Rare Watches: Voyage to the bottom of the sea: Part 2: Rolex Deepsea Challenge

Last week, we had a rare hands-on session with the Rolex Deep Sea Special and talked about its groundbreaking and amazing story of the first manned dive into the bottom of the Mariana Trench in 1953. Today, we continue with the story. This time, Rolex repeated the feat with a watch which is much more wearable, and whose trickle down technology…

8 years ago

Review: Bulgari Carbon Gold

Bulgari has always been known to be a jewelry brand and over the years we have seen its experience and expertise of that branch out to watchmaking. The Carbon Gold series which has been around since 1993, is a good example of how Bulgari’s jewelry expertise enables it to innovate constantly in the watchmaking field in terms of design and…

8 years ago

Hands-On with the Breguet Tradition Dame 7038, the First for Ladies

The original Breguet La Tradition 7027 is a milestone in modern watchmaking, not so much for its complication since it had none, but for its design. With the movement rearranged symmetrically for the open-worked dial, the La Tradition was a groundbreaking design when it was introduced in 2005, despite being based on 200-year old pocket watches. And […]

8 years ago

Hands-On Review – Chopard L.U.C XPS 1860 in stainless steel – High-end made accessible

It all began 20 years ago, when “in-house” and independent sourcing of movements were not yet in vogue across the watch industry. The presentation of a splendid micro-rotor movement manufactured in Fleurier, a watchmaking town of Val-de-Travers, gave birth to the Chopard L.U.C series, a highly respected collection among watch connoisseurs. This Chopard collection now celebrates its 20th anniversary, with the introduction of several models. Among these, the XPS 1860 houses the brand’s original micro-rotor movement in a steel case and is definitely worth a close look.

8 years ago

REVIEW: IWC Ingenieur Chronograph Vintage Editions – tons of photos, specs and price

When the three new IWC Ingenieur Chronograph models were shown to the watch press for the very first time, Monochrome was there, however we were not allowed to talk about it, nor to photograph the watch. And when we were allowed to cover the new Ingenieur Chronograph models, we only had the official PR photos and no hands-on photos. This type of photos that shows so well how a watch actually looks on the wrist, and that have emerged since there are watch blogs, like ours. So now we had the chance to go hands-on with all three new IWC Ingenieur Chronograph vintage editions and one of it’s ancestors…

8 years ago

IN-DEPTH: The Breguet Classique 7147 – taking the dull out of dress watch

The story in a second:

Breguet’s updated Classique 7147 offers traditional style, modern convenience and just the right amount of playfulness.

The Classique 7147 is the definition of a quiet achiever. It’s a simple, sturdy watch that does everything asked of it with style, and it does so with a sense of reserved assurance that only a watch with ‘Breguet’ on the dial can adequately muster.…

8 years ago

Review – The A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia Moon Phase, or the Essence of German Symmetry

When A. Lange & Söhne is mentioned, it is easy to dream. It is easy to dream because of names like Datograph, Zeitwerk or Double-Split. These watches can be found in so many watch collectors’ wish-list (and not only Lange aficionados), and for extremely good reasons, as clearly, they are all watchmaking pinnacles, grail watches, dream-machines… and they are all rather inaccessible. So the main question that I’ll have today, with the A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia Moon Phase, is simple: is there something special about A. Lange & Söhne in general and will this “reasonable offer” give me the same pleasure? No answer yet, you’ll have to wait a few lines of text…

8 years ago