58-year-old Thierry Ducret has been teaching watchmaking in the Lycée Edgar Faure in Morteau since 1996. This watchmaking school is one of the most prestigious in France and has trained dozens of skilled craftsmen, working for some of the most exclusive brands… If you are into indie watchmaking, many of the French “Nouvelle Vague” of […]
Fifty-eight-year-old Thierry Ducret has been teaching watchmaking in the Lycée Edgar Faure in Morteau since 1996. This watchmaking school is one of the most prestigious in France and has trained dozens of skilled craftsmen, working for some of the most exclusive brands… If you are into indie watchmaking, many of the French “Nouvelle Vague” of […]
Yesterday, Grand Seiko unveiled a jewellery timepiece during the Seiko summit that officially kicked off the 140th-anniversary celebrations of the brand’s foundation. Housed in a platinum case and powered by the brand’s hyper-precise Spring Drive calibre, the green garnets, diamonds and mother-of-pearl capture the natural beauty of the Mishaka pond in Shiojiri. Limited to just […]
Dear Mr Dufour… is how I envisioned starting our last Rolex prediction for 2021. Especially because it’s not really a prediction like our other predictions – of which quite a few have become a reality in the past years. No, this one is rather wishful thinking, a desire, a hope for something complicated yet elegant, […]
If watch brands are proudly trumpeting their watchmaking expertise and manufacturing capabilities, suppliers don’t always get the credit they deserve. Today we are taking a look at Timeless, a movement manufacturer that just hired two well-known industry veterans, Pierre Favre and Dominique Renaud. A good reason to make us think that we’ll hear more about […]
If watch brands are proudly trumpeting their watchmaking expertise and manufacturing capabilities, suppliers don’t always get the credit they deserve. Today we are taking a look at Timeless, a movement manufacturer that just hired two well-known industry veterans, Pierre Favre and Dominique Renaud. A good reason to make us think that we’ll be hearing more […]
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.
Schwarz Etienne, despite flying a little under the radar, has a lot to offer. Not only does the manufacturer stand out for its vertical integration, but it’s also one of the very few within the industry to independently manufacture all its own components, supplying these to third party brands including MING. Its sister brand, E20 […]
Wilhelm Schmid has been ten years with the brand that ‘never stands still’. After a career at BMW, among others in South Africa, he arrived in Glashütte to be the new CEO at A. Lange & Söhne, the pinnacle of German watchmaking. With a background in sales and a strong passion for mechanics, it seemed like a match made in heaven. Wilhelm Schmid’s past ten years at Lange were during a pretty turbulent period. It already started in the aftermath of the massive global recession that started in 2008, now the corona pandemic that has a huge influence on the watch industry, the opening of the new manufacture, and of course the sad passing of Walter Lange.
Ultra-thin is a truly fascinating area of watchmaking. Ultra-thin is the child of miniaturization, which has always been one of the watchmakers’ goals. Ultra-thin is where design and mechanics meet, where the ingenuity of the watchmaker isn’t guided by the need to pack more and more functions, but by the wish to make the watch […]