John McGonigle is a name that will immediately sound familiar to some of the most seasoned watch collectors. After a career in high-end watchmaking, working for some of the most prestigious watch manufactures, creating some of the finest grande complications, it was time for the Irishman to return home. John didn’t leave horology though, and […]
Atelier de Chronométrie is something special in the watchmaking scene… Truly special. And what these Barcelona-based guys are doing is absolutely fascinating. ‘Handmade’ takes on its original meaning here and wristwatches in the Atelier are crafted in the good old traditional way. Specialized in 1940s-styled watches based on revived vintage Omega calibres, what you’re about […]
Last year saw the introduction of a new brand on the independent watchmaking scene, a brand that impressed with a novel way to display the time; Genus Watches. While the vast majority of watches display the time in a classic way (with 2 or 3 hands rotating over a round dial), Genus came with something radical, […]
The first time we met with Remy Cools and presented his work on MONOCHROME was in 2018. At the time, Cools had freshly graduated from his watchmaking school, the Lycée Edgar Faure in Morteau. This talented young craftsman had caught our attention with his montre d’école, the school watch that he completed in order to […]
On 24 October 2019, A. Lange & Söhne introduced something entirely new, an important step for this usually rather conservative high-end watch brand; it was a sports watch, made in stainless steel, with a bracelet – three unprecedented features for ALS that made this very watch, the Odysseus, a hot topic of conversation. During the […]
The density of horological technicality packed into this watch is enough to take your breath away. Following in the stellar wake of Brainstorm Chapter One released in 2019, Chapter Two takes on board a host of complications: double-sided flying tourbillon; world timer indexed to a second time zone; and moon phase and power reserve indicators. […]
An independent watchmaker from the Vallée de Joux, Romain Gauthier is considered a master of hand decoration in Swiss watchmaking, demonstrating the savoir-faire of his team through impeccably finished movements. To mark the 15th anniversary of the Romain Gauthier brand, what better way than to take one of his outstanding models and make it even […]
For those of you living in countries where restrictions have been lifted for air travel and even for those of us who can’t travel but like to keep an eye on the time in some other country, a GMT or second time zone watch is of the essence. As part of its 2020 novelties, A. […]
If you are a regular reader of MONOCHROME, you probably know Petermann Bédat. This independent brand was founded by a duo of young talented watchmakers, two friends who established their workshop in Renens (near Lausanne, Switzerland) to perform restoration work and who ended up creating their own project. We already discovered their first watch, which […]
Guilloché has been practised since the 15th century. This artistic craft consists in engraving regular, repetitive patterns with a machine, hence the difference with hand-engraving. For hand-guilloché, a craftsman drives the machine with a wheel and guides the piece to be engraved by hand. Engraved with a CNC machine, the pattern will be perfect, always […]