Although it was never really gone, there seems to be a renaissance of the Jumping Hour, or Heures Sautante complication, and we’re quite delighted about this. There’s an interesting convergence in jump hour watches: the display is often simpler than a watch with central hands, but the mechanism...
The Quartz Crisis of the 1970s and 1980s was a defining moment for the industry, to say the least. Following Seiko’s Astron in 1969, the first quartz watch to hit the market, a huge swathe of traditional brands closed down as cheap, extremely accurate and virtually maintenance-free Japanese...
The mad scientists of Donkervoort, the only active Dutch sports car manufacturer, have done it again. They have raised the performance bar set by the already razor-sharp F22 even further. Although it looks vaguely the same as its predecessor, the new P24 RS is almost entirely new, featuring the...
Perpetual calendars are, without a doubt, an integral part of Audemars Piguet’s history, and the Royal Oak has carried its strand very convincingly since 1984. With the introduction of the Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar Openworked powered by the new Calibre 7139, AP signals a clear...
Today, we’re launching a new service to enable you to find answers to your (horological) questions faster and more easily. The new MONOCHROME AI chat will answer your questions, similar to ChatGPT, however, based entirely on all MONOCHROME content of the past 20 years. Since we’ve seen the rise...
Pforzheim is known as Germany’s “Golden City” for its jewellery and watchmaking (alongside Glashütte) activities, and both Laco and Circula have deep roots there. Each brand is celebrating an anniversary, 100 years for Laco and 70 years for Circula, and they’ve partnered to celebrate with a pair...
We’ve all had the experience of putting down our watch a little too carelessly, and accidentally scratching it on something sharp, or even worse, knocking it off and seeing it fly across the room in Hollywood-esque slow-motion while screaming “NOOOOooooo!!!” at the top of your lungs. It’s...
Since founding Sarpaneva Watches in Helsinki, the independent Finnish watchmaker Stepan Sarpaneva has consistently explored an approach shaped by the Nordic visual universe, mechanical honesty and a powerful sense of narrative. Best known for his Korona case design and expressive moon displays,...
British indie brand Farer was founded in 2015 by four friends with backgrounds in watch retail. Using Swiss-made mechanical movements, Farer offers a portfolio of confident designs with an eccentric British twist and competitive prices, thanks to the brand’s direct-to-consumer approach that...
Launched in 2021, the Tonda PF collection introduced a new vision of contemporary haute horlogerie built around restraint, proportion and what CEO Guido Terreni calls “private luxury”, watches designed to be lived with rather than constantly replaced. Among the first models was the Tonda PF...
British driver George Russell, currently racing for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, joined IWC’s paddock of ambassadors in 2022. Exchanging the steering wheel of his F1 for the design board, Russell worked alongside IWC’s creative team to design the new limited edition Pilot’s Watches,...
The revival of a long-dormant watchmaking name always sparks our curiosity at MONOCHROME. Born in 1919, the Manufacture des Montres Niton S.A. became known for its watches and movements featuring jumping hours. Niton supplied movements to Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Cartier, Gubelin and...
