Neil Armstrong's Gold Omega Speedmaster Going Up For Auction
No, it’s not the one he wore on the Moon, of course. The Speedmaster Professional 105.012 with NASA serial number 46 that Neil Armstrong wore during Apollo 11 is on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. I am talking about the watch he received during that famous banquet dinner on November 25th, 1969, in Houston, Texas. RR Auctions will be offering this gold Speedmaster “Tribute to Astronauts” on April 17th, 2025.Neil Armstrong 18K gold Speedmaster “Tribute to Astronauts” - Image: RR Auctions“Tribute to Astronauts”On that 1969 evening at the Warwick Hotel in Houston, Omega presented 26 gold Speedmaster Professional ref. B145....
Introducing: The Breitling Top Time B31 Three-Hander
In 2020, Breitling revived its Top Time collection. Since then, we’ve seen many two- and three-register chronographs with playful and colorful dials. Many of those watches were part of a collaboration with Deus, Ford, or Triumph, for example. In a sense, Breitling’s Top Time collection is like its Hot Wheels department. Today, the Grenchen-based brand is introducing three non-chronograph models that carry the Top Time name. Powering them is the automatic B31, a new three-hand movement that’s exclusive to Breitling.This move to three-hand versions of what used to be chronographs seems to be a recurring theme at Breitling. Watches like the Chronomat and the Navitimer have alr...
Fratello On Air: Wishes For Watches And Wonders 2025
Welcome to another episode of Fratello On Air! This week, we share our hopes and dreams (not really) for what should be an epic Watches and Wonders 2025. After a blah 2024, we’re expecting some cracking releases. We discuss some of our wishes and the event in general. For our listeners, the watch content starts after 30 minutes....
Introducing: The Maurice Lacroix 1975 Collection
Today, we take a look at the new Maurice Lacroix 1975 Collection. These watches represent a new line and celebrate the brand’s 50th anniversary. They are attractive choices as daily pieces that lean toward the dressy end of the spectrum. Best of all, there are a variety of dial colors and two diameters.As a child of the ’80s, I can clearly remember Maurice Lacroix becoming very popular at the end of the decade and throughout the ’90s. Therefore, it surprised me that today’s 1975 Collection is being introduced as a 50th-anniversary celebration. Time flies, as they say! Still, don’t expect funky ’70s watches with psychedelic colors and angular cases. These m...
Sinn 142 ST II
Gerard Nijenbrinks over at Horlogenieuws.nl (Dutch website covering novelties on watches and the watch business) mentions the new Sinn 142.ST-II.It will be introduced at the coming Basel Fair (30th March) as the successor of the Sinn 142.ST with Lemania 5100 movement. Because the Lemania 5100 is not in production anymore (see earlier posts about this), the 142.ST-II will feature a Dubios-Depraz caliber 2070 chronograph.As you can see below, the lay-out of the dial remains the same.Photo by Sinn.deThe official Sinn announcement can be read here....
BaselWorld, here we come!
Just a few minutes before I have to catch my train and flight to Basel! Together with my friend Frank from Monochrome, I’ll be visiting a lot of brands and will give you quick updates from location. Make sure to keep an eye on Perpetuelle, the watch forum by Kyle Stults, who made it possible for Frank and me, to get so much appointments with all the big names.My old love, Omega, has quite a few suprises this year! Besides the Omega Speedmaster Professional 40th anniversary edition (which I already have in pre-order at my friend Alon from Acejewelers.com), there is also the new PloProf (Plongeuer Professionnel) re-edition. To be honest, this re-edition looks mighty cool on the press pic...
Speedmaster Professional Apollo 11 40th Anniversary And 145.012
It’s Speedy Tuesday! Some things do not need introduction anymore and I think that Speedy Tuesday might be one of them. The number of responses to Speedy Tuesday in my mailbox is just unbelievable. Please, keep them coming! It might take a few Tuesdays, but your Speedmaster will be featured here.Today we actually have two Speedmaster watches lined up for you. One of them is the stainless steel version of the Speedmaster we featured here two weeks ago, the Apollo 11 40th anniversary edition of 2009. Two weeks ago, we had the platinum version and now we have the somewhat more affordable stainless steel version on Speedy Tuesday. Further more, we have something quite rare. A Speedmaster P...
