Monochrome’s 10th Anniversary Raffles – A Letter from the Editor

It’s strange for me to realise it has been 10 years since I installed the database and other files necessary for a WordPress blog on my own domain. And it has also been 10 years since I posted the first words on Monochrome. What started as a personal blog to keep friends and family up to date of what kept me busy, soon evolved into lyrical musings about beautiful timepieces. And subsequently this hobby turned into a hobby-out-of-control, and some three years ago into my full time job. And now it’s time for celebrations!

Earlier this year we had two raffles, the first for ten Meistersinger desk clocks, which ended early February, and the second for a beautiful Ophion wristwatch that ended in the first week of Baselworld. All ten clocks and the Ophion watch were shipped as soon as we returned, after Baselworld, to the Monochrome headquarters. Last week we got notice that the Meistersinger clocks and the Ophion watch arrived with the new owners.

Above is a wristshot from Nick, after he received his brand new Ophion OPH-960. Happy readers, good news! So… it’s time for more raffles to celebrate our tenth anniversary… I’m very pleased and honoured that many of the brands that we write about, here on Monochrome, participate in our anniversary celebrations and send us gifts that we can raffle. And that’s great for you guys, since you can win many very cool watch related items. Panerai donates a big book, our local retailer Steltman Watches donates a Patek Philippe goodie bag (with books and a tie), and a Panerai goodie bag and much more. Montblanc donates a beautiful leather watch box for two watches. Ulysse Nardin donates an über-cool and BIG Marine Chronometer wall clock, and there’s more to come.

Tomorrow we’ll start with a new raffle, which will run for two weeks, and than we start the next. We hope you will enjoy it and of course we hope you will win one of these generously donated presents, which we’re glad to pass on to you.

What we learned from you…

With every raffle we asked a few questions. For instance what you like on Monochrome, and what you’d like us to do more, and we asked about your own watches (current and future watches). This is what you told us:

• You like our reviews, and still you want more reviews! OK… we’ll do that for you.
• You also wanted more technical description, so we started ‘A Technical Perspective‘, penned down by our new technical contributor Xavier Markl.
• You wanted more ‘behind the scenes’ and events? Our new contributor Peter Nievaart covered IWC and AMG’s pre-Goodwood event and the Goodwood Members Meeting, and interviewed the brand’s CEO, Director of Design, and Technical Director about the new Ingenieur Chronograph Classic. This is just the start… more to come!

Oh, and last but not least, one that took me by surprise: you want more women’s watches! Really? I expected that 99.9% of our readership is male, however I’m off by quite a few percent. So at the moment we’re looking for a female writer who can help us cover women’s watches, as I nor the rest of the team (all men), do not feel up to the task. We’ll keep you posted.

For now I’d like to thank you for making all this possible… THANKS on behalf of the entire team!