It’s long been confirmed that the integrated sports watch segment of the industry is a very crowded place and not easy to enter, and even tougher to make a true big impact. Every new entry is directly compared to some of the blueprint models of the concept, such as the Royal Oak, Nautilus, Overseas and […]
Several initiatives exist to promote the development and future of watchmaking, as well as to discover and support the talents of tomorrow. This is crucial to nurture the next generation of watchmakers and protect the art we love and share here on MONOCHROME. Among these initiatives is one that is particularly inspiring, the Cartier Prize […]
Concept cars are where carmakers and designers go wild and create the craziest, most unhinged experimental vehicles you can imagine. They often showcase never-before-seen technology and ideas, provide a glimpse into design elements for future production cars, or downright do something outrageous for the sake of being outrageous. Most of these are relegated to a […]
The idea of combining the resonance effect and a minute repeater isn’t new to Armin Strom. The independent watchmaker already, back in 2019, presented a technically impressive watch (what else to expect, as everything the brand does is technically impressive), the Masterpiece Minute Repeater Resonance. Regarding pure watchmaking, there was nothing to complain about here. […]
Maurice Lacroix introduced the 1975 collection last year to mark its 50th anniversary. Since then, the line has expanded to include GMT and day-date models, as well as the 1975 Master Grand Date Retrograde, which was released earlier this year. Now, the Swiss brand welcomes the new 1975 Legacy with a machine-guilloché petite seconde display that sits […]
Happy Friday, friends, and congrats on tackling another week. The days are now growing shorter (if you're north of the equator), and if you, like me, live in a state where fireworks are legal, best of luck for what will presumably be a very loud and long week. But before all that, let's take a moment and enjoy some watches.Scorekeeping last week's picks, the Dugena and Mulco chronographs don't sell till the 27th, but the Rolex 6241 sold for 2,000,000 CHF, the Patek 5960 for 34,000 CHF, the Exc
Precisely 225 years ago on this day (on June 26, 1801, or on 7 Messidor An IX, to use the French Republican calendar in force at the time), Abraham-Louis Breguet was granted the patent for what is, without a doubt, its most famous invention: the tourbillon. Designed to counter the problem of gravity affecting the […]
Tourbillon and Breguet are two words that belong in the same story. Indeed, on 26 June 1801, and thus exactly 225 years ago, Abraham-Louis Breguet was granted the patent for his invention, an anti-gravity device that he would name the tourbillon. And today, the brand celebrates this crucial invention by releasing a series of new […]
I made a decision long ago to never use Hodinkee as a personal platform – rather, to keep it to professional writing about things that impact people who come here solely for watches. Today, I may be breaking my own rule, but sometimes, some things are worth it – or in this case, some people. Om Malik died yesterday at Stanford Hospital after a prolonged fight with issues related to his heart. For those who don't know Om, he was born in India, educated in the UK, and was one of the first people
Van Cleef & Arpels approaches watchmaking as a medium for storytelling. The brand’s Poetic Complications line, launched in 2006, unites its high jewellery and artistic expertise with sophisticated mechanical movements to bring these stories to life. Expanding its Jour Nuit collection, Van Cleef adds a moon phase complication with on-demand animation inside the majestic Midnight […]
The year was 7 Messidor Year IX—or for those who don't follow the French Republican Calendar, June 26, 1801. After years of intense study and experimentation and some correspondence with his friend John Arnold (who similarly experimented with the concept before his death in 1799), Abraham-Louis Breguet was granted a 10-year patent for the "tourbillon." By 1829, Breguet and his workshop would only make 40 watches with the regulating organ, which was designed to eliminate positional errors and d
Over the past couple of years, we’ve come to the conclusion that Union Glashütte is quite a stand-out brand among the predominantly Swiss Made brands under the Swatch Group umbrella. It benefits from the group’s vertical integration yet is able to put its own mark on things, allowing it to hallmark its watches as Made […]
When the Paris-based brand Baltic released the Peter Auto Tricompax in 2022, it was well received by enthusiasts. The watch looked straight back at classic racing chronographs and carried a strong vintage feel. This 1960s-inspired limited-edition watch fit neatly into Baltic’s chronograph story, which began in 2017 with the neo-vintage Bicompax 001 and later became […]
The Orbit, presented in 2022, is one of the defining models within Armin Strom’s catalogue. With the date displayed on demand via the bezel, it offered an original take on a function that has stayed mostly unchanged for decades. Since the launch, the independent Biel-based manufacture has produced several editions, including the inaugural First Edition, […]
Continuing Doxa's focus on its core late-60s aesthetic, the brand recently unveiled the T.Graph II, the latest iteration of its core dive chronograph. Reborn but largely faithful to the original (and indeed to some more recent T.Graph forays), the new T.Graph II ports the Sub 300's classic look into a burly yet entirely wearable automatic chronograph that comes in Doxa's classic trio of colors, along with the surprise inclusion of a blue "Caribbean" execution. With a flagship price tag, it's a
Alongside the sporty Fifty Fathoms, Bathyscaphe or Air Command collections, the Villeret range, named after the village in the Vallée de Joux, where Jehan-Jacques Blancpain set up his workshop on the top floor of his house in 1735, is the epitome of classic. Ranging from time-only to high complications, the entry-level model to the Villeret […]
Akhor is a new Geneva indie brand carving a niche for high-end watchmaking, poetic design and top-end finishing. A collective project founded by Anissa Bader in 2025, Akhor is built around its floating dial architecture with a patented two-disc construction by sister company Clamax, a Geneva-based component and micromechanics manufacturer. Writing the next chapter, the […]
What We KnowToday, Blancpain has downsized its ultra-thin Villeret Ultraplate dress watch, with new options in 38mm for greater wearability. The previous 40mm options of the 'Golden Hour' series, which I covered last October, remain, but the 38mm options are going to be much more appealing all around as proper dress watches.The case still remains incredibly thin, especially for a self-winding watch, at 8.35mm, but the 38mm downsizing now offers a short 43.35mm lug-to-lug measurement for small
Every summer, hundreds of classic cars take to the Alpine roads of Austria’s Montafon region for the Silvretta Classic. This rally has become a regular fixture in Union Glashütte‘s calendar too, with the German brand releasing a dedicated limited edition almost every year. The Viro Chronograph Silvretta Classic 2023, with its bicompax layout, was followed […]
It was about halfway through James Cameron's speech on the Rolex Landing at the new National Geographic Museum of Exploration in Washington, D.C., that I glanced up. There, suspended above my head, was a familiar yellow object. To the uninitiated (and less nerdy), it might look like an alien spaceship from a low-budget sci-fi film. But I knew what it was immediately: Jacques Cousteau's soucoupe, the diving saucer from his 1964 documentary, "World Without Sun." As I listened to Cameron go on ab