Industry News: Watchmakers at Piaget & Vacheron Constantin Protest Job Cuts

Shortly after announcing a sweeping management overhaul and slumping profits last month, Swiss luxury conglomerate Richemont declared it would cut 211 jobs at two subsidiary brands, Piaget and Vacheron Constantin. The axe would fall three locations – Geneva, Côte-aux-Fées and Vallée de Joux. That brought out some 300 protestors in Geneva, and another 400 outside the town hall of Le Sentier, […]

8 years ago

Rare Watches: Vacheron Constantin Maître Cabinotiers Chinese Zodiac Set

Vacheron Constantin’s Maître Cabinotiers service is perhaps an unique offering by a Grande Maison to allow collectors to customise their timepieces. As we have covered in our earlier in-depth review on the C.2755, and the VC 57260, the client is able to work with Retail Director Dominique Bernaz to make fully bespoke watches. In…

8 years ago

Review: Vacheron Constatin Overseas 4500V

In 1977, Vacheron Constantin was late to a historical party, being the last of the Swiss watchmaking ‘Holy Trinity’ to debut a luxury sports watch. The 222 (designed by Jorg Hysek) was then Vacheron Constantin’s answer to Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak (1972 by Gerald Genta) and Patek Philippe’s Nautilus (1976 also by Gerald Genta). It…

8 years ago

Christmas Buying Guide – 5 Best Dive / Sports Watches of 2016

Today, our readers on the other side of the Atlantic are celebrating Thanksgiving, and while this day doesn’t make a lot of sense for those in Old Europe or Asia, it however opens the festive season. And who says festive season says Christmas and our usual buying guides – and also an overview of the best watches we’ve seen this year. After long debates and fights at the Monochrome-Watches headquarters (not literally, no worries), here are our 5 Best Dive / Sports Watches of 2016, for all budgets and tastes.

8 years ago

Dear Santa: A Christmas Wishlist 1

Every year before Christmas, Santa sits in his favourite chair next to the hearth, sipping from a mug of hot cocoa. He is in the North Pole after all and the weather is cold. It is at this time that Santa reads all the letters he’s received from children all over the world with his elven chief toymaker. “Little Bartholomew has been a nice…

8 years ago

5 Retrograde Watches To Fly Back For

Creating a retrograde display is not as easy as it might seem. The difficulty of this complication is however matched by its popularity because a lot of

8 years ago

The Elections… for the Watch of the Year and the GPHG that is!

While the race for presidency in the USA is going on until the last minute, we’ll of course focus… on watches! And in the world of watches, we also have elections. Just two weeks ago I attended the gala award ceremony for the election of the Watch of the Year, organised by our friends of Chronos24 in Poland. And this Thursday, when we finally know who’s going to be the new tenant of the White House, is the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève – a.k.a the 2016 Edition of the GPHG. While the first becomes a bit international due to several international jury members – including yours truly – the latter can best be compared to the Oscars in the world of movies.

8 years ago