2020 will be remembered as a traumatic year and a turning point. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a world changer. As far as luxury watches are concerned, the outbreak of coronavirus has shaken fundamental aspects of the industry. Undeniably, it has been and still is an annus horribilis, with Swiss Watch exports plunging by 28.3% […]
With the development of e-commerce and as the trend for vintage watches consolidates, the market for second-hand luxury watches is growing fast. A survey by the Boston Consulting Group published in September 2020 reveals that “the market for secondhand hard luxury items – primarily watches and jewellery – is worth about €21 billion worldwide and […]
There is no doubt that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic will take a heavy toll on the watch industry. Watch brands are facing a collapse in sales and this crisis will be one of the gravest in decades. Nobody knows what the exit scenario from lockdown will be and how deep and how long […]
There is no doubt that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic will take a heavy toll on the watch industry. Watch brands are facing a collapse in sales and this crisis will be one of the gravest in decades. Nobody knows what the exit scenario from lockdown will be and how deep and how long […]
Every four years is a leap year and the month of February gets an extra day, a leap day, on February 29th. 2020 is a leap year and everything flows smoothly at regular, four-year intervals until 2100, which we discover is not a leap year. Wait a minute, 2100 is divisible by four, so what […]
What to do during these cold and long winter nights? Exactly: browse for watches. But thanks to the Delma watch company, there are other things you could be doing to while away the hours. And that is something I would love to show you right now. (And don’t worry, there will be a diving watch […]
New year, new decade and… new expectations too. We, at MONOCHROME, love watches and the watchmaking industry as a whole. No debate. And well, you know the drill, “spare the rod, spoil the child”. Since we enjoy watches and horology that much, we can’t help being critical, expecting more, wanting the industry to improve, to […]
Many buyers of fine mechanical watches possess a dreamy and nebulous notion that these precious timekeepers are “hand-made”. Watch manufacturers understandably do little to dispel that notion. The vast majority of watches produced today are not hand-made. At the top end of the market – where price tags are five or six figures – components are hand-finished and then hand-assembled, the […]
The past year was generally a bad one for the fine watch business, with layoffs, retiring management and plunging profits. In such an environment hopes for great products aren’t high, since watch brands now focus on safe bets that are easy to sell. Nonetheless there were several standout watches unveiled over the year, ranging from the […]
Just two days ago at Phillips’ Hong Kong watch auction a pair of timepieces that are masterpieces of contemporary independent watchmaking went under the hammer with dramatically different results. The first was a Philippe Dufour Simplicity that sold for US$258,000, about five times its original retail price some 12 years ago and just a day after Christie’s accomplished the same […]