Frank Geelen’s Baselworld 2017 Top 10 and Musing about the Fair

Back in 2008 the world faced a new challenge. The worldwide financial crisis began with the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The following year the watch industry was kind of nervous and saw a small drop in sales. And while the financial crisis went on, on a global scale (we’re still recovering from that), the big crisis in the watch industry didn’t really come through… yet. Last year was the first year that brands and luxury groups published numbers that showed serious signs of the crisis, and this year’s numbers are actually more than worrisome. This year the crisis could also be felt in the novelties as presented by the brands, not only during the SIHH in January, but also at the 100th edition of the Baselworld Watch & Jewelry show that has just come to an end. Still, it was possible to list ten watches that got me exited! However first some musings about this year’s edition of Baselworld…

8 years ago

The Nine Reviews You Loved Most in 2016 On Monochrome-Watches

Like we always say, Reviews are crucial for us, at Monochrome-Watches – and for two main reasons. First of all, in order to bring you the best possible stories and the most objective opinions, we need to have some proper wrist-time with the watches. It’s no debate here: wearing the watch and experiencing it for a while, as if we were owning it, is mandatory. It is our editorial philosophy. Second, as watch journalist, we believe that our reviews will influence your choices and for that reason, we think that you also need these reviews to make the most informed purchases. This is why, to close 2016, instead of showing you our most read stories, we’d like to show you the nine reviews you loved most this year on Monochrome-Watches (based on page-views and reactions).

8 years ago

Flowers of Evil – Skull Watches That Keep You On Time… Until It’s Your Time!

A Carcass” (a must-read; here) is without doubt Charles Baudelaire’s most infamous poem, exploring the idea that beauty can be found in even the most morbid scenes. Like Baudelaire’s “Flowers of Evil“, skull watches attempt to extract beauty from horror. These magnificent mechanical works of art emblazoned with the face of death are at once both shocking and engaging. They also serve an important purpose, an allusion to which we can find in one of the last stanzas of the poem

8 years ago

Christmas Shopping Guide – The Best Of Indie Watchmaking Of 2016

After showing you our selection for the best sports and dive watches, after the 5 best chronographs, the best dress watches or the best of the ultra-complicated watches, it is now time to end these guides with what certainly is our most preferred category, the one that properly creates sparkles in the eyes of our team: the best of “indie watchmaking” of 2016. Just before Christmas, we bring you the ultra-bold, the ultra-complex, the ultra-everything. No compromises, no justification of price, no industrial matters. Here, it’s all about dream, passion, creativity and innovation. Here are our 5 best watches from independent watchmakers introduced in 2016.

8 years ago

Christmas Shopping Guide – The Best Chronograph Watches of 2016

Following our previous guides about the best sports watches, the best dress watches and the best ultra-complicated watches of 2016, it’s time for us now to look at one of the main watch categories of them all, and I mean by that the chronographs. Chronographs are amongst the most sold timepieces, they are amongst the most sought-after in auctions and two of them are certainly the most iconic watches of all times. The best chronograph watches of 2016 is not a subject we should treat lightly at all. And here are the 5 watches that resulted from long debates at the Monochrome redaction.

8 years ago

Christmas Shopping Guide – The Best Ultra-Complicated Watches of 2016

After going through some of 2016’s best sport watches and 2016’s best dress watches, it is now time for our Christmas shopping guide to gather some of the most striking complicated watches released in 2016. Be ready to break the piggy bank open as we’ll go at the cutting edge of watchmaking, with some of the most inventive, complex and intricate mechanisms unveiled in 2016. We sat down with the team aiming at picking 5 and we ended up with 8 watches (it has been a tough choice and we do what we want…), and a few special mentions.

8 years ago

Christmas Buying Guide – 5 Best Dive / Sports Watches of 2016

Today, our readers on the other side of the Atlantic are celebrating Thanksgiving, and while this day doesn’t make a lot of sense for those in Old Europe or Asia, it however opens the festive season. And who says festive season says Christmas and our usual buying guides – and also an overview of the best watches we’ve seen this year. After long debates and fights at the Monochrome-Watches headquarters (not literally, no worries), here are our 5 Best Dive / Sports Watches of 2016, for all budgets and tastes.

8 years ago

5 Cool Finds – Our Picks from the 94th Auction at Crott Auctioneers (Including hyper-exclusive Lange and vintage chronographs from Rolex, Omega & Heuer)

Today, we’re back with our traditional “5 Cool Finds”, however in a slightly different formula. No worries, the deal is still the same: 5 watches that we pick for you and that deserve your interest. What is different today is that we look at an auction, the 94th watch auction from Crott Auctioneers, a German auction house with great reputation. The sale, which will occur on November 12th, 2016, features no less than 673 lots but, then again, no worries, we’re here to help you and we found 5 watches that are properly cool: 2 rare and superb modern A. Lange & Söhne and 3 vintage chronographs that couldn’t be more iconic.

8 years ago

5 Cool Finds – 5 “Youngtimer” Rolex Watches for a lifetime

In our 3 previous episodes of “5 Cool Finds“, we’ve been looking at specific types of watches – multiple time-zones, super-complicated and dive watches. Probably, you’ve seen that in every article, there was at least one Rolex, and if you know your thing about watchmaking, you do understand why this brand is so well represented. Thus, instead of having one Rolex in a selection of 5 watches, we decided with our partner Chronext to focus this week only on this brand. That doesn’t mean we’re about to change our habits. You know the deal, 5 watches, all “youngtimers”, meaning not vintage but not in the collection anymore. What we have are 5 Rolex watches, from the last 2 decades, with that unique iconic flair and that are made to last a lifetime.

8 years ago

5 Cool Finds – 5 Multiple Time-Zones Watches to Inspire the Traveler in you

Last week’s 5 Cool Finds’ selection was for the pleasure, to awake the horology enthusiast in you. This week, we move to practical functions – which does not mean the watches you’ll are not nice pieces… Today, we want to inspire the traveler in you, with 5 watches that will help you to keep track of time in (at least) two regions of the world. GMT, dual-time, world-timer… All of these names result in the end in watches that can be seen as the most practical pieces those days. Together with our partner Chronext, here are 5 multiple time-zones watches that will benefit the travelers that all of us are these days.

8 years ago