Buying Guide

Online Watch Shopping While the Confinement Lasts

Let's have a look at the webshops of the online watch world...

25/03/2020 | By Frank Geelen | 4 min read |

Team MONOCHROME is working from home. This is our regular work mode since we’re spread all over Europe (and one in the US), but the way we work has been heavily affected. The closure of manufactures means less access to new watches to photograph and review. All my trips to watch events/launches to shoot new videos and all my scheduled meetings have been cancelled. As I said last week, we have enough good stuff on its way to offer you plenty of horological relief in between all the daily Corona updates, working from home, home-schooling and so on. There’s a tendency to forget that people celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and maybe even graduations or have other very good reasons to buy a watch in these troublesome times. With many brick and mortar shops closed, we’re giving a big shout-out to our online buddies/competitors/friends of the watch community.

A selection of the cool items available from the MONOCHROME Webshop.

Like all our friends/competitors in the online watch world, we see revenue going down. Advertisement money is drying up, postponed or has even come to an abrupt stop. Times are certainly more difficult. Maybe not so much in the short term, but with major projects being postponed, it looks like the effect of all this is going to be felt at least until the end of next year – if we’re lucky… So here’s a big shout-out to all our friends/competitors and specifically those with a webshop. Like Hodinkee, Fratello, Time & Tide, Revolution, CH24 and Worn & Wound, we also have a WEBSHOP. And no, we do not sell watches, sorry…

Above: One of our hand-made alligator straps. Below: a selection of our calf leather strap. Both available at the MONOCHROME Webshop.

But we do sell the best watch winders available, namely SwissKubik and Scatola del Tempo! And many more high-quality accessories, like our own canvas watch rolls and leather watch rolls, our super supple alligator straps and cool, more casual calfskin straps, grained or smooth.

Credit where credit is due. The fact that Ben Clymer took Hodinkee from a one-man-show in the time that we first met in Basel, to the 54 employees that are on the payroll right now, is nothing short of spectacular. But it also means that he has many mouths to feed, so if you’re looking to buy a nice watch to celebrate a birthday, a wedding anniversary, a graduation or just the fact that the sun rose again today, have a look in the Hodinkee webshop. Especially the limited editions (one piece of each) that they have available right now, got my heart beating faster. Unfortunately, I do not have the budget to buy that Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire with salmon dial (gosh, it’s so beautiful), but maybe you have A) the desire to own it and B) the budget to do so… Check out the HODINKEE Webshop Limited Editions here.

The superb Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire Limited Edition For Hodinkee.

Although pretty much all other webshops are tiny, compared to Hodinkee, they might just have something for you, so here are some items from the various online friends/competitors that you can buy right now and have delivered to your door with the help of the various couriers who luckily still deliver!

One that I liked a lot recently, is the limited edition that our friends of Fratellowatches and Frederique Constant launched. The Classic Moonphase Manufacture (Fratello Exclusive) is a very nice and elegant watch, featuring an understated grey dial with indications for the date and moon phases. Limited to only 29 pieces and with a friendly price (taking into account the in-house movement with moon phase!) of EUR 2,595 in the Fratello webshop here.

Another online friend/competitor is CH24.pl and in their webshop, they offer a small selection of accessories and horologically related art, like for instance the pocket squares that look pretty nice! And there’s Worn & Wound’s webshop, which is named the Windup webshop, selling numerous brands at accessible prices. For instance, the lovely Autodromo Intereuropa that is powered by an ETA 7001 hand-wound movement. In the Revolution webshop, you’ll find a selection of pre-owned and new watches. And last but not least, our buddies from Down Under, who have been hit hard by the extreme fires and later extreme rains, so any help for them is welcome! Check out the Time & Tide webshop here; besides the accessories, they also offer a small selection of new watches from Doxa, Tissot and Bremont.