High-end Watches Archives - Page 115 of 121

“The Monochrome Video Week” – Ateliers DeMonaco, Discover an Atelier created for Nobility

Don’t be fooled by the fact that Ateliers DeMonaco is owned by watch brand Frederique Constant, and by the other fact that now-a-days both are owned by the Japanese brand Citizen. Here, unlike Constant, accessible luxury is not the rule. Noblesse Oblige is the brand’s motto, and a genuine passion for fine watchmaking, interesting complications, superior finishing, and devotion to traditions is what determines the world of Ateliers DeMonaco. Follow us in a manufacture visit of Ateliers DeMonaco, discover their unique high-end watches and let Pim Koeslag explain you all about this discreet but highly desirable watch brand.

“The Monochrome Video Week” – MCT Watches, The Present and Future of an Independent Brand

You certainly know how much love we have here, at Monochrome Watches, for independent watchmaking and unconventional displays of the time. In this small but so creative field of the industry, one brand always intrigued us: MCT Watches and their unique prism-based timepieces. Denis Giguet and Pierre Jacques, the founder and the CEO of the brand, today the two men behind MCT Watches, explain the ins-and-outs behind running such a manufacture. They talk details about the specific, unique, hyper-creative display and mechanism behind a MCT Watch and share some ideas for the future of the brand. “The Monochrome Video Week” brings you in unusual territories, the underground side of watchmaking.

“The Monochrome Video Week” – URWERK, Celebrating 20 Years of Visionary Watchmaking

1997: Martin Frei and Felix Baumgartner launch Urwerk and their first model, the UR 101, freely inspired by the 17th century Campanus brothers’ night clock (one of the things you might not know about URWERK). 2016: the brand will soon celebrate its 20th anniversary. 20 year of unchained creations, of unusual display of the time, of bold and creative watchmaking, with however a great respect to traditions and haute-horlogerie (and again something that you might not know about the brand). Today is thus the perfect moment for us to sit down with Felix Baumgartner, co-founder of URWERK, and to see how this bold and unchained independent watchmaker started, how they found inspiration for their first creations and how the brand evolved over the years to become the great brand we know today.

“The Monochrome Video Week” – Montblanc, Hand Decoration At The Villeret Manufacture

As watch journalists, one of the most recurring questions we have is how a small wrist accessory (a.k.a a watch) can have a 5 or 6-digit price tag? And clearly, for those who are not entirely into watches, that’s an entirely justified question. In order to draw an answer to this highly complex and delicate question, we took Davide Cerrato, Managing Director of Montblanc Watch Division, apart for a properly interesting discussion. Davide will guide us inside the Montblanc Villeret Manufacture, the haute-horlogerie sanctuary of the brand, to discover the beauty of real hand-finishing as it’s executed by Montblanc’s watchmakers. Polishing, Anglages, Tourbillon… Let us bring you in this fascinating world of hand-decoration through a long, in-depth video.

Montblanc Introduces Bronze Into Its 1858 Collection, Including The Stunning 1858 Chronograph Tachymeter

The Montblanc 1858 Collection certainly is one of our favorites here, at Monochrome. It indeed pays tribute to the military roots of the Villeret manufacture and the 1930s pilot watches produced at that time by Minerva (now part of Montblanc). Large diameters, highly contrasted dials, cathedral hands… all sounds perfectly vintage and faithful to the Minerva heritage. To even reinforce that vintage feel, the brand is about to introduce some new models in the collection, which for the first time will use bronze elements for the case, and this includes the stunning Montblanc 1858 Chronograph Tachymeter, that we already showed you several times.

The New A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Moon Phase, now with Integrated Day/Night Indicator

The Lange 1 is the icon of the A. Lange & Söhne collection since its re-inception, in 1994. Back then, it was a quite disruptive, yet hyper-elegant watch… and it still is. Another recurring theme at A. Lange & Söhne is the moon, which can be found on several watches of the Saxonian Manufacture – See the Saxonia Moon Phase. So what if you combine both? You’ll have the Lange 1 Moon Phase. And since the standard Lange 1 went under a slight but welcomed update in 2015, it is time now for the moon version to benefit from the new Lange 1 movement and from a new day/night indication, right into the moonphase indication. Here is the new, SIHH 2017, A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Moon Phase (not to be confused with the Grand Lange 1 Moon Phase).

Pre-SIHH 2017 – Introducing the Jaeger-LeCoultre Duometre Collection now with Magnetite Grey Dials

The Jaeger-LeCoultre Duometre is a collection rather apart in JLC’s catalogue. It’s a collection of complex watches, with unique style, unique complication and properly interesting movement’s architecture. As a preview of the upcoming Geneva Watch Fair, the SIHH 2017, the brand will unveil 3 new versions of one of its stars. Please welcome the Jaeger-LeCoultre Duometre Collection now with magnetite grey dials and pink gold cases, for the Spherotourbillon, the Quantième Lunaire and the Chronograph.

Review – Ressence Type 3, The Oil-Filled Watch That Goes Beyond Hands

When it comes to unique displays of the time, you though you’ve already seen everything: wandering hours, chains, magnetic balls, liquid-filled capillary, rotating prisms… Then, in terms of complications and construction of the overall watch, you thought the same. Well, you’d better look at this watch, the Ressence Type 3, simply because it has both a very special display and an almost unique construction. Certainly, the Type 3 doesn’t have the visual flamboyance of a MB&F, the bold high-tech design of an URWERK or the apparent complexity of an HYT. However, under this restrained attitude and this relative discretion hides a watch filled with oil and that does not use hands to display the time. And that makes the Ressence Type 3 very special to us.

Introducing – MCT S110 Evo Vantablack by Anish Kapoor (featuring the blackest material in the universe after a black hole…)

What is a color? The perception we have of a reflection of light on a surface. What is black, as perceived by human eye? It is the opposite of color. Black is an achromatic color, literally a color without hue. Black is a surface that reflect or emit only very low light and that absorb most of the visible light. What is pitch black, in its purest form? It is the complete absence or complete absorption of light. Real black doesn’t really exist (except a black hole) and what we name black usually is dark grey, dark blue, dark red, etc… And even if pure black can’t be achieved by any material, some tried anyway. And MCT Watches, with the S110 Evo Vantablack made with artist Anish Kapoor, try to get as close as possible from black, with the blackest material ever produced by humankind.

Introducing – Carl F. Bucherer Manero Tourbillon Limited Edition 2016

Carl F. Bucherer was founded in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1888 and is based there ever since. It not only creates mechanical timepieces with one eye on traditional Swiss watchmaking and the other on contemporary design, they do this with their own in-house movements in some collections. With the introduction of their first Tourbillon movement in 2013, the family-owned brand is now ready to incorporate this into the next model: The Carl F. Bucherer Manero Tourbillon Limited Edition 2016.

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Category: High-end Watches