The Best Of Speedy Tuesday 2017
It is the last Tuesday of the year, the perfect opportunity to show you our best read Speedy Tuesday articles in 2017. Some of the Speedy Tuesday articles that are very popular, such as our Buyer’s Guides?or our Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch versus Reduced article, have been written before 2017 (but updated) so we don’t include those.Find below our Top 5 of the best read Speedy Tuesday articles of 2017.5. Why I Purchased an Omega Speedmaster Professional (and which one)We start our Top 5 of the best read articles with a contribution from one our readers and Speedmaster fans. James talks about his 1995 tritium Speedmaster Professional and why he specifically chose to buy this...
Does ETA sell their ebauches outside the Swatch Group?
Today we shed our light on a brief question about ETA ebauches, sent in by Ramiro.You Asked Us: Does ETA sell their ebauches outside the Swatch Group?Here’s the full text?of Ramiro’s question, which is nothing short of to the point:From: Ramiro Subject: ETA ebauches (you asked us! question)Message Body:Greetings.I have a question about eta ebauches.Are they selling them outside the?Swatch group?Thank you,RamiroETA’s popular caliber 2000What exactly is an ebauche?First a quick explanation of the French word ebauches [e??b???]. In general, but mainly used in the world of fine art, an ebauche means a rough or unfinished drawing or painting, more or less a sketch. Used in watch...
Boxing Day: A Longer Look at the Seiko 5 Sports
Happy Boxing Day! We take another look at the Seiko 5 Sports and give some opinion on where it fits within Seiko’s diver lineage.I was admittedly pretty tough on the Seiko 5 Sports line when it debuted this Summer.? I was sitting poolside in Cyprus when the news hit and I decided to pen an article while I sat next to that very same pool.? With 27 different models, it all at once felt like a real chance to satisfy the “modders” out there who love to doctor their Seiko’s, but at the same time seemed like a move towards taking on competition from the fashion watch set.? After all, the watches look like real divers, but they lack a screw-down crown and come in with less w...
The Top 10 Vintage Watches From #TBT 2019
We choose our 10 favorite vintage pieces from this year’s #TBT feature.Scrolling through the articles from this years #TBT brings me a satisfying smile. Here and there I stop for a while and recollect the memories connected to the shooting or research. Well, all watches and their stories rightly deserved to be featured, but we can shortlist just a few of them. We welcome you to see our selection of best pieces and reasons, why we picked it up. If some of them slipped your attention during the year, here is your chance to catch up on the best vintage pieces published in 2019.Top 10 Vintage Watches From #TBTOmega Seamaster 300 CK2913It doesn't happen often such a grail watch re-surface i...
This Week In Watches: December 26, 2020 Grand Seiko Not Done For Christmas
First things, first, Happy Christmas to all of the Fratelli! From the team here at Fratello Watches, we hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday and that there were many horological gifts under your Christmas trees! Whether those watch-based gifts were from friends, family, or even self-bought - that's not important!Around this time of the year, brands (or, more specifically, the people working for the brands) traditionally tend to have wrapped things up for the Christmas break. Yes, even the watch industry needs a Christmas break! That said, there have still been some exciting things that came up this week. Let's have a look!Grand Seiko GS9 club and SBGE263 Eagle US LEIn some exciting new...
Titoni Seascoper Reference 83600 S-BE-255 Dive Watch Review
The first time I encountered Titoni I was presented with a brand I had literally never heard of. And by the time I came face-to-face with these watches in the metal, I’d been working in the watch industry for almost 15 years. Had I been being completely pig-ignorant or was there something else at play here that might provide me some sort of excuse for having never heard of the brand before. I decided to find out what I’d been missing…Titoni is a Swiss brand. Its prices run from around $450 for the ladies’ quartz entry point, right up to just over $2,000 for the master series collection on a bracelet. Despite it occupying an affordable price bracket and possessing look...
