In 2020, Urwerk bid farewell to the UR-210, one of its most iconic watches, with the announcement of its final edition. Shortly after that, the UR-220 Falcon emerged, retaining the easily recognizable features of its predecessor while introducing a new case, redesigned movement, and additional functions. Fast forward three years, Urwerk founders Baumgartner and Frei […]
In 2022, I had the great pleasure of meeting Ondřej Berkus in person and spending a day at his workshop. The experience was like nothing I had ever experienced, and I decided to write about it here as my way of remembering every detail of the visit. Nearly exactly one year later, I had the […]
It’s not often that we get to introduce completely new brands that do things in a completely unique way. Sure, most watches we present, even the ones from breakout watchmakers, still rely on the same format of central hands making a rotation once every 12 hours. Watches that rewrite or even completely throw out the […]
A relatively young Swiss watchmaker, CODE41‘s motto is to break the codes of traditional watchmaking and distribution – to innovate off the beaten track. Not only is the creative process shared with its community, which can decide on aspects of future creations, but the brand has also created highly distinctive watches over the years, powered […]
Ever since 2004, the Germand brand of MeisterSinger has made it a habit of presenting annual special editions geared towards the Dutch market. This line of so-called NL Editions has not only captured the hearts of the Dutch but is actually quite popular outside of our small country as well. However, since production volumes are […]
As a rule, we rarely cover battery-powered watches on MONOCHROME – but rules are made to be broken, or at least make exceptions. And the quirky Gelfman IN-16 Nixie provided the perfect opportunity. With its retro-futuristic design, this digital display watch is simply in a class of its own… as the jury of the GPHG […]
Popeye-themed watches are all the rage these days, seemingly popping up everywhere from brands big and small. Recent examples include the Bamford London Popeye GMT Limited Edition and Reservoir’s own x LabelNoir x Popeye Watch, which also features retrograde minutes and jumping hours. These complications are a speciality for the brand and seen on (almost) […]
In 2022, Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei unveiled a limited edition watch in the UR-100V series, richly decorated drawing inspiration from the Aztec Sun Stone, a masterpiece of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican art. Today, Urwerk introduces the second UR-100V edition in the Time & Culture series, transporting us to Mesopotamia circa 3000 BC, specifically to the city […]
Louis Erard has repeatedly proven that the brand is open to exciting collaborations. Hailing from Le Noirmont in the Jura region, this brand has teamed up with seconde/seconde/, Label Noir, atelier oï, Konstantin Chaykin, Vianney Halter, Eric Giroud, and Alain Silberstein in recent years. For the fourth time, Louis Erard has reunited with Mr Silberstein, […]
Aptly described as a watch design engineer, Remi Maillat is capable of incorporating extraordinarily complex mathematical calculations into the diminutive stage of a mechanical wristwatch. Following his award-winning Everywhere watch of 2017 that can calculate sunrise and sunset times anywhere in the world, Maillat came out with the Anywhere in 2020. Still a hyper-complication like […]