First Look – Blancpain Updates its Villeret Collection with the 2025 Golden Hour Series

The latest Blancpain releases are classical watchmaking refined with a purpose. Long before the Villeret collection officially gained its name in 2003, Blancpain had already set the template in the early 1980s with a small, classically framed complete calendar moonphase (Cal. 6395). The look with the double-stepped bezel, Roman numerals, and slim cases became the […]

1 week ago

Buying Guide – Cheap Tricks: Six of the Best Budget-Friendly Watch Deals Around

At MONOCHROME, there’s often debate about various aspects of watches. Size, materials, colours, and so on are all regularly scrutinised by the team. And they should be, as we love to offer you our best perspective on watches possible. One thing that always crops up in these discussions is price. Do we think a watch […]

1 week ago

First Look – The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatic, now Available in Compact 38mm Cases

One of the earliest dive watches, the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms has long been one of the most emblematic models available on the market. In 2007, the classic Fifty Fathoms Automatique (ref. 5015) arrived with its large (even oversized) 45mm case and calibre 1315 – two fundamental elements of the permanent collection. And this size has […]

4 months ago

Introducing – The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 42mm Now in Polished Steel

One of the first purpose-built modern dive watches produced in the mid-1950s, Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms was a key player in the development of “skin diving” and the watch selected by several elite diving corps. Taken out of production in the 1980s, Swatch Group’s Marc A. Hayek resuscitated the Fifty Fathoms in 2003. In 2007, the […]

6 months ago

First Look – The New Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Tech Ocean Commitment IV

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 […]

8 months ago

Introducing – The new Swatch x Blancpain Scuba Fifty Fathoms Pink Ocean is… Very Pink

Following a rather unmanageable success with the Moonswatch collaboration with Omega, Swatch did it again in 2023 with yet another brand from the group – this time Blancpain – and with another emblematic watch – the Fifty Fathoms. The result, an accessible Bioceramic watch inspired by Blancpain’s famous dive watch, came with an automatic movement […]

9 months ago

Recap – The Best Pilot’s Watches of 2024

The Pilot’s Watch has always been one of the most popular types of watches, and for good reason. The utilitarian nature of the aviator watch lends itself perfectly to everyday life, thanks to excellent legibility (often), striking looks and robust construction. This year is no exception, as plenty of very cool new pilot watches entered […]

10 months ago

Recap – The Best Dive Watches of 2024

There’s hardly a category of watches that is as disputed as the diver. Every year, in all price ranges and all possible styles, we’re seeing hundreds of new dive watches released by watchmakers from all over the world. Choosing the best models in this segment of the watch industry is not an easy task and […]

10 months ago