Monochrome – New & Improved

Over the past years Monochrome has grown to become one of the defining blogs about Haute Horlogerie, and for that I’d like to thank you. Your feedback, continuous visiting Monochrome and reading our stories has been great. And of course I’d like to thank all my favorite watch brands and independent watchmakers for supporting me, inviting me for events, shows and continuously inspiring me to share the passion for fine watchmaking with you.

Monochrome has grown (explosively) from 15,000 page views in 2010 to 125,000 page views in December 2012. And now it’s time for a new and fresh design, that serves you even better than before. There are many new features that will make it easier for you to find interesting stories, great back-grounds articles and extensive reviews. And of course, in a superbly classy & stylish design!

What’s new? We designed a new navigation that makes it easier to find articles about different types of watches, when you click on “CATEGORIES” in the navigation bar.

Or to search through the most “POPULAR BRANDS” on Monochrome…

And of course there’s more, like our trusted Weekly Watch Photo, which we’ve been sharing with you every week since early January 2011. The first Weekly Watch Photo was a photo of the Laurent Ferrier Tourbillon Double Spiral, shot by Guy Lucas de Peslouan.

Monochrome’s Weekly Watch Photo has become a much loved returning item and we’ve positioned it more prominently, immediately under the opening story. It is shown in a slide-show and you can go through the last 20 photos or click on the “see all” button, to go through our selection of the best photos of the most beautiful timepieces.

Last year has been a rather turbulent year for Monochrome. We saw an immense growth in number of visitors, had much more intense contact with watch brands, and several contributors joined the Monochrome team. This way we can serve you with a more diverse palette of stories about our beloved timepieces. Monochrome’s contributors are visible in the colophon in the right side column and you can click on their names, in order to read all their articles.

Our five contributors joined Monochrome during last year’s summer and each has his own style and interests. I find it a huge privilege to work with these dedicated and passionate persons and I sincerely hope that you enjoy their stories. Let me briefly introduce them to you:

Angus Davies has been passionate about high-end watches for a long time and shares this passion not only on Monochrome, but also on his own website called Escapement.uk.com.

Evan Yeung is our benjamin, he lives in the Philippines and has been sharing his enthusiasm for Seiko and their impressive heritage, mainly focussing on the PROSPEX collection and now he’s working on series of articles about Grand Seiko and King Seiko.

Mario Squillacioti has shared his inimitable witty way of story telling. His HIBAW (Honey I Bought Another Watch) articles made me laugh on many occasions. I hope you enjoyed his articles as much as I did.

Max E. Reddick has an unstoppable interest in history and in tool watches, which reflects in his articles like the series of articles about the history of pilot’s watches. Guess what… the history of Navy timepieces will follow.

Robin Nooy, a fellow countryman from Rotterdam in the Netherlands, has a soft spot for unusual timepieces. Whether it is a watch with parts of the Liberty Statue or the Devon Thread.

Last but not least, I’d like to highlight the footer of the newly designed Monochrome website. On the left some important pages, our logo on the center and on the right the logos of our partner websites with whom we often collaborate. And don’t forget to click on the “Load next 6 articles” button to see more of our articles!

More features will come soon! But more importantly, we will keep you updated on all important watch news. Not only from the Monochrome desk, but also from our trips, like the recent visit to Girard-Perregaux (where we saw the introduction of their Constant Force timepiece) and Piaget.

At the end of this month, Robin, Max and I, will visit Baselworld (see the Baselworld navigation menu item) and we will cover all watches that we consider to be worth mentioning (everything is impossible, as there are hundreds of watch brands with thousands of new models). And then there’s the Montblanc Manufacture visit sweepstake that we did last month. Together with one of our readers, Andrew, who won the sweepstake, I will visit the Montblanc watch manufacture in Le Locle and you will get to see and read everything about it!

Last but not least… I’d like to thank Jeroen Schmit for his patience, expertise and dedication to design and develop the new Monochrome website. I’d also like to thank all my favorite watch brands and independent watchmakers for their huge support and of course I’d like to thank you, Monochrome’s readers, for your support and I hope that the new Monochrome website, which is much faster than our previous site, will please you.

Kind regards,

Frank Geelen

Monochrome’s founder & executive editor