The Top 10 Vintage Watches Featured On #TBT in 2021
We brought you quite the handful in #TBT this year. To help you decide which vintage watches you should push higher on your bucket lists, I?created 10 interesting vintage watch categories and nominated my winners. Looking back through our weekly Thursday vintage boost, I am proud to say that it was a great mix of watches. They ranged from previously unseen pieces and $100 bargain to bizarre quartz watches, eye-watering provenance, and all-original, never-before-touched grail timepieces. Which parameter is the most important for you when choosing your next acquisition? Here are 10 categories showcasing how rich and diverse the passion for vintage watches can be.#1: Complication of the year: M...
Celegin Draken One Of 2021's Best Microbrand Pilot's Watches
I have always had a soft spot for both independents and microbrands. The microbrand genre is an ever-evolving one, spanning everything from budget-friendly $150 Submariner-ish divers up to meticulously crafted watches over $3000. But one thing marks this refreshing part of the #watchfam, and that is personality. Going hands-on with the Celegin Draken merely confirms my theory, with its suave personality winning me over.Some microbrands are a love-or-hate affair, but shining through each design is the sheer enthusiasm of the founders. My first new mechanical wristwatch was from a budget microbrand, and this accessibility is key to each success story. Leonard Celegin is the founder of the epon...
Top 5 Underrated Watches Of 2021: Omega, , Tissot And More
Every year, we see watches not getting the attention we think they deserve. In 2021 again, some watches were underrated. But what does that mean - underrated, underestimated, or undervalued? These words all seem to indicate that a watch is not appreciated highly enough. But in what sense? Are its technical specifications on a higher level than is generally believed. Is its price lower than the actual product is worth? Or could it be that people just don’t value the watch due to its appearance?Looking at the reader numbers of the articles about the following watches, we could tell that these watches weren’t very much in demand this year. Let’s start with what is, in general,...
The Best Watches Of 2022
It’s time for the final list of 2022! After a long year full of great releases, it’s time to put together a list of the ten best watches of 2022. After have compiled our individual lists, this is Fratello’s list of best releases of the year. What does that mean? These are the ten watches we were most impressed by. Call them the most relevant, impactful, talked about, or simply the best. According to the Fratello editors, these are the ten best watches from 2022.It can be hard to come up with a list of the best ten watches in a year that saw so many different releases. The big question when we made our list was simple: what was the impact of these watches? We debated it for ...
The Definition Of Microbrand; Up For Discussion
Within the last decade, the term “microbrand” has become commonplace. Before that, we had big, small, and even smaller brands. But now we are dealing with micro brands as well. And did you just notice something? Yes, the complexity of a microbrand already starts with how to write it.Is it indeed “microbrand,” or should we write “micro brand”? Technically speaking, I think it should be the latter. In the real world, however, we often see the term written as one word. An even more complicated problem is determining when or why a brand is a microbrand.What’s the definition of a microbrand?Not too long ago, Fratello’s?Thomas van Straaten (not Tomas...
Chronoswiss Styloscope Pens 88 Pieces Found!
In 2000, I got a Chronoswiss Regulateur (later dubbed “Regulator”) watch. It is a beautiful 38mm piece with a silvery-white dial and blue hands. It has the classic dial layout that Chronoswiss founder Gerd-Rudiger Lang introduced in the mid-1980s as one of his first designs. The watch came in a beautiful wooden box with a green interior. The papers were signed by Gerd-R Lang himself with his green Pelikan M800 demonstrator fountain pen.For the 20th anniversary of Chronoswiss, Lang went to the German company Pelikan and requested a special fountain pen. The result was the Chronoswiss Styloscope pen in a limited (numbered) series of 999 pieces. This pen was never sold by Pelikan bu...
A Guide To The Stream Of Grand Seiko Releases In 2022
It’s not the first time we mention it. Seiko and Grand Seiko reliably grace us with numerous brilliant releases every year. We decided to create an overview of the watches we covered on Fratello over the past twelve months. In this first of two articles, we will start off with Grand Seiko. The brand had another year full of great releases. Part of the new releases was centered around the 55th anniversary of the 44GS, which was introduced in 1967. But there were a lot more releases that caught our eye in 2022. So let’s look back at another great year for Grand Seiko.When Nacho and I started talking about this article, we quickly understood that this would not be a walk in the park...
