You might not have heard of watchmaker Jacques Bianchi from Marseille before. Bianchi has a workshop that faces the Old Port (Vieux Port) in Marseille, France. It is in this workshop, where Bianchi worked on numerous watches. Including those of Cousteau, Mayol, and a bunch of COMEX divers. The JB200 we have for you here today on Fratello is not something new or invented. No, Bianchi has solid expe

Dive watches are incredibly popular with watch collectors and not just those collectors who are qualified to venture beneath the waves. There seems to be a particular love for dive watches from collectors who rarely even leave the confines of their desks. Hence the popular term “desk divers” became a part of everyday vocabulary in the watch-collecting community. Until recently, my own

Do you remember the famous Patek Philippe ads with the perfectly clean-cut family? These model citizens are far removed from the daily image of watch enthusiasts. Don’t get me wrong, those people are probably out there, but the time that most watch enthusiasts look like that is far behind us. Over time, the world of watches has found an appeal with a far wider audience than the traditional &

Welcome to the first episode of Fratello Food Frenzy! Today, we’ll be exploring the culinary hotspots of Staten Island, New York! Who could say no to the best cold cut, Italian ice, and pizza in town? Get ready for a very colorful and flavorful ride! Oh yes, and the tour will definitely include some sizzling hot Welsbro watches too! But before we kick off our tour, it’s time for a litt

All right, here we go. Grab your sunglasses, get yourself an ice-cold drink, and get ready for round one of this year’s Fratello Summer Splash! The rules are simple: pick your favorite brightly colored watch and let it go head-to-head with your opponent’s summer watch of choice. Today, Thor and Daan will bite the bullet first, and at the end, you’ll decide who takes the win! Will

Yes, I was a fan from day one, and Furlan Marri did the unlikely thing of turning my skepticism towards quartz to love. But, to be fair, the designers wouldn't have managed this without their obsessive eye for detail. Andrea and Hamad created a chronograph that became The Microbrand Hypebeast and deservedly so. They went from fully funded within minutes to quadrupling, even octupling (is that even

Hold onto your seats, patient Fratelli, because we’ve got some electrifying news for you! Get ready for the imminent return of the Fratello Nivada Grenchen Racing Chronograph, a collaboration that has us buzzing with excitement! We’re thrilled to unveil this masterpiece for general release. This watch combines the best of two vintage models from Nivada’s extensive catalog, result

The construction of the Derby Swissonic is different than anything you have seen so far. It reminds you of an old bedside flip clock, doesn’t it? In reality, it is an ingenious plastic speedometer “drum-machine” powered by a 7-jewel transistorized electromagnetic module.7:55 on the Yema DigitalFrom jumping hours to jumping minutesThe Derby Swissonic might bring back fond memories

It’s not often that you see the same watch available with a choice of four different scripts on the dial. The Elka Watch Co. Diversity Series might be a first for me. It was created to celebrate diversity and the friendship between two watch aficionados. However, it also shows us how different a watch can look depending on the script that is being used. Let’s take a closer look at the

At first, sub-$1,000 and even sub-$500 mechanical watches seem like a very nice idea. They can be especially attractive to someone who likes mechanical watches but doesn’t have the budget to spend on a more expensive one. It makes the experience of having a mechanical watch more accessible. But does it really? Because when you think about it, these budget mechanical watches might not live as

Sometimes I am jealous of people who have just one watch. However, that almost seems like something from the distant past since it's so common to have more than one watch these days. Even if you're not a watch collector or enthusiast, you probably have a watch that is dear to you because you received it from someone special or a watch that you bought because of its design. And alongside that one,

Welcome to this week’s episode of Fratello Talks, where we dive head-first into quartz watches. Lex, Thomas, and Nacho gather in the podcast studio to discuss their love for battery-powered timepieces. There’s a lot to like about them. They’re reliable, accurate, and typically more affordable than their mechanical counterparts. And though quartz watches sometimes can get a bad ra

What a surprise! After the two Mission to Moonphase Snoopy releases earlier this year, I did not expect to see an additional set of MoonSwatch models. Only the teasers on Swatch's Instagram account a few days before June 11th gave away the idea that we could expect something new.The MoonSwatch successThe first 11 MoonSwatch models were introduced two years ago, just a few days before Watches and W

White-out designs and stealthy black go in and out of fashion, but seeing a resurgence of stealthy cool this year underlines that black is black. And sometimes that is just right.Whether you want literal stealth wealth to go with your fave black suit or are employed as a secret operative, that's your business. But for whatever reason, there is something about a lack of color that brings out the be

As Mike Stockton recently announced on Fratello, TAG Heuer has updated its large Aquaracer. The 43mm model got a 1mm downsize, new caliber, and new dial, among other changes. Mike did a great job describing all the changes but did not have the chance to try the new watches on. Since then, I have, so let's explore how these changes impact the subjective experience of handling and wearing these TAG

Gronefeld Parallax TourbillonShortly before Baselworld we were invited to an exclusive sneak preview of the new Gronefeld watches. During a dinner meeting with some (blogger) friends, Bart & Tim Gronefeld would present?their new collection. We (sadly) missed out on this opportunity because we were on a business trip to Germany. Shortly before Baselworld we published an article about the new Gr

If you start to explore the world of Speedmasters and Omega in general one name you will come across is the late and great Chuck Maddox. Many things we know today are results of his thorough research, which is still a reference point for a lot of topics. Let that be a Speedy Pro, a vintage Heuer or vintage chronograph in general; he had his hands in everything. And boy was he ingenious. So ingenio

Sometimes, it just takes time and patience to find the watch you've had on a wanted listand that's exactly what I had to withstand when it came to locating the subject of this week's #TBT, the Zodiac Sea-Chron. Believe it or not, a Sea-Chron had been on my list for roughly a year before I landed the piece before you. It wasn't really that I had not seen any for sale, I was simply hunting bigger ga

We often receive an invitation to visit a manufacture in Switzerland and Glashutte (Germany), but once in a while we find ourselves somewhere else looking at watchmaking machines and equipment. This time, we visit the Hanhart manufacture in the Black Forrest (Germany).?Hanhart manufactureIn the Black Forrest lays Gutenbach. A small village in the south of Germany, with a population of about 1200 p

I've been collecting Speedmaster watches for over 20 years. The first one I bought was in 1999, a Speedmaster Professional 145.012-67. Things were very different back then. There were far fewer resources available. Doing your homework was hard. It took a lot more legwork than it does today. When I started out, I used the TimeZone Omega forums and was in touch with fellow enthusiasts like Chuck Mad