Tudor Heritage Black Bay In Midnight Blue
Our first meeting during the Baselworld 2014 exhibition was with Tudor. We had a little sneak preview before Baselworld even opened, during a diner with Tudor. They showed us the Tudor Heritage Black Bay in a new colour, midnight blue. The bezel that is, as the dial has gone from brown (the other Heritage Black Bay execution) to matte black. This 41mm watch comes with either a stainless steel bracelet or a blue leather strap. Another possibility is to wear it on an awesome blue NATO strap. The blue color reminds us of the NAVY watches that Tudor issued to the French in the previous century. The Tudor Heritage Black Bay features the same specifications as the brown / burgundy combination that...
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph (QEII)
Limited to 200 pieces only, Audemars Piguet commemorates their 17th year of sponsorship of the QEII Cup in Hong Kong with a titanium Royal Oak Chronograph. The QEII Cup has been there since 1975 already and was established because of the visit of Queen Elizabeth II in that year to Hong Kong. Since 1999, Audemars Piguet is the title sponsor of this race that’s being held during spring season.I am not going to bore you with all kinds of details about the QEII Cup, as I assume you are only interested in learning about the special Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph QEII Cup timepiece that the manufacture from Le Brassus just introduced.Based on their current Royal Oak Chronograph models...
#TBT Heuer Temporada Chronograph
#TBT is back from Baselworld 2015 and it’s time to jump into more affordable vintage.? Hot on the heels of our recently published TAG Heuer Carrera article, we’ll now spend some time talking about a true vintage piece from the brand.It's no secret that vintage Heuer chronographs are hot. The allure of strapping on a vintage chronograph with a strong connection to racing ticks a lot of boxes. In fact, I've met people over the years that really don't care much about watches but they like racing and, therefore, desire a Heuer (or even TAG Heuer) chronograph. For vintage watch and chronograph collectors, the design language of vintage Heuer is undeniably cool and, for the early model...
The Eterna KonTiki Bronze Manufacture the Watch That All of Us Bought
Today, we had the chance to meet with Eterna at Baselworld 2017 and it was impressive. How impressive? Let's just say that out of the four of us who attended the discussion (plus a fifth who didn’t attend), all of us ordered a watch the same watch. The Eterna KonTiki Bronze Manufacture was so compelling, so affordable and nailed all the right details. Let's take a closer look at why.Eterna announced a new KonTiki Diver line this year (we'll come back in the next days with detail on these great looking and affordable divers) and chose to commemorate the announcement and the 70th anniversary of the KonTiki expedition by creating a limited edition Eterna KonTiki Bronze Manufacture dive wa...
Monta Watches A Small Brand Enters the Big Leagues at Baselworld
Admittedly, we at Fratellowatches have been a bit slow to pick up the story on Monta Watches. The founder of Everest Bands universally beloved by wearers for their attention to detail decided to go in the direction of releasing a line of high quality watches. In 2016, they debuted a 1000ft water resistant dive watch called the Oceanking and it has received high levels of praise for its thoughtful design and build quality (it's all done in Switzerland), but we had not really seen one in person (actually, Robert-Jan is in the middle of testing the Oceanking as I type this). All that has changed, though, as Monta made a splash this year by exhibiting at Baselworld 2017. Let's take a look at a ...
Hands-On With The Limited Edition Grand Seiko Reference SBGH267
I sense that Grand Seiko is getting more traction in Europe since the last year or two. I can’t speak for the US, as I am not familiar with that market, but I notice that more people start to appreciate the Japanese craftsmanship when it comes to watches. This article is not to elaborate (again) on Grand Seiko and how amazingly well built their watches are, I am pretty sure you know that by now and otherwise you can read it in one of our Grand Seiko articles. Today, it is about one of the new limited editions that Grand Seiko made for the 20th anniversary of their 9S movement: the Grand Seiko reference SBGH267.A week before BaselWorld started, there were some embargoed press releases s...
AlpinerX Outdoors Watch by Alpina from Basel World
You can draw a clear distinction between the three brands connected in the past by ownership, namely; Ateliers deMonaco, Frederique Constant and Alpina. While Ateliers deMonaco clearly represents the highest segment of the three, Alpina is probably the most affordable and sporty brand of them. In Basel, we were introduced to their latest release: the Alpina AlpinerX. It is a smart watch that was designed for the outdoorsmen packed with functions that can be useful while hiking in the mountains but also can give you feedback in your daily activities and more. What's interesting about the watch and its frenzy surrounding it is the fact that Alpina launched it on Kickstarter. There's a very sim...
