfred Chan, and focused on bridging conceptual art, brutalist architecture and watchmaking, creating sculptural watches with a design like no other. On the other […]
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Twelve warriors gather around the table once again, but this time, Camelot gives way to Edo Castle. Roger Dubuis has a knack for creating watches that are equal parts human imagination and great craftsmanship, the kind you can spend hours staring at, whether they call upon dragons, knights, or are high complications that look like […]
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Stone dials have long held a special place in fine watchmaking. No two are ever alike, each preserving colours, textures and patterns formed over millions of years. For Gerald Charles, working with stone means embracing a challenge. The Masterlink is anything but round, and its asymmetrical silhouette leaves almost no margin for error. See how […]
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It’s common for brands to look back for inspiration for future releases, and some put a lot of effort into it. It’s not just about taking the shape of an hour marker or a hand and putting it into an entirely new design. No, it’s more than that, as multiple brands revive past designs almost […]
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Many don’t realise just how complicated casebacks have become. Whether they’re contributing to high water resistance, displaying the movement or becoming part of the case itself, casebacks aren’t simply covers snapped on the back (although those do exist, of course). There are several ways to attach them to the case, and each method has a […]
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If you thought the legendary McLaren F1 was the company’s first road car, I can’t really blame you. While technically it is, as the F1 was the very first McLaren car that actually entered production, in reality, it’s predated by the M6 GT, a road-legal sports car envisioned by company founder Bruce McLaren. With inspiration […]
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The crown is one of those watch components we rarely think much about. It has been there for well over a century, mainly performing two essential tasks: winding the movement and setting the time. We now have all sorts of crowns, including hidden crowns and even retractable crowns, yet very few have questioned whether any […]
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The Carrera Chronograph Glassbox has become one of TAG Heuer‘s most versatile modern collections. Over the past few years, across the 39mm and 41mm cases, we’ve seen everything from classic panda and reverse panda layouts to vibrant purple, teal green and gem-set editions, each giving the watch a distinct personality. The latest version, the sand-coloured […]
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India is huge, as is its appetite for watches. The history of watchmaking in the country, whether on the production or distribution side, is relatively recent but rapidly growing. Helios Luxe, part of Titan, distributes 45 brands and targets the accessible luxury segment. We recently sat down with Diny Markose, the CEO of the group’s watch […]
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Earlier this year, independent Swiss brand Bianchet expanded beyond its signature tonneau-shaped watches with the launch of the Rotondo UltraFino, a sleek round interpretation of its distinctive designs. With an ultra-thin profile, an integrated bracelet and a flying tourbillon movement, the titanium and carbon models introduced a more versatile side to the young brand while […]
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Headquartered in a beautiful century-old villa in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, the fascinating watch brand Schwarz Etienne is your typical independent watchmaking company. The company’s origins date back to 1902, when founding husband-and-wife Paul-Arthur Schwartz and Olga Etienne got married. From then on, the company would grow continuously, with the descendants of the founding duo also […]
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The launch of the Supernova collection earlier this year marked a new direction for British brand Bremont, introducing a bold integrated sports chronograph inspired by spacecraft engineering and destined to become the first watch left permanently on the Moon. Still looking to the stars, Bremont presents the Supernova Hawking Limited Edition, which uses the Supernova […]
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Reducing the size of dressier watches certainly is a trend, but when it comes to Nomos, the brand has long been a strong advocate of compact cases. The German manufacture has never been shy of proposing 35mm or less cases, even for its more masculine models. After all, presence and style are not reduced to […]
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First presented in 2021 as the Continuum and later renamed, the C by Romain Gauthier is a bold expression of a sporty-elegant watch by one of the most revered independent watchmakers, a man known for his superlative hand-made movement decoration. A rather strong departure from the complex Logical One, the intricate Insight Micro-Rotor Squelette or […]
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Since its streamlined redesign in 2022, the Armin Strom Mirrored Force Resonance has become the independent watchmaking brand‘s signature expression of one of the rarest mechanical phenomena in watchmaking. Without altering the movement, later editions have offered variations in colour and materials used, from the Manufacture Green and Ice Blue models to the warm rose gold […]
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Known mostly for its military-inspired and pilot’s watches from the BR-01 and BR-03 series, the emblematic circle-within-a-square design, Bell & Ross has long mastered the use of luminescent materials, either to amplify functionality or to create striking models. All marketed under the Lum series, this ample use of Super-LumiNova has become a signature and is […]
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Richemont, the Swiss luxury powerhouse, has started its 2026 fiscal year on a strong note. For the first quarter ended 30 June 2026, the group reported revenues of EUR 6.3 billion, representing a 20% increase at constant exchange rates and a 17% rise at actual exchange rates compared with the same period last year. Summary: […]
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There is no denying that Doxa is one of the most revered brands when it comes to dive watches. The brand, which has been active since the 1960s in this field, has produced several of the most emblematic divers’ instruments. Yet, if there were one watch to remember, it would be the SUB 300, a […]
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As the countdown to the 38th America’s Cup in Naples continues, Panerai is once again turning to one of its most successful partnerships of recent years. Since teaming up with Luna Rossa in 2019, Panerai has made the partnership into a proving ground for its modern sports watches. That has given us a series of […]
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The Krayon Anywhere was introduced in 2020 and, since then, stands apart from virtually every other astronomical watch. A more straightforward version of the Everywhere, it can be configured for any location on Earth, displaying the exact times of sunrise and sunset for its owner, and it remains one of the most original complications in […]
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Talking about Svend Andersen and only focusing on the world time complication would be truly reductive of the man’s career. One of the most discreet and yet most revered watchmakers of the independent scene, a founding member of the AHCI, Andersen founded his atelier in 1980, after working for Gübelin, where he got the chance to […]
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Yema seems to be focused on combining its historic dive watch designs with more sophisticated mechanics, especially since the arrival of the manufacture CMM.20 micro-rotor calibre. Following the Navygraf Slim CMM.20 and the Navygraf Pearl CMM.20, the French brand now introduces a more specialised interpretation of its vintage-inspired diver. Made together with the French Marine […]
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Dive watches are, by nature, rather conservative instruments. Since the 1950s, the basics have barely changed: a robust water-resistant case, luminous hands and markers, and a rotating bezel, often undirectional, graduated over 60 minutes. Blancpain played a big part in setting up these design codes with the Fifty Fathoms during the 1950s. Seventy years later, […]
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When Bulgari launched the Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar in 2021, it did what the Octo Finissimo line has done repeatedly over the past decade. It broke another record. At just 5.80mm thick, it became the world’s thinnest perpetual calendar wristwatch, a title it still holds today. Since then, we have seen it in its original […]
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