Czapek, a brand reborn recently and founded on the roots of Patek’s ex-partner, is expanding its collection with a beautifully designed timepiece blending tradition and modernity. The Place Vendôme is the brand’s first tourbillon and features dual time, power reserve and day/night indications, with a pleasant contemporary take on watchmaking.
Surprisingly, just a few weeks after the SIHH 2017, and without showing it to the press, Vacheron Constantin is today introducing a new iteration of the Traditionnelle World Time. No complaints yet, as we’re not going to hide our pleasure to see this watch, a well-known piece (explained here), back – and with an incredibly detailed dial, done by the hands of trained craftsmen, in enamel. Here is the new Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle World Time with Enamel Dial.
One thing to know about MCT Watches… They don’t do things like the others, and when it comes to play with the display of time, let’s all agree that their watches, with large numerals displayed on rotating prisms are simply on the other side of the planet, compared to traditional hands. Well, for Baselworld 2017, Denis Giguet (founder of MCT) comes with again something unusual, a digital hour indication recalling LCD screens of old electronic devices – but don’t worry, no quartz movements have being used here. Here is the MCT Dodekal One D110 and its super-cool hour display.
With the Basel watch fair opening its doors in a few days, pre-Baselworld novelties are now coming daily in our emails – and one surprised us, in a very good way, the Arnold & Son Tourbillon Chronometer No. 36. Symmetry and open-worked movements are essential in Arnold & Son’s collection but not only. Precision, as we’ve seen with the massively impressive Constant Force Tourbillon (that we properly tested), is also key (yet with a hefty price). But if you look for all of that, at a much more accessible price, the Tourbillon Chronometer No. 36 will certainly tick a few boxes…
When you think Fabergé, you hardly think about watches. And even more, you hardly imagine a hyper-innovative chronograph movement, which in some ways revolutionizes centuries of stop watches… However that is exactly what Fabergé introduces today: a movement with a brand new display, a brand new architecture and a brand new clutch, solving many of the traditional chronograph issues. Fabergé’s new timepieces is a chronograph that displays the elapsed hours, minutes and seconds centrally, with the passage of ‘normal’ hours and minutes around it. Please welcome the Fabergé Visionnaire Chronograph, with revolutionary movement by Agenhor (and we found the best possible video to explain it – thanks TheWatchesTV.)
“Purity” is, to me, a very desirable notion. This word has a great echo in my books and really is positively oriented. Nothing like “clean” or “uncluttered”. I personally have a soft spot for minimalistic design, for the beauty of a shape and of proportions, for the delicate curves and angles that create an object and that makes it bold, unique and desirable. I love minimalistic and simple approach in design, in furnitures, in architecture and, surprisingly (or not…), in watches. To me, purity also goes along the word detail; because purity and simplicity doesn’t mean void. And that’s where purity becomes beauty… and this where the Laurent Ferrier Galet Micro-Rotor “Montre Ecole” caught me.
If some of you might know this watch manufacture by now (thanks to a coverage here, at Monochrome), Ateliers deMonaco is clearly not the most famous of them all… Which, in all honesty, is rather a pity, as the brand has a lot to offer. Forget about the affiliation with the Frédérique Constant Group. Ateliers deMonaco plays in a different league (with a collection that comprises tourbillons, minute repeaters or Hallmark of Geneva watches…) and their latest creation has some appeal, both aesthetically and technically. Here is our review of the Ateliers deMonaco Admiral Chronograph Flyback Saphir.
UR for URWERK. T for Transformer. 8 for the motion of this reversible case. Add 20 for the 20th anniversary of the brand, and you’ll have the URWERK UR-T8, a watch that is just the concentrate of everything Martin Frei and Felix Baumgartner have created so far, everything they tried to express in their watches since 1997, everything they experienced in terms of style and way to indicate the time. The UR-T8 is all of that. It’s bold, it’s futuristic, it’s provocative, it’s highly unusual… It’s everything why we love URWERK, and more than that. See, we love it… but here is why.
When it has been launched, back in December 2015, we’ve been fairly surprised with the Ressence Type 5… In a very good way, this has to be said. For sure, a dive watch from Ressence was really not expected, however, when knowing the evolution of the concept initialized with the Type 3, it felt like a natural evolution. Apart from the cool display, this watch, thanks to its oil-filled dial, allowed to be the only mechanical dive watch with zero reflections underwater (and if you’re doubtful, see our field test here). Just between the SIHH and the upcoming Baselworld, Ressence now comes with a full titanium version of this watch, the Type 5G, and it has some arguments to convince. And after you saw it yesterday on all our competitors’ websites with press photos, we, at Monochrome, go hands-on with it.
Great achievements are often driven by a passion. When you talk with Laurent Ferrier, it’s immediately evident that he is a man of passions… Yes, passions with an ‘s’, because as you’ll see in this video although Laurent’s career as a watchmaker started with his passion for watches, the story of Laurent Ferrier as a watch brand has been shaped by his second passion, cars. Today, Monochrome is pleased to show you the human and personal story of a man, of his brand, of his love for watches, as well as the past, present and future of one of the nicest manufactures of traditional timepieces; Laurent Ferrier.