NEW RELEASE - Mondaine Helvetica Family. The No.1 Collection.

The luxury watch market has exploded in recent times, with manufacturers taking a move towards wearable technology and elaborate, expensive and overly "blingy" chronometers. As exciting as the prospect of wearable technology is, here at Utility we're more excited by something we saw unveiled at Baselworld 2014, the world’s most important horological event...and it looks like we aren't the only ones.

The design world is buzzing with the news that Mondaine, the official watchmakers for the Swiss Railway System, are releasing their new "No.1 / Helvetica" watch collection, seeing a shift away from their use of the famous red ticker and the introduction of an equally recognisable, Swiss designed sans-serif typeface design.

It's fair to say that the Mondaine style hasn't changed much since Hans Hilfiker designed the iconic Swiss Railway clock in 1944, but the introduction of the new "Helvetica" watch family sees a huge leap in design for the company.

Available in a range of size, "watch weight" and strap options from leather to mesh strapping, the "No.1" collection features a simple styling with stunning brushed stainless steel case. With the use of the hugely popular Helvetica typeface and left justified numbers on the hour markers, they are guaranteed to appeal to all the typography enthusiasts among us.

Are you as excited as we are about the release? The watches are due to arrive in early November 2014 but you can pre-order yours now at Utility.

Click here to view the collection.

Mondaine Watch Catalogue 2011

We've expanded our online watch and clock collection to incorporate the entire Mondaine Watch and desk clock collection for 2011. To make it easier to differentiate between the range we've divided each watch into collections - the classic Evo, the more dressy Simply Elegant, the Retro family, the collection of Desk Clocks as well as two 'line extensions' - Sports Watches for men and a collection of Ladies Watches. Finally there's the Seasonal Watch range for the fashion conscious. All have the same Mondaine signature styling but with design variations which give each of them their own character. What's more, there's free shipping on them all.

Mondaine - New Simply Elegant

The new Simply Elegant range from Mondaine takes the classic Mondaine design and has refined it to create a range of watches which - as the name suggests - is Simply Elegant! Perfect for a more dressy look there are six styles - three in a gents size (41mm) and three in a ladies size (36mm). Whilst both sizes come with the classic black and white dials with black straps the larger size also comes with a steel mesh strap and the smaller size is available with a red strap. It reminds me of the Ole Mathiesen watch I bought in 1998 (and we used to sell) - slender, crisp and beautifully refined! See Simple Elegant - Gents Watch and Simple Elegant - Ladies Watch