Chronographs are certainly amongst the most popular watches. However, the word chronograph refers to a complication, an additional function to the display of the time, not as a fixed type of watch. As such, you’ll find chronographs in all price segments – basically, from 3-digit prices to almost infinity. A chronograph can be accessible, can […]
The spirit of the Villeret collection is all about classicism, timeless elegance, technical sophistication and tradition. As one of the oldest watch manufactures in the Vallée de Joux, the past plays a weighty role in the aesthetics of the Villeret collection. Named after the Swiss village where Blancpain was founded in 1735, this is the […]
The FHS, the Swiss Watch Federation, just released its export statistics for the month of February 2020, and, as you might expect, these are down. The value of exports contracted by 9.2% to CHF 1.6 billion. But, this does not even reflect the severe and jittery situation on the market provoked by the Coronavirus Pandemic. […]
With the cancellation of all major watch events, it was already a pretty weird start of the year (Watches & Wonders cancelled and Baselworld postponed.) Countries like Italy have been in full lockdown mode for weeks, Spain too, and now other European countries follow suit. Schools are closed, sports clubs, gyms, bars, restaurants, museums, zoos, […]
Following the decision of the Fédération de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH) and the Richemont Group to cancel the 2020 Edition of the Geneva-based watch fair Watches & Wonders, all eyes were on Baselworld and the watch world was waiting for the final decision to come… This is it, the other major watch fair of the […]
The FHS (Federation Horlogère Suisse or the Swiss Watch Federation) just released the export statistics for 2019. Swiss watch exports showed growth in December (+5.8% at CHF 1.7 billion). For the whole year 2019, exports rose by 2.4% in value at CHF 21.681 billion, however, the units shipped dropped by 13.1% at 20.634 million and […]
Today we have a very special story… A story that I’m both sad and happy to write. Sad, for the main reason that it is all due to one of the world’s worse ecological events, the current Australian bushfire crisis. Yet, I’m also happy to write these words as multiple actors within the watch community […]
New year, new decade and… new expectations too. We, at MONOCHROME, love watches and the watchmaking industry as a whole. No debate. And well, you know the drill, “spare the rod, spoil the child”. Since we enjoy watches and horology that much, we can’t help being critical, expecting more, wanting the industry to improve, to […]
For the past 10+ years MONOCHROME has been about new watches and although the focus has pretty much always been on “new” – we always blended in a lot of history, technicalities and finishing – there was sometimes the odd story about a vintage watch. But that’s gonna change. Today we’re starting “The Vintage Corner”, […]
There’s no denying that, in the past couple of years, major watch fairs Baselworld and SIHH have been in the spotlight – but not in a pleasant way. Criticism came from all sides, brands, collectors, journalists… It was time for these professionally oriented trade fairs to evolve. This started with a change of format when […]