Hands-On – TAG Heuer Carrera Caliber 5 Ring Master Muhammad Ali

I hated every minute of training, but I said: Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion. Could this be the silver-tongued boxing champion’s own version of “Don’t crack under pressure”? Muhammad Ali was not just one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time, he was also a vocal civil right activist with a legendary never-back-down attitude. Last month, at a charity boxing event hosted at Gleason’s Gym, Brooklyn’s legendary boxing club and Ali’s old stomping ground, TAG Heuer unveiled a collection of special edition steel watches to pay tribute to Muhammad Ali. Inspired by the brand’s 1950s Ring-Master watch – a stopwatch featuring interchangeable rings for timing different sports including boxing – we take a hands on look at the TAG Heuer Carrera Caliber 5 Ring Master Muhammad Ali.

9 years ago

Value Proposition – Review of the Fortis Cockpit One (a nice tool and a lot of watch for your money)

When you’re on the hunt for your perfect watch, or even just a compulsory purchase, there is a lot out there to lust after. For example, when it comes to dive watches we’ve seen that there are a lot more than just Submariners, Seamasters or Panerais to choose from, which is great especially if you are shopping with somewhat of a limited budget. Case in point, this newly introduced Fortis Cockpit One, an automatic Swiss watch with some very nice features, in the 1000-1500 Euro/USD/CHF price bracket. Today we’re taking a long, hard look at what you get for that money in one of our familiar extensive reviews!

9 years ago

Introducing – Hublot Classic Fusion Aerofusion Chronograph Concrete Jungle made with Artist Tristan Eaton

Hublot is no stranger for doing the unorthodox thing, whether it being on the technical side or on the aesthetical side. Talk about innovative technical prowess and the Hublot LaFerrari pops up. Mention weird or wonderful materials and perhaps you think of the Hublot Classic Fusion Berluti, with its leather dials. Now though, Hublot incorporates a rough-and-tough material, not often used for watchmaking: concrete! Here is the Hublot Classic Fusion Aerofusion Chronograph Concrete Jungle made with Artist Tristan Eaton.

9 years ago

Tudor and its Heritage – The old and new Tudor Ranger face to face

Last week, we started a new series of articles named “Tudor and Its Heritage“. As you might have guessed, we are here looking at how Tudor Watches successfully drew the lines of the Heritage collection by looking at some of its glorious vintage watches, however not copying them, but re-interpretating some key elements into a modern package. Vintage-inspiration, not vintage reedition. Our first episode focussed on the most expected ones, the Submariners and the actual Heritage Black Bay. However, the Heritage collection does comprise much more, including the Tudor Heritage Ranger, inspired by one of the most controversial watches of the brand, the Oyster Prince Ranger. And we have them face to face today – and we have a little extra too…

9 years ago

The History of the Vacheron Constantin Overseas – The Other 1970s Icon

In the 1970s, the post-war global economic boom came to an end. The new, accurate quartz watches gained popularity and plunged the Swiss watch industry in a deep crisis. As the inexpensive electronic watches began to flood the market, the competition from foreign manufacturers created a major economic turmoil, and with it, the need for Swiss brands to reinvent themselves, making necessary disruptive changes. And that includes the Vacheron Constantin Overseas, a watch born in that exact period.

9 years ago

Introducing – Maurice Lacroix Pontos S Diver “Blue Devil” Limited Edition for North America – The Devil is in the Details

The Maurice Lacroix Pontos S Diver has been covered before, but now the Swiss brand is offering a new iteration; the Maurice Lacroix Pontos S Diver “Blue Devil” Limited Edition. It has all the design elements that made the original Pontos S Diver so cool but in a new color derived from… a fish! Usually it is something of a historical reference, the ocean itself or simply the best legible color combination available that determines the look of a watch. Well, not in this case.

9 years ago

Hands-On – Seiko Presage SSA303J1, a Value-Prop that screams quality

At Seiko, the range of watches goes from extremely affordable options to ultra-high-end (really ultra) timepieces for the most meticulous collectors. Seiko Watches includes collections such as Seiko 5, Prospex, Grand Seiko or Credor. This year,  the brand expanded one of its sub-collection, Presage, entirely dedicated to mechanical marvel and heritage. And while previously only reserved to Japan, it will now be offered to all markets. After we had an in-depth look at that star of this new collection, the Presage 60th Anniversary Chronograph, it’s time to now to focus on the rest of the range, including this Seiko Presage SSA303J1 we’ll show you today, a value proposition, with mechanical movement, which screams quality.

9 years ago

5 Cool Finds – 5 “Youngtimer” Rolex Watches for a lifetime

In our 3 previous episodes of “5 Cool Finds“, we’ve been looking at specific types of watches – multiple time-zones, super-complicated and dive watches. Probably, you’ve seen that in every article, there was at least one Rolex, and if you know your thing about watchmaking, you do understand why this brand is so well represented. Thus, instead of having one Rolex in a selection of 5 watches, we decided with our partner Chronext to focus this week only on this brand. That doesn’t mean we’re about to change our habits. You know the deal, 5 watches, all “youngtimers”, meaning not vintage but not in the collection anymore. What we have are 5 Rolex watches, from the last 2 decades, with that unique iconic flair and that are made to last a lifetime.

9 years ago

Tudor and its Heritage – How the Vintage Submariners inspired the Tudor Black Bay

In terms of product design, vintage inspiration has been, for the last 10 years, one of the major, if not the major trend. Most brands, from low-end to ultra-luxury have been, at least once, looking at their past and used it as a reference to create new models. We all need strong foundations to feel confident, and this must be a part of the explanation. However, as always, some handled this vintage style with success, some didn’t. In the middle of this crowd, one brand must be regarded with great care: Tudor. With their Heritage line, they clearly played on this trend and achieved probably better than most around. To every success there’s an explanation, and here, it must the combination of vintage elements into a modern package, and not just a copy-paste of the past. Today, we start a series about Tudor and its Heritage and we’ll look at how the Vintage Submariners inspired the Tudor Black Bay (and inspired only…)

9 years ago

Kickstarter – Back from the future with the TiMe22 Robusto Automatic

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.

9 years ago