The Citizen Promaster Mechanical Diver 200m On The Wrist (2021)
Size doesn't matter. Really, it doesn't. Not to me, anyway. I care more about proportions, shape, and weight. Oh, and please, take your mind out of the gutter, I'm talking about watches. Putting the 46mm the Citizen Promaster Mechanical Diver 200m on the wrist was not a challenge when it came to the sheer size of the watch. No, its bulky appearance didn't scare me off at all. Mostly, I was curious how this XL creation would behave on a daily basis. And I found out.I'm ready to put the Citizen Promaster Mechanical Diver 200m with the black strap made of urethane - a polymer elastomer - on my wrist. Furthermore, I'm looking at a typical accordion-style diver's strap with some nice touches. For...
The Best Watches Of UEFA EURO 2020 European Championships
With the UEFA EURO 2020 European Championship football full swing underway, we see all kinds of watches on the wrists of famous European football players. Most of them are from the same brands, though. , Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe, and Richard Mille are kings in the land of football. No surprises there, really. Neither are the models of those brands. But we have tried to spot some less common timepieces. At the same time, they might still be part of the usual brands. Some of them may be less expected. Or maybe there is an interesting story. So let find out what has been on the wrists of some of the prominent players and managers of the UEFA EURO 2020 European Championships.Where there i...
First Session With The Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze (2021)
We should have seen this coming. But we didn't. Ever since Tudor announced their cooperation with the French Marine Nationale, we've been waiting for a special navy version of the Pelagos. In vain. But instead, we got a METAS-certified black ceramic Black Bay and now, after a gold and silver version of the BB58, there's a bronze version. As I said, we should have seen this coming. Read about my first session with the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze Boutique Edition…After gold, comes silver, and in third place you get bronze. That order is set in stone, in sports anyway. But is 18K better than .925 Sterling Silver or bronze when we're talking watches? Now that we've seen, worn, and e...
Discussing Watches And Flying With A Modern Warbird Pilot
Due to the passage of time, accidents, and the impacts of war, many pilots and test pilots from the pioneering days of aviation and the early jet age are no longer with us. As such, I often rely on families and photos when researching aviators and their timepieces. For a change, I thought it would be interesting to chat with a modern-day pilot who flies vintage aircraft to get his take on flying and watches.I spent a day at the Imperial War Museum Duxford, Europe's largest air museum and a former wartime RAF base, which is still an active aerodrome. I was there to meet pilot and army veteran Andy Goodall to talk about watches and his aviation career. Andy, who recently qualified as a Hawker ...
Hands-On: Depancel Serie-A Allure
What can you expect from a former CERN engineer, an enthusiastic community, and respectable French watchmaking? A microbrand called Depancel that’s all about automobile-inspired watches created with poll results from its following. Each new Depancel collection is an opportunity for its community to actively participate in the design of a watch and the development of the brand. The latest co-creation is the French company's first automatic chronograph, the Serie-A Allure, in a limited edition of 500 numbered pieces.Depancel was founded in 2018 by Clement Meynier, a serial entrepreneur who was a CERN fellow involved in materials and mechanical projects. While working in Geneva, Meynier c...
My Watchmaking Grail: Montblanc 1858 Split Second Chronograph
My colleagues’ articles on grail watches here on Fratello have shown that “grail” doesn’t mean the same thing for everyone. Therefore, I will introduce you to a story from my past to illustrate what a “grail” means to me. To imagine that my path to Montblanc’s 1858 Split Second Chronograph had already been paved since my childhood almost frightens me, but viewing it as consistency in my life feels acceptable.Several of the watches that I own are very special to me. Equally, a number of watches that I considered grails in the past have faded from my mind or have become much less desirable when I look at them today. From time to time, a watch impetuous...
Watch Fans Behaving Like Football Fans: Tribalism's Effects
Breitling ferociously chasing Tudor - I saw it happening while I was watching the Tour of Slovenia on television. A rider from the Tudor team attacked, and there was an immediate response from a Q36.5 team rider, a guy with big Breitling logos on his shirt. The Breitling guy caught the Tudor guy, and after that moment, I kept noticing how much the two Swiss teams were marking each other. It looked like a race within the race and, foolishly, one without a real winner. That's when the Frankie Goes To Hollywood Cold War song popped up in my mind. With it came the idea of watch fans of different brands chasing each other. A wild thought of watch fans behaving like football fans - no, football ho...
