I'm on holiday. I shouldn't be writing this. But social distancing measures on trains mean my travel partner is sitting a row in front of me and more concerned with the bag of cherries we stashed for the journey than my company. And, more to the point, this is the release I've been building up to all year. Today, the Laventure Transatlantique GMT hits the shelves. Move quickly. With just 100 piece

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

From Holstein with love. It is the catchphrase Oris has chosen for their new series of Holstein Edition watches. Like many of you, I love 007, so a good Bond reference is always welcome. But what does it stand for? Well, Oris shows us with a new series of limited edition watches. The first in the series is the visually stunning Oris Holstein Edition 2020. It’s an all-bronze version of the we

As the very first model to grace the new Fratello store, the Frederique Constant Manufacture Moonphase hits the market as a standard-bearer of things to come. Utilizing an in-house movement with an attractive moonphase function, it debuts as an affordable option for those seeking extra complications in a wearable watch.Being the first is never easy. The temptation to create noise through superfluo

Here’s a nice surprise that won’t last long. The Oak & Oscar Jackson Big Eye Chronograph brings back a popular model from the Chicago-based brand with some thoughtful tweaks.It was all the way back in October of 2017 that we first shared news of the Oak & Oscar Jackson Chronograph. It was an audacious watch for Chase Fancher, the founder of the brand, for several reasons. First

The Octo Finissimo, Royal Oak, and Nautilus have made it onto my list of five of the best steel sports watches of all time. Would they make it onto yours?If you've experienced any measure of success in life, you're bound to have considered owning a luxury sports watch as a means of commemorating those achievements. Reaching such a milestone in the first place, however, takes considerable persevera

Aside from the 2007 OmegaMania auction, the auction results on Speedmasters have gone up tremendously in recent years. On the one hand, I hate it when one of my favorite watches (read: favorite) is becoming so expensive, on the other hand, you can also interpret it as the recognition it deserves. In this article, I show you the five most expensive Speedmasters auctioned.The good thing about the Sp

A G-Shock G-STEEL you can wear as a contemporary dress watch? I know it sounds hard to believe, but hear me out. New to the line-up is a model with a steel case, black dial, and resin strap - a steel bracelet is also available, and then the watch is called the GST-B400D-1AER that measures only 12.9mm in height. Because of its slimness and understated analog look and colors, it's quite an introvert

Ah, Seiko - sometimes the Japanese giant can still surprise us. I say that because the newest Seiko 5 Sports field watch truly slipped under the radar. I think it’s worth a quick look.That’s right, Seiko is usually very good these days at sending us all kinds of promotional material prior to a release. We even get to go hands-on in advance at times. Still, the brand, on occasion, does

It is quite common in life and in watchmaking to know the path one must take and yet find oneself reluctant to take it. New dawns are exhilarating, yes, but they are also scary, full of risk and the unknown. Harder still to overcome is the fact that rarely do things happen exactly when we’d like them to. Even the industry of time cannot escape this truth, and for one of our favorite brands h

Oversized watches… Are they still a thing in 2022? Sometimes, that seems hard to believe. These days, a lot of brands are hitting many collectors’ sweet spot of around 40mm or even a bit smaller for the slender-wristed folks. This is something I see confirmed in the Fratello offices. The majority of people at Fratello probably find their sweet spot between 38mm and 40mm. Some even pref

Rikki and David from Scottish Watches sit down with Rob for the first of two crossover episodes a la Murder, She Wrote and Magnum P.I. (but with fewer murders and GMT-Masters).

We've probably all experienced it: you had been waiting for years for your favorite brand to reintroduce a certain watch that had not been in the collection for a long time. But, when it finally came out, it wasn’t quite what you were hoping for. Perhaps the date window was disturbing or the hands were not clear. Maybe you preferred blued hands instead of gold ones. Or, perhaps, the watch wa

While I do have some more expensive pieces in my collection now, I actually still gravitate towards the value end of the spectrum. I started with vintage pieces from eBay and somehow evolved through microbrands and Seiko, but what about today? In starting a watch collection with $5,000, my goal would be one of quality rather than quantity.In fact, this complex exercise ties in with my own consolid

The people have spoken! After the preliminaries of our Summer Splash contest, there are only four watches left. Today is the first of the two semi-finals. Who will go on to have a shot at the title? You get to decide which of the two watches proceeds to the grand final! So grab your sunglasses, get yourself an ice-cold drink, and get ready for the semi-finals of this year’s Fratello Summer S

Parmigiani Fleurier was one of the esteemed independent brands in Haute Horlogerie whose credentials preceded its name. Everyone in the industry knows it. Its imposing presence at SIHH was inescapable, yet its annual output was only in the thousands. For many years, this Fleurier (hence the name), Neuchatel-native with a top-notch manufacturing base was the kind of hidden gem that I would keep awa

Panerai’s bold approach to watch design hits top speed with the Submersible Titanio S in partnership with Brabus. The macho 47mm case juxtaposes the intricate open-worked dial, reflecting the design of high-performance vehicles. Despite the dial’s complexity, the brash red hand tips ensure the time and GMT indications are clear. But it’s the case-construction technique that showc

Meet the titanium Squale Master Palombari Comsubin. This is not a dive watch designed for your beach holiday. This is a dive watch designed for (and with) a special unit of the Italian Navy, the Comsubin. If you like Squale, you will love this. Because this is a Squale diver with all settings dialed up to eleven.The Squale Master Palombari Comsubin is limited to 500 pieces. Of these, 420 are for p

It’s a significant work overload rather than economic conditions that made me acquire the smallest number of watches this year that I have in the last five years. Is it an opportunity for my Seiko 62MAS, Mido Rainbow Diver, or OG Oris Star to become my vintage summer beater?I’ve always had a long list of candidates for the next #TBT. All the new acquisitions I made brought so much exci

The 10th edition of Only Watch (a charity event to raise funds for research on Duchenne muscular dystrophy) is right around the corner. For the event, Gerald Genta submits a unique piece featuring Mickey Mouse in the famous octagonal cases that Genta used in the past. It’s the first time we’ve seen this form since Bvlgari acquired the brand in 2000. But that’s not the only intere