Hanhart CXD Hybrid NFT Watch Project
When Hanhart recently auctioned a digital concept watch for $44,625, perhaps no one was more surprised than Felix Wallner, the historic German brand's managing director. Like most of us, it took Wallner some time to wrap his head around non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, the latest craze in the cryptocurrency world. Wallner had barely heard of the concept when contacted earlier this year by a firm interested in having Hanhart make an NFT offering.Hanhart, an independent company mostly known for historic military timepieces and stopwatches, was asked to become a trendsetter in the abstract world of cryptocurrency. So it made sense that Wallner's first instinct was to shrug the suggestion off. But ...
How Watches Work: What Is CVD Coating? (2021)
Another day, another term that we see and hear, but maybe don't know what it means. Today, it's CVD. Well, what is CVD? As you probably guessed, CVD is an abbreviation. It stands for Chemical Vapor Deposition, a type of coating process that is not to be confused with PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition). Please note that this is a coating process rather than a coating itself.CVD-applied coatings are commonly found throughout the industry in many different consumer products. CVD-applied coatings are found in a range of applications that require a high-performance thin-film coating. But, what is it about the chemical deposition process that makes a superior coating for high-performance precision ap...
Cimier Watch Academy: Give Watchmaking A Go!
Surely it's not just me? I imagine that all of us watch fans have entertained the notion of being a watchmaker, even if just for a fleeting moment - going to work, sitting down at our workbench, and spending the day creating a marvelous machine that redefines horology as we know it… OK, so perhaps that level of imagination is just me. But on a more realistic level, I’ve always been fascinated to better understand exactly how a watch movement works. I know the theory behind it all, but in terms of learning and understanding, doing something always trumps reading about it. When offered the opportunity to do just that at Cimier’s Watch Academy in Biel, I literally jumped at th...
The Three Best Microbrand GMT Watches Of 2022
After the whole world came to a stop in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, things seem to finally be returning to a relative state of normality in the Western world. And as we emerge from our long hibernation, some of us are beginning to follow through on our dreams of travel. Independents/microbrands have seen this coming and are offering many options for affordable GMT watches. They are affordable because they cost below or just around $1,000 and come with robust constructions and decent specifications. I'm beginning to travel again, so it's nice to see brands stepping up their game. In this article, I'll highlight three of 2022’s best GMT watches from independent brands.Independent ...
Creative Watch Creations: CODE 41, De Bethune, And More
I learned something while putting this column together. I knew that December 26th is Boxing Day in some countries, but thanks to the Encyclop?dia Britannica, I now know that in Great Britain and some Commonwealth countries, particularly Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, Boxing Day is a holiday on which servants, tradespeople, and the poor traditionally were presented with gifts. Think Tudor watches, not es - sorry, I just couldn't resist. In the 21st century, Boxing Day is now a day associated with shopping and sporting events. But in non-Commonwealth countries such as the Netherlands, but also Poland, Romania, and Iceland to name but a few, December 26th is called the Second Day of Christ...
Gold Dress Watches From Blancpain, Breguet, And Cartier
I would love to write about affordable dress watches, but let’s be honest, there’s always a certain price to pay for gold. However, the watches I’ve picked from Breguet and Blancpain for today’s Pre-Owned Spotlight are at least attractively priced, especially in comparison to their original MSRPs. I’ve also included a Cartier Tank Americaine in yellow gold, which comes at a lower price than its current version.Breguet and Blancpain are the Swatch Group’s high-end luxury brands and serve as its pillars of traditional watchmaking. However, in comparison to other brands, Breguet and Blancpain’s watches are still undervalued. Especially when it comes to ...
New: Seiko Sharp Edged Akebono SPB361J1 & SPB363J1
Seiko’s Sharp Edged models offer something very attractive in today's watch market. You get a taste of higher-end finishing in watches under 2K. Seiko now releases two new models in its Sharp Edged range. There is a new time-and-date watch and a more complicated version that we will focus on here. Both come with a menacing black DLC finish and are fitted with degrade purple dials. Let's have a look.If you avoid coated watches out of fear of flaking, Seiko might have you covered here. DLC (Diamond-Like Coating) is rather durable. Seiko describes these as “hard-coated.” I cannot predict what these will look like after twenty-odd years of wear, but under somewhat careful use, ...