The Watch Design Philosophy of Microbrand Owners
What does a 1960s skin diver have in common with a modern $500 diver? How about hiking and a quartz field watch or, better yet, Art Deco and a Flieger? What all of these random things have in common is the fascinating world of micro and independent horology. Those who have created your favorite watches in the past 10 years were inspired by something they saw, or they wanted to convey their very intimate vision of what horology could be. Watch design is art, and, as such, the artists behind the watches are each motivated by something unique. What pushes them to sit at the (sometimes) proverbial drawing board??This article is preceded by one dealing with general facts about micro and independe...
Fratello's Top Stories Of 2024: The Year's Horological Highlights
Fratello celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. That’s right; two decades ago, RJ started his very own watch blog from his neighbor’s garage…or was it his girlfriend’s attic? Anyway, that in itself is very exciting. Other than that, in 2024, we launched our very own wrist butter for your perfectly hydrated wrist shots. But most importantly, we also had more readers than ever and received more than 30,000 comments from you all. Thank you for that, dear Fratelli. Today, I’ll highlight the most read stories of 2024 and those that got the most comments. Let’s see what moved the watch enthusiast community most this year.The MoonSwatch is still going strongI...
The Best Watches Of 2024: Nacho's Picks
It’s hard to believe that 2024 is just a day away from being over. Yet, as quickly as these last few weeks have flown by, in hindsight, it’s been a big year for watches. As is now tradition, the Fratello team takes turns sorting through the best watches of 2024 and sharing our favorites with you. Today, I have the privilege of playing us out. So, with just one brief word of context coming up from me, let’s take a look at my top four favorite releases of 2024.To be honest, I feel it’s a bit redundant to say it at this point, but I’ll make a quick note for the benefit of those less familiar with this series: the watches in this list represent only a very thin and ...
And that was 2007
Like last year, a word of thank you to my sponsors Steiner in Maastricht, Henrik at SubGMT, Squiggly and Blancier watches. For 2008, 121Time will be added as well.Next, thanks to all contributors (special thank you to Gerard Nijenbrinks for posting some messages while I was away) and all people who used to comment button ?? Also, to all people who mailed me with hints or suggestions for new topics. I hope to keep up the frequency of posts (at least once a week) like the last few months or even better ;).2007 has been a bit in the light of , since that brand got my interest more and more, but I will try to cover a broader range of watches in 2008.Thanks, visitors of this Fratello blog! Have a...
2008 A Resume
Here in The Netherlands, the year 2008 is almost over. Only a few hours left of a very stirring year. I use the word stirring, because a lot of stuff happened in 2008. The two most important events of 2008 are in contrast with each other. The first one is the loss of Speedmaster and chronograph legend but most of all a greatly appreciated (watch) friend – Chuck Maddox.The second important event is that I asked my girlfriend on first Christmas day to marry me (and she said Yes!). I gave her a Christmas present and had the proposal engraved in the case back of the watch. It took a while before she noticed it (it seems that girls are mainly focused on the dial and case and do not turn the...
Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011!
Dear readers of this blog,We are only few hours away from 2011! I am pretty sure that 2011 will be an exciting year for (haute) horlogerie. In 2010, we’ve seen a lot of new watches that were really out of this world, such as The Palace by Jean Dunand, the Rebellion T-1000 and Max Busser’s HM No.4. Besides these, we’ve seen re-incarnations of classic time pieces such as the Explorer in 39mm, the Bulova Accutron Spaceview and the Glycine Airman Base 22. And everything in between of course. My friend Frank Geelen of Monochrome did a nice write-up on the best timepieces of 2010 and I wholeheartedly agree with his choice of timepieces.So, what will 2011 bring us? We’ve se...
