Today I’m talking with long-time friend François-Xavier Overstake, aka @equationdutemps. This is not just his Instagram handle, but also the name of his blog about watches, which is probably one of the most important French publications on watches. Besides running his own blog, Francois-Xavier is a moderator on Watchprosite, a large watch forum. At 51 […]
I guess at MONOCHROME we do not have to tell you about cultural differences, however there’s one that stands out for people who are passionate about horology and wrist watches in particular. Watch collectors uniting in a club-like manor is something that did not happen, or hardly, in main land Europe. Most European watch collectors prefer to fly under the radar and do not feel any urge to share their, often pretty expensive, collection with others. That is, until Instagram came along and made it easy to meet like-minded collectors, in complete anonymity. And that’s how I got in touch with @Watchesbelike. He’s a 34-year old finance professional and watch collector, who lives in Paris and can be found under this alias on Instagram. We exchanged quite a bit about watches in general, collecting and his love for his Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711a. Although he’s been asked to, he would never sell it. He explains why.
It’s not often that a woman is the interviewee in our Collector’s Series, but today Lung Lung Thun is star of the show! Lung Lung Thun is a 31-year-old securities broker with her own business, working in Hong Kong and Singapore. When she walked past an Audemars Piguet Boutique in Singapore in 2010, looking for her […]
In this week’s installment of The Collector’s Series, we’re talking with Kelvin Sa about his amazing De Bethune DBS. Kelvin, one of the founding members of the Shanghai Watch Gang (@shanghaiwatchgang), knows a lot about the watch that we discuss today and meeting fellow watch enthusiasts certainly contributes to this. Kelvin Sa, or Mr_Kelvinator on […]
Today we’re talking with non-other that Justin Hast about his platinum Grand Lange 1. You might remember Justin from when he did The Collector’s Series for MONOCHROME. So now he’s on the other side of the table, being the interviewee! After helping us out with The Collector’s Series, Justin continued to work in the world of watches; photography for several auction houses, writing for Hodinkee, and much more. Justin also recently published his first book, but today he’s explaining why he spend a hefty amount on a pretty simple classic watch, the A. Lange & Söhne Grande Lange 1.
Each member of the MONOCHROME team has their favourites amongst the many brands and watches we share with all of you. And for me, one of the brands I have been following closely since I joined MONOCHROME is the Swedish brand of Gustafsson & Sjögren, or GoS in short. The duo of Patrik Sjögren and Johan Gustafson offers very unique watches incorporating hand-forged Damascus steel for the cases, bezels, crowns, dials and more. So when I learned of the opportunity to chat with the owner of a very special 1-of-5 GoS Skadi, I just had to follow through.
When you associate the words Japan and watchmaking, most enthusiasts will – rightfully – think Seiko or Grand Seiko. But that would be oh-so reductive. Japan, with Switzerland and Germany, is an important hub of independent watchmakers. And in pure respect of Japanese traditions, their devotion to handcrafts and ancestral metiers d’art is simply staggering. […]
Today, for another instalment of The Collector’s Series, we leave the stage to one of the finest watch enthusiasts we have encountered, a man with an impressive knowledge of independent watchmaking and, important in this column, a real strategy when it comes to collecting watches. @Watch_Time_It_Is presents a very unusual yet fascinating timepiece, made by […]
The attraction, the reasons that drive us towards a certain kind of watch, the lack of rationale behind the love for a timepiece… and then the hunt for THAT special one. Behind most watch acquisitions there’s a story, a motivation to go for one particular version and not another, subjective factors that explain why one […]
For this new instalment of the Collector’s Series, we meet again with California-based collector @Watch_Time_It_Is (his IG account is something that could be named “watch wonderland”…), who already talked to us about two extremely desirable watches from the independent watchmaking scene, a McGonigle Tuscar Bánú and a Grönefeld Parallax. And for his third (but not last) appearance […]