Monochrome
Swiss brand Breva Genève was founded in 2010 by Vincent Dupontreué. At one point, the brand garnered quite a bit of attention on the independent watchmaking scene with a series of original but niche complications such as a barometer, an altimeter or even a retractable speedometer! For multiple reasons, the brand unfortunately disappeared for a […]
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Pequignet was founded in 1973 by Emile Pequignet in Morteau, a French city in the mountains next to the Swiss border. The brand developed quickly in the 1980s and 1990s, but it has gone through its fair share of ups and downs in its 50 years of history. In the early 2000s, Pequignet initiated the […]
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With watches such as the Multifort Mechanical, the Ocean Star 39, or the Decompression Timer 1961, Swatch Group-owned brand Mido seems to be on a roll regarding dial creativity. Fun, colourful, original and bold, the brand’s latest creations stand apart with the use of unusual designs and clever application of SLN to add even more […]
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The revival of Ikepod has been met with a lot of enthusiasm, especially seeing the brand develop from ‘just’ another resuscitated name to a full-fledged return of the unmistakable and iconic Mark Newson design style across a range of collections. Ever since the takeover by longtime Ikepod-fan Christian-Louis Col, we’ve witnessed a return of the […]
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As we’ve seen recently, Orient, a Japanese watchmaker owned by the Seiko Epson Corporation, is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. Created in 1950, it has since made a name for itself in the accessible segment with watches such as the Mako or the Bambino. There’s another important name that was created that same year; a […]
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Round, or square… That’s basically the norm for case designs in the industry, but there was a time where brands would experiment with shapes and designs to such an extent that genuine icons were created! Fortunately, there’s been a rather strong revival of unconventionally shaped watches in recent times, which we can only applaud. Watches […]
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What would you expect from a proper city car? Probably the answer to that question is something practical, reliable, agile, compact on the outside and spacious on the inside, cheap to run and so. Surely, you wouldn’t think “V8!!”, now would you? Well, the madmen of Aston Martin’s Q-division did think “V8!!” back in 2018 […]
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Today, there is only one Reverso, with Jaeger-LeCoultre printed on its dial, but this was not always the case. During the 1930s, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin and Cartier made watches that used the Reverso case for their timepieces. Moreover, the 1931 Reverso was not the first reversible case design. A few years earlier, Universal Geneve […]
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Founded in 1853, Le Locle, Switzerland, Tissot is renowned for delivering quality Swiss-made watches at truly competitive prices. Sylvain Dolla took the helm of the brand in 2020, after leading Hamilton, bringing fresh energy to the brand – most notably, with the successful launch of the PRX, which has now grown into a complete, coherent […]
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A micro-brand that should sound familiar to you now, Kurono Tokyo is the brainchild of Japanese independent watchmaker Hajime Asaoka, known for his high-end tourbillons or chronographs. With this brand, Asaoka wanted to deliver his style and design ideas in far more accessible watches, without the highly complex movements, but with an equal taste for […]
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You thought you knew everything from Seiko’s immensely versatile archive? Well, think again, as this new King Seiko VANAC collection is a straight blast from the past that probably few saw coming! Based on just one of many designs that were part of the original Vanac models, first up is a set of five new […]
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About a year ago, a new micro-brand launched on the scene and caused quite some noise due to its oddly shaped, slightly overdesigned but rather appealing triangular watch, the Anoma A1 Watch. The project of a young French-British watch enthusiast, Matteo Violet Vianello, the watch made a sensation with a sculptural case playing on the […]
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Blancpain‘s long-standing ties to diving need little introduction. For over 20 years, the brand has been committed to raising awareness of the need to protect our oceans through the Blancpain Ocean Commitment (BOC) program. The latest BOC initiative is a limited series of 100 watches, the Fifty Fathoms Tech BOC IV, a more compact and […]
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Last year, Seiko updated one of its best-selling models, the classic, rather compact and vintage-inspired Prospex 1965 Heritage Diver, releasing a new collection with improved mechanics, reduced dimensions, upgraded water-resistance and a new bracelet – all the evolutions can be explored in this in-depth video. As you know, this watch is a modern recreation of […]
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This year, Seiko celebrates the 60th anniversary of one of its most important timepieces, its first dive watch, the 62MAS. While some would have expected the brand to come with yet another vintage-inspired re-creation of this historic model – it might come later this year – for now, we have a trio of new models. […]