Hands-On With The Vero Meridian Manual Wind
It's summer, folks, so I hope you have lined up your watches for this special time of the year. Given what we typically do during the summer - visit expansive bodies of water, hike in the mountains, or explore cities - we must strap the right watch to our wrist. Naturally, we tend to seek colorful and comfortable watches since we are in more relaxed and festive spirits. And watches with clean and legible dials also seem to be popular in the summer (after all, we don't need elaborate complications in order to sun tan!). Although I do not claim to have found the perfect summer watch for you, I do want to share my thoughts on the new Vero Meridian Manual Wind. This watch has a few interesting d...
Zenith Chronomaster Sport Vs. Grand Seiko Tentagraph
Welcome to another edition of Sunday Morning Showdown. Today, two editors go toe to toe with two watches of a similar persuasion. Expect no holds barred as these writers vie for your votes to be crowned the winner. In this fight, we have two high-beat chronographs with automatic calibers. The Zenith Chronomaster Sport is going up against the Grand Seiko SLGC001 Tentagraph. Both watches have spectacular movements, but which one will take the crown? Our writers are ready, so let’s get this battle going.Today’s showdown is an interesting clash between two brands that are known for producing amazing high-beat movements. It’s been only three months since Grand Seiko unveiled the...
The June 2024 Fratello REM Strap Apollo 11
On the last Tuesday of every month, together with the Swedish REM company, we introduce a new strap for the Omega Speedmaster. As July 2024 marks the 55th anniversary of the Moon landing, we introduce the Apollo 11 strap to you. It’s also in time to have it on your wrist on July 20th, which marks the official date of one of mankind’s greatest accomplishments.Apollo 11On that date in 1969, NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin landed the Lunar Module “Eagle” on the Moon’s surface. A few hours later, on July 21st, they climbed down the ladder and were the first humans to set foot on the Moon. The third astronaut, Michael Collins, staye...
Laurent Ferrier Classic Micro-Rotor Di Rosa
It's not the name of the watch that sparked off wild thoughts. No, it's the watch's look. The dial of the Laurent Ferrier Classic Micro-Rotor Di Rosa shows a 12-armed character named “Ah! Ah! Ah!” Herve Di Rosa is a French artist who loves to travel the globe “in search of the mysteries of creation and the immaterial realms of thought.” On his quest, he created the “Diromythology” in Foumban, Cameroon, which features “Ah! Ah! Ah!” The motion of the shapes, their geometrical positioning, and the smiling face in the middle made me think of a secret society that uses this image on banners that hang in dungeons. This watch didn't make me think of t...
Hands-On: Oris Divers Sixty-Five Date 40mm Forest Green
The Divers Sixty-Five is something of a fan favorite among Oris aficionados. And why wouldn't it be? It oozes the charm of a vintage dive watch, and it is well made and attractively priced in today's competitive landscape. So when Oris announces new versions, I pay attention. And, as a former owner of a green-dial Divers Sixty-Five, a new green dial triggers me even more. That is precisely what we have here, so I had to go hands-on to see what's what.This is the new Oris Divers Sixty-Five Date 40mm in “forest green” with a Sellita caliber inside. Let's have a closer look!A familiar Divers Sixty-Five under the dialLet me kick things off by clarifying that this is purely a new colo...
Introducing: The Pragma P1 Perseverance
Geneva-based Pragma is the brainchild of Christopher Wegener and Kai-Hsuan Liu. Wegener has 21 years of experience history in watchmaking; he worked for and F.P.Journe, for instance. Liu is the brand's Creative Design Director. He has a background at Herms and a studio of his own, and his forte is fusing natural and technological elements. Do both founders’ expertise and talents come to light in the Pragma P1 - Perseverance, a collection consisting of four watches? One thing's for sure: they're very ambitious. Pragma exceeds the standards for “Swiss Made” certification with watches 100% manufactured in Switzerland from 82.7% recycled materials. And since Pragma preaches f...
Help, My Watch Is Turning Into A Good Investment!