Omega Speedmaster '57 Three Different Versions From 1957 to 2013
It’s Speedy Tuesday! On this very last day of 2013, we thought it would be nice to do a side-by-side article on three different Speedmaster ’57 models. One of them is the very first Omega Speedmaster from 1957, reference CK2915 with caliber 321 movement. The holy grail to a lot of Speedmaster collectors and enthusiasts. The other two are homage watches to this very first Speedmaster CK2915 and feature some of the characteristics that this watch has. One of them is the Omega Speedmaster ’57 Replica or re-edition that was in production from 1998 to 2003 and the other one is the Speedmaster ’57 Caliber 9300 that was introduced in 2013.In the photo above you see (from lef...
Top 10 Watch Articles in 2014
In just a few hours from now, we will be toasting to the new year and wish each other all best of luck and happiness. Before doing so, we want to share our Top 10 watch articles from 2014 with you. This top 10 watch articles overview is based on the number of views it received.Now, you might think that Speedy Tuesday might top the list – and it is surely in there – but it still seems that you – our precious reader – are also interested in other articles.Before I will show you our Top 10 watch articles overview of 2014, a few words:The survey we performed earlier this year (in July) showed some very interesting statistics and you gave us truly interesting and useful fe...
Top 10 Best Read Articles Of 2018
It is the last day of the year, time to share with you the Top 10 best read articles on Fratello in 2018. In total, we published just over 450 posts on watches.2018 was a very important year for us, as we made a number of important decisions for the future of Fratello, which we will tell you more about soon. Also, of course, there was the release of another Speedmaster ‘Speedy Tuesday’ (Ultraman) which means a great deal to us. We very much enjoyed doing watch reviews (a big thank you to all brands that cooperate with us on that) and hosting watch events (another thank you to the brands and boutiques involved). We will do more events in the future, starting next week actually.For...
Winning Stars to Watch: Independent Watchmaking
Once the preserve of the critics and connoisseurs, independent watchmaking is becoming a thing' on the horological map. It has attracted worldwide attention from those seeking fresh and exceptional discoveries off the beaten track.If you are missing out on this winning category, or it's just a blur to you, fret not. We have been charting the rise of the Independents over the decade. Let me give you a quick fact.In Geneva (November 2018), the independents won 7 prizes from the 12 competing categories at the GPHG red-carpet awards ceremony, broadcast and reported across the globe.Greubel Forsey won the Mechanical Exception Watch Prize with their Grande SonnerieWhat does this mean?For the unini...
Speedy Tuesday The Best Of 2019 And A Look Into 2020
2019 was an amazing ‘Speedmaster’ year, not only because of the 50th anniversary of Apollo XI and the Speedmasters celebrating this, or the re-introduction of the famous caliber 321 but also because of the many Speedy Tuesday events we were able to organize.Together with Omega, we hosted 8 events from January 2019 till December 2019. We visited Japan, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, Singapore, and Hong Kong to meet with you and celebrate our passion for the Speedmaster. It was amazing to meet many of you during these events, and it felt heartwarming every single time, even in places where we’ve never been before. Thank you for that. I also would like to than...
Watch Strap Review Part 38 Velle Alexander Straps
Velle Alexander might be a young brand, but they have a clear vision and determination that will take them a long way in the business.Let's have a look at some of the most notable names coming from Minnesota. To start, we have legendary American fiction writer and novelist F Scott Fitzgerald, who was born in the state. The Los Angeles Lakers from the NBA were once called Minneapolis Lakers the name finally makes sense if we look at the map of Minneapolis with its 13 lakes. The state is not team-less, but the Timberwolves don't have the success the Lakers had while still in Minnesota (5 championships). Lastly, the topic of today's Watch Strap Review, an up and coming brand, is among the 5.6 m...
#TBT Iconic Bauhaus Watch Junghans Max Bill
There is hardly a better indicator of timeless design principles than the continued existence of those principles in the modern world. Here we have a watch that certainly gave the German manufacturer Junghans worldwide recognition. In today's #TBT we have the OG Junghans Max Bill.An architect, painter, sculptor, writer, typographer, graphic designer, and also an industrial designer. You can hardly find a museum that doesn't showcase at least some pieces of his work. Max Bill, the man responsible for even heavy-weight collectors having great respect for this small German manufacturer. Max Bill was born in Switzerland and studied architecture at the Bauhaus school, Germany's foremost school of...