Since the brand’s 2018 resurrection, Nivada Grenchen has produced some interesting, tasty, vintage-inspired watches. This month, it’s time for yet another retro timepiece to make you feel warm and nostalgic. The source of inspiration for the latest release never left the prototype phase after Nivada produced an estimated 20 examples in the 1970s. But I’d bet the fact they never went into production had nothing to do with how they looked. On the contrary, the chronograph looked great back then. And, like Jane Fonda, it still does some 50 years later. The new 38mm Nivada Grenchen Chronosport is a reborn…

Watches like the De Bethune DB Kind of Two Jumping GMT aren’t exactly the backbone of the luxury watch hobby. Finding one is hard; buying one is harder. The annual output of De Bethune is less than 400 watches, and it’s safe to bet that no more than ten to twenty are the model on this page. Dial side of the De Bethune DB Kind of Two Jumping GMT Wearing a De Bethune DB Kind of Two Jumping GMT requires a certain kind of panache and confidence that’s not universal. De Bethune DB Kind of Two Jumping GMT It begs…

Borna Bošnjak While Switzerland is regarded as the high-end watchmaking epicentre, it wasn’t always so. Along with many English watchmakers, it was France that led the way in making strides in chronometric invention. In the late 18th century, Paris was home to three historical greats – Abraham-Louis Breguet, Ferdinand Berthoud, and Jean-Antonie Lépine, along with other notable contemporaries, such as the inventor of detent escapement Pierre Le Roy, who became largely forgotten over the centuries. Today, much of French watchmaking is focused on the entry-level, with microbrands such as Baltic and Serica, though there’s also a fair share of haute…

Some brands excel at collaborations, elevating everyday watches to grail status, no matter how primary their starting point is. Casio sets a great example with its G-Shock range and the inherently cool canvas of the OG “Square.” Its shape is packed with potential, and the new Casio G-Shock G-5600SRF-1 shows a real sense of eco-purpose. We’ve all seen the results of oceanic waste and its increasing threat to marine life. Together with the Surfrider Foundation, the G-5600SRF-1 exhibits a tangible monochrome solution to recycling. Despite its colorless first impression, this solar-powered Casio G-Shock Square has a unique sense of depth,…

The Tellurium was among the best things I saw during Watches & Wonders week, and it has occupied a corner of my mind ever since. It’s a rare complication, featuring a calendar, as well as an accurate representation of the earth’s orbit around the sun, and the moon’s orbit around the earth. All, of course, in a package that kind of looks like a spaceship, but is more wearable than SpeceOne’s first release which really looked like a spaceship. Why should De Bethune have all the fun, right?  At under 3,000 EUR, the Tellurium throws down the gauntlet for value…

Ultra-thin watchmaking is a fascinating topic, one of our favourite areas of expertise here, at MONOCHROME. Ultra-thin watchmaking is horology at its purest, a no-compromise search for the slenderest movement that has to be considered a true complication. While high-watchmaking often seeks to bring as many complications as possible in a single movement, ultra-thinness is all about miniaturisation. We’ve recently published a video retracing the battle for the world’s thinnest mechanical watch, a race that implied Bulgari, Piaget and Richard Mille, ending up with a record thin watch of 1.70mm, the Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC. But let’s dive deeper into…