Buying Guide – Cheap Tricks: Six of the Best Budget-Friendly Watch Deals Around

At MONOCHROME, there’s often debate about various aspects of watches. Size, materials, colours, and so on are all regularly scrutinised by the team. And they should be, as we love to offer you our best perspective on watches possible. One thing that always crops up in these discussions is price. Do we think a watch […]

4 months ago

First Look – The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatic, now Available in Compact 38mm Cases

One of the earliest dive watches, the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms has long been one of the most emblematic models available on the market. In 2007, the classic Fifty Fathoms Automatique (ref. 5015) arrived with its large (even oversized) 45mm case and calibre 1315 – two fundamental elements of the permanent collection. And this size has […]

8 months ago

Introducing – The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 42mm Now in Polished Steel

One of the first purpose-built modern dive watches produced in the mid-1950s, Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms was a key player in the development of “skin diving” and the watch selected by several elite diving corps. Taken out of production in the 1980s, Swatch Group’s Marc A. Hayek resuscitated the Fifty Fathoms in 2003. In 2007, the […]

10 months ago

First Look – The New Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Tech Ocean Commitment IV

Blancpain‘s long-standing ties to diving need little introduction. For over 20 years, the brand has been committed to raising awareness of the need to protect our oceans through the Blancpain Ocean Commitment (BOC) program. The latest BOC initiative is a limited series of 100 watches, the Fifty Fathoms Tech BOC IV, a more compact and […]

11 months ago

Introducing – The new Swatch x Blancpain Scuba Fifty Fathoms Pink Ocean is… Very Pink

Following a rather unmanageable success with the Moonswatch collaboration with Omega, Swatch did it again in 2023 with yet another brand from the group – this time Blancpain – and with another emblematic watch – the Fifty Fathoms. The result, an accessible Bioceramic watch inspired by Blancpain’s famous dive watch, came with an automatic movement […]

1 year ago

Recap – The Best Pilot’s Watches of 2024

The Pilot’s Watch has always been one of the most popular types of watches, and for good reason. The utilitarian nature of the aviator watch lends itself perfectly to everyday life, thanks to excellent legibility (often), striking looks and robust construction. This year is no exception, as plenty of very cool new pilot watches entered […]

1 year ago

Recap – The Best Dive Watches of 2024

There’s hardly a category of watches that is as disputed as the diver. Every year, in all price ranges and all possible styles, we’re seeing hundreds of new dive watches released by watchmakers from all over the world. Choosing the best models in this segment of the watch industry is not an easy task and […]

1 year ago

Introducing – Blancpain Villeret Traditional Chinese Calendar 2025 “Year of the Snake”

Blancpain’s longstanding tradition of calendar complications stood it in good stead when it approached the complexities of fusing elements from Chinese and Gregorian calendars to produce the Villeret Traditional Chinese Calendar in 2012. Celebrating the Chinese New Year that kicks off on January 29, 2025, the latest Villeret welcomes the Year of the Wood Snake. […]

1 year ago