No vintage watch sits more prominently in my mind than the Univeral Genve Polerouter. There are certainly more popular watches and better-known vintage references. But the Polerouter is a pinnacle of (what I consider to be) the golden age of watch design. In recent years, it has become something of a cult classic. With the recent resurrections of vintage watch designs and companies, I think it

Butter up your toast and pour yourself a fresh cup of coffee, but be quick with your breakfast because it’s Sunday morning, and it’s time to rumble! In this installement of Sunday Morning Showdown, we put two brand-new Grand Seiko Spring Drive models head to head - the SLGA019 and SBGA481. There hasn’t been a dull moment in Grand Seiko’s release calendar this year. However,

Last weekend, it was exactly 55 years ago that the Apollo 11 crew turned the Omega Speedmaster Professional chronograph into the Moonwatch. It may have actually been one of the first nicknames that a wristwatch ever received. As a watch enthusiast, you’ve probably heard the story of the Moonwatch a thousand times already. However, in case you're new to watches (or simply don't mind hearing i

Last weekend, it was exactly 55 years ago that the Apollo 11 crew turned the Omega Speedmaster Professional chronograph into the Moonwatch. It may have actually been one of the first nicknames that a wristwatch ever received. As a watch enthusiast, you’ve probably heard the story of the Moonwatch a thousand times already. However, in case you're new to watches (or simply don't mind hearing i

Designing anything, including watches, is an iterative process. You move from one design to another, and every time, you get a bit closer to what you had in mind. I’m not a designer, but Emmanuel Dietrich, who founded the Dietrich brand in 2010, is. When you look at his previous designs, you can see that the new Dietrich ED-1 is a clear outcome of all those previous models. Spoiler alert: to

Welcome to another episode of Fratello On Air. This week, we discuss watch bracelets and cover a wide range of subtopics about these important devices that fasten watches to our wrists. It’s another listener suggestion, and we hope you enjoy the show! For our listeners, the watch content begins after approximately 20 minutes.

You may have missed it, but last week would have marked Clive Cussler's 93rd birthday. The famous adventure author wrote over 80 books and sold over 100,000,000 copies before passing away in 2020. Both Cussler and Dirk Pitt, his most famous protagonist, were known to wear Doxa watches. This spawned a fruitful relationship with the brand. Doxa celebrated the shared history with a special Clive Cuss

Please, come closer. It’s worth it. When you do, you can find that the movement inside the Roger Dubuis Excalibur Monotourbillon Titanium comprises 194 parts and features no fewer than 16 types of manual finishing. This results in a sophisticated and impressive watch that is both complicated and minimalistic; indeed, it is a paradox in the metal. Creating an open-worked flying tourbillon wat

On the 22nd of July, FratelloWatches celebrated its 2nd birthday. It all started on 22 july 2004. Like WristWatchReview, who also celebrated its birthday on the 26th of June, I will post some statistics for the interested people:229,400 unique hits measured since 3 October 2004,491 posts since 22 july 2004,736 comments since 22 july 2004,Post with the most comments is “Another Scam” wi

Omega Seamaster Jedi – Let's get this straight once and for all!When you start collecting vintage Omega watches from the 1970s and come across the big chunky Seamaster chronographs the top 3 models you will find are: reference 176.001, reference 176.007 (these 2 are basically the same) and reference 176.0005 or the so-called Omega Seamaster Jedi. This due to the fact that these models were p

We can be very certain that most of the sports and tool watches end up on the wrist of someone who spends most of his days in artificial light, behind a desk and staring at spreadsheets or other boring software. A glance at their sports or tool watch might make them day dream for a few moments how it would be to really have to rely on your watch! Under water, in the forrest, in the sky, on the Moo

You probably?know that we have a strong?focus on watches that are available for the wider audience. Watches that represent excellent value for money. In my book a watch is considered a member of the above group if it has a mechanical movement and a?price tag up to $3,000 USD. The watch we are about to review today is no exception from this category. For your viewing pleasure: the Davosa World Trav

After the last Watches and Pencils episode about Panda dials I decided to briefly discuss another dial which is related to an animal: spider dials. Although there are?similarities they are quite different in terms of ‘creation’. The human decided to design and create a panda dial, while the spider dial is (partly) created by the forces of nature…How did the spider dial originate?

Today, Oris introduces a new variation on the Aquis collection. The?Oris Aquis Small Second with date feature. Let us stress that the ‘small’ in the model name has to do with the seconds and absolutely not with the size of the watch. A whopping 45.5mm in diameter for this Oris Aquis Small Second Date.The?Oris Aquis Small Second has the same design as the Aquis that was introduced earli

Yesterday we received several messages about the Japanese Omega website displaying 5 new Speedmasters. Perhaps they’re not entirely new, but I will come back to that later. What should have been a ‘quiet release’ went crazy in the several Speedmaster groups on Facebook and the number of DM’s we received increased by the hour. It’s time to give some explanation about t

Recently we found our way to Munich, the Bavarian capital, early in the morning. Upon arrival, we joined several other journalists for a typical local dish called Wei?wurst. Time to start the actual Hanhart Primus program.About HanhartWe were invited to join Hanhart for the presentation of their latest novelty. This small brand that has its roots in Switzerland and dates back to 1882. Starting as

Breguet expands its collection of Classique wristwatches with a new, blue, solid gold dial.For the past three hundred years, the name of Abraham-Louis Breguet has been one of the most revered in watchmaking circles. The man himself was a celebrity. He gave us a great many innovations that continue to impress today’s audience. And yet one of my most enduring memories of Breguet occurred only

I often speak with people who are either getting into vintage watches or are considering it. Often, people are afraid of making mistakes. Here’s a handy list of things to consider to avoid those pesky pitfalls.I think we can all agree that vintage watches are a wonderful way to expand one’s love of our favorite hobby. Whether you’re into patina, history, or collecting a certain s

With everything going on at Fratello HQ over the last couple of weeks, this one nearly slipped under our radar. In the end, it didn’t, but we haven’t really had a chance to rave about it, until now. I am, of course, talking about the new MING 20.11 with the incredible mosaic sapphire dial. We are no strangers to MING’s watches here at Fratello. Our editor Mike is a big fan and ev

We like to talk about vintage watches a lot within the Fratello team. While the daily routine is largely focused on the most recent developments in the world of watches, the most fun for many of us lies in the sometimes weird and often wonderful world of vintage watches. It's a world full of history, remarkable watches, incredible stories, and quirky details. It inspired us to come up with a serie