The world of mechanical timekeeping is a fascinating, complex – sometimes arcane – field. As its subtitle puts it, The Wristwatch Handbook aims at offering a comprehensive (lavishly illustrated 350-page) guide to mechanical wristwatches – A useful reference for the new collector or anyone interested in learning more about watches.
Telling you that the watchmaking industry is now facing some troubles won’t be the biggest piece of news you’ll have today. It is now known, the Swiss industry is in tough period, sales are decreasing, profits are going lower and stocks are massively increasing at retailers. This situation seemed to be quite a secret for a year or so, but now, large groups – mainly those listed and that must report to shareholders – are making things clearer and the situation becomes public. As a proof, yesterday Richmont Group, the second largest actor in the field of luxury watchmaking (owner of Cartier, IWC, Jaeger, Montblanc and more) announced declining results, abolished CEO Role and unveiled a major sweeping management overhaul – as IWC’s Kern will become Head of Watchmaking and Montblanc’s Lambert Head of Operations.
It is with great pleasure that we welcome two gentlemen to the Monochrome team, who will be helping us out to cover what we at Monochrome feel are great watches. The Monochrome selection so to say. Tom is Monochrome’s “man in London” and will cover everything that’s important, horologically speaking, from the UK and London in particular, while Matthew will be handling our selection of value propositions and cool Kickstarter brands.
In just a few short days, SalonQP 2016 will get underway at the Saatchi Gallery, London. From its humble beginnings, SalonQP has grown to be a must-visit annual watch event for collectors and enthusiasts alike from around Europe and even the world. This year promises to be no different, featuring new product launches, special exhibitions and, of course, the opportunity to get hands on with some really exceptional watches.
There are many different types of watch projects being proposed on Kickstarter, but it’s our job to sort through and find the new up and coming ideas that tick off a few crucial boxes, here at Monochrome-Watches. We like to see pieces with re-introduced mechanical movement, combined with an innovative design or function. The TiMe22 Robusto Automatic, with a retro design and futuristic construction seems to fit perfectly into our gauge.
As watch journalists, we tend to focus on two main events during the year: the SIHH in January and Baselworld in March. Even if these two fairs are the main events of the year and if they are now opened to the public (partially), they remain mainly professional events, for retailers, photographs and, like us, journalists and bloggers. However, as a collector or passionate, you won’t see much. Smaller, yet highly interesting events exist around the world, and for those who live in Benelux or North of France, there is Passion for Watches, the Brussels’s based watch fair, which will have its 2016 edition from November 18th, 2016 to November 20th, 2016.
Dear Swiss watch industry, dear Swiss brands, dear CEOs of Swiss manufactures, I love you! Yes, I do love everything the Swiss watch industry represents, everything that is behind the idea of this secular artistry – the heritage, the traditions, the attention to details, this innovation spirit linked to a strong respect to history, the devoted people who work days and days on your watches… I’m not writing you this letter as the managing editor of a watch magazine but mainly as a passionate collector. For this reason, I do care about you. However, dear Swiss watch industry, you certainly heard yesterday that Apple is the second player of the watch industry, just behind Rolex. And that’s not a detail.
Here’s the dilemma: you love watches, mechanical watches, with a classical or vintage look. On the other hand, you also love connected items and the concept of a smart watch is something you dug into, especially since the introduction of the Apple Watch. However, you don’t like it. You think it’s not going to fulfill your needs of mechanical / vintage / luxury timepieces (and you’d be right). You don’t want to wear two watches either and the solution found by Sinn is… weird. Well, Maintool, a young French startup, might have a solution for you, with a discreet connected strap that can be used on any kind of watch. Here’s Classi.