I never wanted a valet tray. I didn’t think I needed one. Perhaps I don’t exactly need one. Perhaps, however, I get it now. I get why they’ve become a staple item on desks around the world. I get why the EDC nuts that drool over soft, welcoming beds for their pockets full of goodies rant and rave about the pluses of the good and minuses of the bad examples. Hell, maybe I’m

Oscar Wilde once said: When bankers get together for dinner, they discuss art. When artists get together for dinner, they discuss money. I think you can swap the word artists for watch aficionados, to paint a pretty accurate picture of the state of the watch world nowadays. Talking watches has more and more become talking about money. And talking about watch prices is a shallow experience, a conte

More often than I would like, I find myself in a discussion about the resale value of a watch. I'd rather discuss why someone wants a watch. To understand where their connection and attraction to a specific timepiece comes from. But perhaps, for some people, the resale value is one of their reasons. Another topic I often see appearing is the purchase price of a watch. People throw double-digit dis

Greubel Forsey has downsized two of its impressive Convexe watches. That alone isn't something that would necessarily trigger us to write an article. An existing design is just scaled down, maybe re-arranged a bit, and Bob's your uncle. But not with these two. Downsizing Greubel Forsey-style is a beast of a different nature altogether.Most watches feature coin-shaped calibers in round cases. Scali

Another Friday, another list! This week, we continue our quest for the best watches released in the first half of 2024. It’s all about dress watches for this new list. Have the first six months of the year been great for people looking to add a new dress piece to their collections? We take a look at the five best that we’ve seen. Once again, it wasn’t hard to come up with more th

Handling a time-only watch that bears the name Excelsior Park is odd. We are used to seeing that elongated bottom “E” stroke on chronographs almost exclusively. Yes, Excelsior Park had some time-only pieces in the past, but the bread and butter for the brand has always been chronos. Since its resurrection a few years ago, the new EP brand has only had chronographs in its collection. Th

Sometimes when we write articles at Fratello, we know exactly how they will land with our readers. Other times, we try something to see whether it strikes a chord. This is an example of the latter type of article. I consider myself lucky to have fallen in love with a hobby twice when so many never do even once. I turned my passion for watches into my work, but I have another hobby that I love just

Last Wednesday, Fratellowatches joined the introduction of The Chinese Timekeeper' in Amsterdam. The event was hosted by Ace Jewelers (official and exclusive retailer in Europe) and to get in the right mood, Ace invited us over to Nam Kee, an award winning Chinese restaurant where the event was being held.After weeks of poor summer weather the Sun finally showed up – almost a hint for what w

Yesterday, a Frederique Constant retailer in The Hague was the World’s first in delivering the Frederique Constant Smartwatch to a number of their clients. 10 watches to be exact, were waiting for their new owners in the boutique of Juwelier van Willegen in The Hague.To celebrate, Van Willegen invited the new owners to come and pick-up the watch from their boutique and have a drink with the

Don't know about you, but I pretty much got addicted to straps by now. This is almost our anniversary article?of Strap Review, being number 9 in the series. This month we are traveling back to a country we have already visited. Some of you?might remember that the 3rd Strap Review article featured Stewart and his amazing straps by the name of Heuerville from the United Kingdom. Well, this time we a

Junghans Meister PilotAlmost 10 months after we first saw the Meister Pilot at an event deep in the Black Forrest we finally put our hands on one. Our loyal readers might remember that September last year we were?invited to Schramberg by Junghans. This small town hidden inside the belly of the forest is the home of Junghans from the beginning. We spent a wonderful weekend there filled with vintage

Grand Seiko seems to be the community’s darling. Since?a few years, collectors and watch journalists are all over it and it seems to be increasing by the day. With ‘in-house’ GS ambassadors such as Joe Kirk, who happens to be Director of the Seiko Boutique Miami Design district and puts out beautiful images on his Instagram and Facebook account, we get to see how the community re

Ahoj, hodinky kolektory! It’s This Week in Watches for July 27, 2019.So, we’re now in full vacation season mode here in Europe.? That means crowded airports, perhaps time for boring DIY jobs, and other fun activities.? I suppose a lot of these holidays leave a lasting impression after their culmination.? But I was recently thinking back on last weekend’s Moon Landing 50th Anniver

Welcome back to our Watch On Your Wrist? Instagram extravaganza! Tag your watch snaps with #fratellowatches to be in with a chance to win!Every week, we select four images. You can vote in the article for your favorite image. The winner moves on to the semi-final round (held every fifth week between the previous four weekly winners). Win that and you’re into the final, which will be held at

When it comes to watch design, we often don’t know what we’d like to see next. Sure, we all want to be surprised by something new, something we haven’t seen before. A brand that has proven recently that something new actually can feel very familiar is the Italian brand Unimatic Watches. With the Modello Uno, Unimatic has shown that there is a lot to discover within the familiar a

Symmetry. Symmetry and balance. Those are the things that leap out from the Sternglas Ivo when you first lay eyes upon it. The big date complication is typically German. As a surprisingly German Irishman, I also love it too. Centralizing the complication and pairing it with a generously-sized sub-seconds dial works extremely well in this instance. And, along with the crisp typography we’ve c

In this video, I talk about one of my favorite wearers of the last two years. The Omega Seamaster PloProf 1200M, reference 224.30.55.21.01.001.I never thought I would say this, but the Seamaster PloProf 1200M could - despite the dimensions of 48mm x 55mm x 17.5mm and weighing nearly 280 grams - be my daily wearer. Yes, it is heavy and yes, it is a chunk of steel, but on the wrist, it wears relativ

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games are fully underway! And what better opportunity to have a look at this extraordinary set of watches? Omega already introduced (and released) them during the Summer of 2018 in anticipation of the 2020 Games. Little did we know back then that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad would be postponed. However, thanks to Omega’s precocity, we have been lucky enough to enjoy

Serica is a young French microbrand based out of Paris. The brand released its first version of its military-style 4512 back in 2019 to great critical acclaim. After their initial success, the guys at Serica updated the 4512 last year. With new dial options and a new movement, the watch has seen some remarkable improvementstime to find out more about this great military-style Serica 4512.It was s

We're back again with the MING 17.09, but this time it's a hands-on look with a highly anticipated watch. Let's jump into itThese days, it's tough to discuss MING without stirring up some strong emotions. Proponents are huge fans of their designs, build quality and even the scarcity. Naysayers begrudge the use of third-party movements and the challenging ordering process. That process has had peop