Hot Take: NOMOS Tangente Sport neomatik 42 Date
NOMOS comes out strong this year, with a new ‘Duo’ collection for ladies but also with their Sports watches. Meet the NOMOS Tangente Sport neomatik?42 date.NOMOS is not the watch brand you’ll associate with sports, although their Ahoi is certainly up to the task. This year, NOMOS showed us the new Sports collection that consists of the Tangente Sport and Club Sport models. We focus our ‘Hot Take’ on the NOMOS Tangente Sport neomatik 42 Date.The steel bracelet on this NOMOS reminded me a bit about those Fix-o-Flex bracelets from the past, but upon closer inspection, these are entirely different for sure. NOMOS’s bracelet feels solid and very supple, as it c...
Some Of The Best Speedmaster Ambassadors
The Speedmaster has the best ambassador in the world – The Moon. Since 1962 the Speedmaster has played a role in space exploration and in 1965 it became the official watch to wear during EVA. But the Speedmaster can also be seen on the wrists of many other ambassadors.Brands using ambassadors isn’t exactly something from the last few years, although it sometimes does appear that way. The use of ambassadors to promote a watch or watch brand often results in very strong reactions from the crowd. Those who are not so deeply interested in watches don’t care much and often gives them a way to make an association with a brand. In case of Omega, think of Cindy Crawford and the Con...
Hands-on introduction of the Batavi Amsterdam Kosmopoliet GMT
Batavi’s?aim is to give watch lovers something for the eye and for the soul. A?combination of vintage?aesthetics mixed with Dutch minimalism. A watch to enjoy, be proud of, and one that can be worn daily without worries.Batavi Amsterdam Kosmopoliet GMTBatavi is a young Dutch watch brand based in Tilburg, The Netherlands. The addition of Amsterdam, below the brand name in the dial, is purely for recognition and attention purposes. The first model of the brand, the Noordzee - which translates to Northsea in English - was a rather mediocre 100M sports watch with a Miyota movement and uni-directional diver’s bezel. Batavi has now, however, very much improved its game for its second w...
#TBT Seiko Monster SKX779
It’s #TBT time and we take a closer look at a polarizing favorite in the Seiko Monster SKX779.I can still recall visiting Marshall Fields at the Somerset Collection in Troy, Michigan and stumbling across a bunch of Seiko divers. I’d done some reading about Seiko’s quality and the fact that one could pick up a truly robust mechanical watch for around $200. And even though I didn’t pick one up that day, I was pretty impressed with what I saw. The Seiko Monster SKX779 is a nice example of what the Japanese brand routinely offered during the period.? It’s also a good example of a relatively recently discontinued model that collectors love.A Cult Classic From the Beg...
New Release: Breitling Top Time Returns In All Its Glory
Today marks the return of the Breitling Top Time, a legendary vintage chronograph from the 1960s.If you were hoping for some fun news during these different and difficult times, we think Breitling has taken a good shot at answering the bell. With the new Breitling Top Time, we see the return of a fabled name and the use of a dial design that’s bound to excite both collectors and lovers of chronographs. The watch also debuts a new Arianee blockchain certificate program to help prove authenticity and to transfer ownership of a watch should it be sold to a new owner. You can read more about this on Breitling’s site.The Breitling Top Time ReturnsThat’s right, the Breitling Top ...
Podcast: Fratello On Air #12 Home Office And Rediscovered Watches
In Episode 12 of our Fratello on Air podcast we try to take our minds off the Coronavirus a bit and focus on some rediscovered watches and other forms of distraction. However, we do share some words on it, of course, but mainly how it affects our private lives.The main topic of this podcast, though, is the analysis of the watches we recently rediscovered. Home Office and not traveling (or the combination of these two) has given us the opportunity to reflect a bit on our own watch collections. Both Mike and I selected two watches that we plucked from our collection in these trying times.After the mandatory wrist check (see below), Michael and RJ discuss these topics in this 50-minute podcast....