When I buy a watch, it's because I like its design, its (hi)story, the people behind it, or a combination of all those and other things. I’ve never bought a watch because I thought it would be a good investment and I could make some quick money from it. However, it is still possible for a watch in your collection to become significantly more valuable than when you bought it. According to Chrono24’s data, that’s exactly what happened to my Cartier Santos and my Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso.It’s not like I’m suddenly a millionaire now. However, an increase of 57% on the Reverso Duoface and a respectable 37% on the Santos Galbee XL is quite significant. What do you do ...
Hands-On: Armin Strom One Week Manufacture Edition
We kick off this Tuesday morning with the world premiere of the new Armin Strom One Week Manufacture Edition. It is the follow-up to last year’s inaugural redesigned One Week First Edition, which was nothing short of impressive. Both watches celebrate Armin Strom’s debut in-house caliber from 2010 in a sleek, modern way. The ever-impressive movement is paired with a stylish, sporty case and an integrated bracelet. This exterior pairs beautifully with the industrial aesthetic of the movement to create an impressive new One Week Manufacture Edition. Can it top last year’s First Edition? I had a chance to find out.When Armin Strom presented the One Week First Edition, my colle...
Cate Blanchett and Joseph Fiennes perform on the IWC website
Today, Roger Ruegger pointed out to me that The Crossing is being presented by IWC on their website. The Crossing has been played in front of 1700 guests during a gala night organised by IWC at the SIHH watch fair earlier this year.The text below is a short summary of the official press release by IWC:“IWC presents the short film of a multimedia performance by the Sydney Theatre Company, interpreting the story of how the watch manufacturer was founded and starring Cate Blanchett and Joseph Fiennes. The watch manufacturer IWC Schaffhausen is celebrating the online premiere of ????Minutes of a Separation????, with the lead roles played by Oscar winner Cate Blanchett and Hollywood a...
Hublot's Basel 2012 Novelties
Earlier this week, I was invited for a media lunch with Hublot’s new CEO, Mr. Ricardo Guadalupe, and their Asia-Pacific Regional Director, Ms. Miwa Sakai, who happened to be visiting Kuala Lumpur on an Asian tour.All images may be clicked on for larger versions.In addition to enjoying an excellent steak, I also had the chance to play with and photograph the new pieces introduced at Basel earlier in the year.I’ve personally found a lot of the brand’s pieces rather lukewarm in the past – it wasn’t the aesthetics that didn’t do it for me, but rather the lack of anything serious under the hood. However, with the recent Masterpieces, the Unico in-house chronogr...
Speedmaster 125 Automatic Chronograph Chronometer
Omega Speedmaster 125It’s Speedy Tuesday! This week’s Speedmaster for our Speedy Tuesday is a bit of a strange duck in the bite, but has quite an interesting story to it. In 1973, Omega celebrated their 125th anniversary by introducing a limited edition Speedmaster 125 for this occasion. The Speedmaster 125 was the first automatic chronograph watch that was chronometer certified. The Lemania based caliber 1041 movement has only been used in this Speedmaster 125 watch and was based on the more common caliber 1040 movement.Enough for the tech-talk. As you can see on Omega’s ‘Extract of the Archives’ document pictured above, Omega limited the production of this Spe...
Carl F. Bucherer Manero Tourbillon Limited Edition
Manero Tourbillon Limited EditionCarl F Bucherer watches have been there since quite a while. Already in 1919 Carl F. Bucherer introduced a line of ladies’ watches in the Art Deco style. From that moment on, Carl F. Bucherer is producing and selling watches that include chronometer certified watches, chronographs, diving watches with super compressors cases, perpetual calendars and so on. However, it wasn’t until 2001 that the watches were produced with ‘Carl F. Bucherer’ on the dial. Before that, it just said ‘Bucherer’. In 2001, Bucherer repositioned their watch brand as ‘Carl F. Bucherer’ and became famous for their Patravi collection.In the...
Only Watch 2015 Laurent Ferrier Galet Square
Laurent Ferrier will be contributing to the Only Watch auction for the 3rd year in 2015. On November 7th, the auction will take place and the entire sum will be donated to the support of research on?Duchenne?muscular dystrophy. A terrible disease which results?muscle degeneration and premature death, especially (mainly) appearing in male children (age 2 -3).?Most patients are wheelchair dependent by age 12 and the average life expectancy of DMD patients is around 25 years. The Only Watch initiative raises money by auctioning timepieces donated by watch brands and as written above, the entire sum will be transferred to support research on DMD.The approximately 40 watches will travel around be...