H10: My Favorite HODINKEE Story: Will Holloway
“I got into watches because of that John Mayer video.”
Pre-SIHH 2019 – Laurent Ferrier Galet Annual Calendar School Piece Opaline Black & White
At the SIHH last year, Laurent Ferrier introduced a superb watch, both visually and technically: the Galet Annual Calendar School Piece. Not only it brought a brand-new movement, hand-wound and with a clever annual calendar display but the design, totally in line with our perception of Ferrier, was just beautiful. And there was that pale yellow gold case too… One of favourite “indie” watches of 2018. As part of the Pre-SIHH 2019 novelties, the Geneva-based brand is launching new versions of this watch, the Laurent Ferrier Galet Annual Calendar School Piece Opaline Black & White, with new dial colours and finishes.
Pre-SIHH 2019 – HYT H20 “Time Is Fluid” (Hands-On)
Since 2012, HYT has measured time in a non-conformist way, uniting esthetics, technology and somehow philosophy. Time is fluid and its flow is displayed by liquids moved by a mechanical movement (To learn more about the company and its innovative, patented technology, you can watch our recent video here.) Presented in 2018, the H0 and H20 models express the flow of time with smooth curves, fluid shapes and virtually no straight lines. It showcases the brands raison d’êtrein a striking way. The fluidic time indication is presented in full glory, under an impressive cloche-like sapphire crystal. This allows a 360° visibility of the time and of the mechanical movement’s architecture.
HANDS-ON: Ready for anything – the Seiko Astron SSE170J1
Seiko’s Astron (the new GPS one, not the groundbreaking quartz one) is a pretty incredible piece of kit. Ostensibly, it tells the time, day, date and a second time zone. But the trick is in the method. The Astron, thanks to GPS technology, keeps track of time by talking to satellites — a quite cool party trick. Given its go-anywhere accuracy and automatic time zone adjustment, it makes sense that the Astron is billed as an adventure watch for the travelling set. And never has that been more apparent than with this watch. Don’t mind the ‘Solar Executive Sports Series’ name, this watch is, in fact, the most rough and tumble Astron yet. The incredible versatility of the solar 8X53 is matched by the super-hard titanium case (with rose gold tone in this case) and ceramic bezel. The rich, golden brown ceramic bezel, by the way, is inlaid with UTC times on the top and IATA codes on the side, all of which, in a neat trick, have some impressive luminous powers. The shape of the case is more streamlined, too, a more rugged sporty look that downplays the still hefty 46.7mm diameter and 14.5mm height. Best of all, though,…
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INSIGHT: Classic design pushed forward – the world of watchmaking at Breguet
With a brand so rich in history, the origins of what can only be called typical Breguet design cues date a fair ways back into the archives. Contrary to the case of countless other brands on the market, the components that make up Breguet’s core design mantra could hardly be accused of being derivative, and each element has its own origin story of sorts rather than the typical “we put that there because we wanted to make a dive watch”. Breguet has been busy perfecting their craft since 1775, and have consistently survived the industry’s ups and downs including the quartz crisis. Of course, the brand changed hands a number of times between its origins and landing in the firm grip of the Swatch Group in 1999, but this length of continuous operation, combined with some fairly impressive innovation through the decades and centuries, is nothing to sneeze at. For the sake of brevity, we’re going to stay on the design side of the fence this time around. Dem hands tho … (and them digits) It’s hard to say which Breguet design cue is the most easily identifiable of them all, though few would argue if the classic blued Breguet…
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Introducing: The H. Moser & Cie. Heritage Bucherer Blue Editions And Endeavour Diamonds Bucherer Blue Editions (Live Pics & Pricing)
Two new models join Bucherer’s growing collection of exclusive Blue Edition watches.
Buying Guide – The 10 Best Watches of 2018 from EUR 2,000 to 5,000
As the end of the year is fast approaching, it is time for us at MONOCHROME to take a look back at the main novelties of 2018 and to decide what were the best watches we’ve seen. As we did with our best watches below EUR 2,000, here’s our second buying guide, this time with the best watches of 2018 priced between EUR 2,000 and EUR 5,000. And this has been a tough selection, as this category is crucial for luxury brands – there’s a huge competition in this price range, as “accessible luxury” companies are fighting with entry-level models of more established names. But here is our top-10, just to give you an idea of what you could get with your hard-earned money this year.
IN-DEPTH: The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Skeleton Titanium Blue
The story in a second: So thin you can see through it. If you were to summarise Bulgari’s approach to design and modern-day watchmaking, the Octo would be the result. In less than a decade, the Italian manufacturer has turned a single striking case design into an entire collection, evolving with each new model, and breaking records left, right and centre. One of this year’s newest additions is the Octo Finissimo Skeleton Titanium Blue, and although it’s not exactly a record-breaker, it does not disappoint. The case What more can I say about the case of the Octo Finissimo that we haven’t already said? It’s thin (boy, is it thin!), but slenderness is not the only thing; it’s about the entire package. This Skeleton’s lines are sharp, gliding across its barely there profile like skates on ice. Only that ice is sandblasted titanium, and there’s no mixing of finishes to dazzle and distract; instead it’s all left to the case’s multiple facets and angles to impress – and impress they do. Here, the 40mm Octo case is also slightly thicker than the record-breaking Octo Finissimo Automatic – 5.37mm compared to 5.15mm … to put that in perspective, however, that’s less…
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Introducing: The Hamilton Khaki Navy Scuba Auto Gear Patrol Special Edition
A tough dive watch marks the publication’s first ever watch collaboration.
We have 4 Seiko Presage Urushi Byakudan-nuri Limited Edition SPB085s in the shop right now
Yesterday, we announced the global release of this curious – what a lush colour scheme! – and extremely capable Presage Limited Edition with that Urushi dial-to-die-for. Today, we’re once again proud to announce that Seiko Australia has trusted us with half of the Australian allocation of eight watches. We have four in the shop as of right now for $3,400, you can buy it here. In typical Time+Tide fashion we will be including a taupe Tuscan leather Time+Tide travel pouch with the watch to make sure that when it goes places, it’s travelling in style. Taking inspiration from the rich tones of the sky just before dawn, the star of the Seiko Presage Urushi Byakudan-nuri SPB085 is, without question, the dial. Crafted using three traditional techniques, to evoke the atmosphere and feeling of the moon just before dawn, the black base of the dial is the traditional Urushi technique in jet black lacquer, with deep red metallic subdials, achieved using a Byakudan-nuri technique. Finally, the glittering crescent of the moon (in the form of the power reserve indicator) is painstakingly applied using maki-e. This precious dial is housed within the 40.5mm steel case, and kept safe under the dual-curved sapphire crystal.…
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