Parmigiani Fleurier's Dazzling Tonda PF Skeleton Rose Gold
As 2022 draws to a close, it's the time of year to get festive and flaunt those dazzling colors. For Parmigiani, this final week is the golden hour. We can totally get behind that and put the spotlight on the brand’s rose gold models in its flagship Tonda PF collection. Looking through the lineup, there is one reference we have yet to present. By pure serendipity, as we're all in the mood for some indulgence, it is a top-of-the-line gold Tonda, the PF Skeleton Rose Gold.The golden lineupIf I hadn't made a tally, I wouldn't have realized that Parmigiani Fleurier had pretty much covered all bases with rose gold versions this year. It certainly tells us something about the independent bra...
The Twelfth Fratello REM Strap Last Man On The Moon
Just before Apollo 17 astronaut Eugene Cernan stepped up the ladder of the lunar model to leave the Moon at 5:34 GMT on December 14th, 1972, he did something that made almost every daughter in the world jealous. He knelt and scribbled “TDC” - his daughter Tracy’s initials - in the lunar dust. Her initials are still there and probably will be for millions of years. Eugene “Gene” Andrew Cernan is known as The Last Man on the Moon. His book, with that title, came out in 1999 and mentions the watch he wore on the lunar surface - the Omega Speedmaster Professional.Last Man on the MoonFor our last collaboration of this year, REM and Fratello decided to come up with so...
Fratello On Air: Gary Shtenygart Joins The Show
Mike and I are celebrating Christmas with our loved ones this week. But this is the last Fratello On Air of the year, and we had to go out with a bang, so I recorded a talk with fellow watch enthusiast, New York Times bestselling author, and all-around nice guy Gary Shteyngart. Enjoy this special holiday episode!...
Strap Check: Boundary Layer Studio Signature Straps
You may not know this, but in the Netherlands, we celebrate Christmas on the 25th and 26th of December. This means many Dutch people still have one fancy dinner tonight before Christmas is officially over. What do you do for such a nice occasion? Exactly - you dress up nicely, which means you also wear your favorite dress watch on a slightly nicer strap than usual. Well, that’s where the straps from a company called Boundary Layer Studio come into play. Its Signature line of straps uses premium fabrics by the famous Italian company Loro Piana. Even though this Strap Check article might come a bit late for this year’s Christmas holidays, let’s see if these straps are worth c...
One Month With The Breguet Type XX Chronographe 2067
One perk of being a writer in this industry is the opportunity to wear some nice and sometimes exquisite watches. They don’t always have to be expensive watches to make an impact. For example, I remember trying the new Swatch What If Break Free collection a few months ago. Despite it being so far from Haute Horlogerie, I still feel it’s quite special, and that’s what counts. But when I can wear a watch from a brand I have a soft spot for, like Breguet, it's extra special. This time, it's the Type XX Chronographe 2067 in stainless steel, a much-discussed watch when it came out in 2023.Breguet Type XXBreguet's Type XX was and still is a watch I admire. I’ve been eyeball...
Fratello Talks: The Best Watches Of 2024
Welcome to the Season 2 finale of Fratello Talks. As we come to the end of the year, we’ll be looking back at some of the best watches of 2024. Nacho is joined by RJ and Lex, who have come prepared with a list of favorites under six pre-determined categories. And though they’ll discuss some of what they consider the best watches of the year, you can decide which of these timepieces will earn the title of Fratello Readers’ Choice for best watch of 2024. Be sure to vote below for your favorite! The winner will be revealed after a week of voting. For now, tune in for an overview of horological highlights from the past 12 months. Before we do that though, here’s the final...
New: The Maen Manhattan 40 In Blue, Copper Salmon, And Jade
Since 2017, Maen has released numerous high-quality watches that blend retro touches with modern style. Now the brand is back with the new Manhattan 40, an upsized take on the popular 37mm model. Per the company’s normal course, versions with and without a date are available for order. There’s also a special stone-dial option for a limited period.Indeed, when we visited Maen at the WatchPro Salon in London, the watches were impressive. Highly finished cases, thin but strong bracelets, and lovely dimensions were the highlights for us. I was taken with the Lunar Classic 36, a watch that fits my smaller wrist perfectly. Still, the squarish Manhattan ranks as one of the brand’s...