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In 1965, Seiko entered the race for the best dive watch, much later than the Swiss did. Seiko released its first ever dive watch, known as the 62MAS, the mother of all upcoming aquatic watches of the brand. It’s a story that we’ve told many times on MONOCHROME. What matters most today is that 2025 […]
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Let me state something that I know will spark some people; as a watch-loving community, we’ve become far too negative in our opinions. Especially when it comes to social media, it’s easy to discard something you don’t like or even ridicule or bash. It’s a fairly common thing to express one’s (negative) opinion in such […]
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Watches, like most products from industrial activities, are ruled by constraints and compromises – whether these are commercial, technological, design-oriented or economical. This is why we, watch enthusiasts, can often be rather disappointed by many new releases. Surely, independent watchmakers playing in a much higher price range can overpass some of these constraints, as a […]
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Squale is often regarded as sort of a hidden gem of the dive watch scene, a brand that speaks mostly to hardcore divers and seasoned aquatic watch enthusiasts. Created by Charles Von Büren in 1959, who also made cases for multiple other companies (military Fifty Fathoms watches, for example), the brand gained fame thanks to […]
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The name Tank at Cartier means far more than just a watch… It’s an entire range of watches, all distinguished by some design elements first defined by the so-called Tank Normale of 1917. From there, the collection expanded to dozens of designs, such as the Tank Louis Cartier, the Cintrée, the Française and the Asymétrique, […]
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As you probably know by now, Audemars Piguet is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. Last week, the Le Brassus-based brand released an array of new watches, predominantly focused on a new, clever and technically advanced perpetual calendar movement getting rid of recessed correctors (it is far more complex than you might imagine…) But that […]
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While the Prospex collection of Seiko tends to play on the serious side of things with pro-oriented tool watches, the Seiko 5 Sports range has been a great field for creativity for the brand, using it to create dozens of collaborative projects with brands, artists or franchises. Fun, accessible, fairly robust and with a design […]
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In watchmaking, like in fashion, trends come and go. We have seen a surge of green dials a few years ago, dozens of watches playing on the 1970s vibe with integrated bracelet or vintage re-editions of entire past catalogues. This year, aside from a certain appeal for pink and purple dials, the watch industry seems […]
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Let me give you one word that matters for the company and fans of the brand: Einsatzzeitmesser, or should I say EMZ. Now things should become a bit clearer for you, as there’s a good reason why, when looking at these new Sinn 613 St and 613 St UTC models, they might ring a bell. […]
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The Wristmons series has been an almost endless source of inspiration for independent watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin – who’s also known to be a pretty talented master of complications. From classic Joker watches to Minions, Clowns, complex models or even a prototype that could well be the thinnest mechanical watch ever created, the collection has expanded […]
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Every year since 2020, to celebrate the month in which three close friends – Alain Marhic, Jérôme Mage and Joseph Châtel – founded March LA.B, a highly limited and “Millésimée” watch is revealed. This year, the AM2 Slim GMT Titanium “Millesime March 2025” Edition may be seen as a combination of styles and features of […]
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An unusual phenomenon in the watch world, there have been two official sightings of flamingos since the beginning of the year. The first was in January with Tudor’s Black Bay Flamingo Blue, named after a mythical, non-existent colour of the Phoenicopterus. The second is Perrelet’s new Turbine Pink Flamingo, appropriately attired in the more habitual […]
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Enameling is one of the oldest decorative techniques, invented over 4,000 years ago and used, for example, in Mesopotamia and then Egypt. Surprisingly enough, the earliest enamel all used the cloisonné technique, known to be one of the most complex techniques currently in use. Under the word enamel, at least in watchmaking and decorative techniques, […]
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EVs are booming at the moment, and I’ve said before they are here to stay. But, I say this again too; they are a part of the solution to a global problem, but not the solution. And whenever it involves adding extra doses of fun into cars or preserving classics for future generations, we can certainly […]
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Perpetual calendar chronograph watches are remarkable in their ability to measure the fleeting seconds of the present moment and given the right conditions, the passing of days, months, and years far into the future – perhaps even into eternity. Thus, a good title for this review could be From Here to Eternity, the same as […]
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