Astronaut Michael Collins' Omega Speedmaster Professional 145.012
Michael Collins, born on October 31st, 1930 in Rome, was one of the three men that were on Apollo 11 in 1969. Together with Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins left Earth on July 16th, 1969, destination Moon. It became the most famous space mission of all time and remains so to this day.Last week, on April 28th, 2021, Michael Collins passed away aged 90, in Naples, Florida. Having a father in the military, Michael Collins followed a well-trodden path at first. In 1952, he graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point and at some point became a test pilot in the Air Force. Then, in 1963, Collins was selected by NASA for their space program. It wasn’...
Celebrate Star Wars Day: The "Anakin Skywalker" Omega Seamaster
Quite rare and hard to find: stumbling upon an Omega Seamaster Ref. 145.023 in such a good condition as the one we found on Zeitauktion is like discovering a NOS lightsaber on the planet Mustafar in the Outer Rim. The Omega Seamaster Anakin Skywalker watch is a multipurpose piece of kit because it's both a style statement AND a very interesting chronograph from a historical perspective. The extravagant design catches the eye and immediately takes you back to the ’70s. And if you let your mind wander freely, this Seamaster will even take you to a galaxy far, far away.It was the late Chuck Maddox - a legendary chronograph collector with a vast collection and the knowledge to back it up, ...
Schofield Watch Company: Are These the Best Case Backs Ever?
Today on Fratello on Air, I welcome my old friend Giles Ellis of Schofield Watch Company to the smooth booth to discuss some of his finest creations in exacting detail.Giles has been busy. Despite the world shutting down for many businesses, Schofield is busier than ever. The recent Strange Lights collection has been a great success thus far with very few units still remaining. Its release last year heralded a new and more consistent design language moving through the brand....
Introducing The MB&F Reuge MusicMachine 1 Reloaded
Time for something a little bit different! We obviously dedicate the majority of our time and articles to the latest timepieces to see the light of day. But as many of you will know, MB&F is about more than just timepieces for the wrist. In 2013, MB&F started its line of successful MB&F Co-Creations, working together with creators of spectacular conceptual art pieces. These pieces are sometimes rooted in the world of timekeeping, including some of the most incredible clocks that we have ever seen. But the Co-Creations actually started with the MusicMachine, a unique music box created in collaboration with Reuge. Almost a decade later, both brands worked together on a new version ...
Ace Jewelers Debuts Tamper-Proof NFT Authenticity Certificates
Not all NFTs are created equal. If you want to finally read about one that is relevant to your watch-collecting hobby, I have news for you. There is a class of NFT (non-fungible tokens) that offers real-world usage and facilitates physical experiences. It is known as a Utility NFT. How does that translate in your watch world? Let’s hear it from Ace Jewelers, the 47-year-old family-owned retailer that is spearheading an effort to cross that chasm. The Dutch retailer has announced that it will offer an authenticity certification service to watch owners worldwide through the use of Utility NFTs.The real-world utility in question is the certification and authentication of a timepiece based...
Fratello EDC: RJ Kicks Things Off And Shares His Daily Essentials
In this series, we’ll be sharing the EDC (Everyday Carry) items of our editorial team. First up is Robert-Jan, founder and editor-in-chief of Fratello. What “essentials” does he carry with him on a daily basis?In all honesty, I had to google what “EDC” meant. I definitely do have some things that I consider essentials, though, that I carry with me on a daily basis. Most of the things are packed in my briefcase, a brown leather bag from Castelijn & Beerens. This is a Dutch company founded in 1945 that actually started out making watch straps. Today, however, the company doesn’t anymore, and instead focuses on briefcases, weekenders, laptop bags, backpac...
Nezumi Corbeau Gray Meca-Quartz Chronograph (2022)
What is this now? The seventh or eighth Nezumi I’ve reviewed? I’m losing count but not interest. There’s something still so satisfying about Nezumi’s design language that now seems all the more imperative given the presence of a mechanical Nezumi Voiture on the market as of March 2022. What could the future hold for this Swedish design studio as it transitions into a more serious player in the mechanical watchmaking realm?For those of you that don’t know, I’ve been collecting Nezumi watches since it all began. The very first Nezumi watch project launched on Kickstarter in 2015. The project almost doubled its target and went on to satisfy its 243 backers. T...
Spring Cleaning: Trying Out Four Watch Cleaning Kits
Let me start by saying that I’m not someone who cleans his watches very often. This is in contrast to our photographer Morgan, who regularly rinses his watches with water every other day. With my Seiko Kinetic that I wore day in and day out for over 15 years, though, I used to have sort of a cleaning routine. Every three months or so, I would boil some water, put it in a glass bowl, add some soap, and then just soak the entire watch in there for about half an hour. It somehow survived, but that’s probably not the safest way to go about cleaning your watches. So let’s take a look at some of these cleaning kits, shall we?When I searched “watch cleaning” on some of...
The 38mm Certina DS Action Diver A Pelagos 39 Killer?
I immediately recognized the looks of the Certina DS Action Diver when the watch box opened, but I also noticed something different, very different indeed. In February 2022, I had done a video review of the 43mm version of the watch in steel, a heavy hitter of a dive watch. In the video, I also mentioned the existence of a 38mm version and rumors of a DS Action Diver in titanium. What I saw in the watch box was a 38mm diver in titanium. And what was even more surprising was the dark gray dial adorned with indexes and hands featuring light blue Super-LumiNova and the brownish-gray aluminum bezel. It went from the box to my wrist real fast, and it stayed there for quite a while. Here's a hands...
Fratello Talks: Impulse-Buying Watches
Welcome to this week’s episode of Fratello Talks. Today, we are rolling with the punches and discussing buying watches on impulse. Sinara, Lex, and Nacho gather around the Fratello podcast table to share their stories, have a laugh, and misquote Mike Tyson. Because there’s nothing quite like having a plan for purchasing a specific watch to just getting caught off guard by an impulse buy. But before you get your credit card out and click “add to cart”; let’s go on to the wrist check....
Hands-On With The G-Shock DW-H5600EX-1
For many of the Fratello team members, G-Shock is a favorite due to the style and functionality that the watches offer. However, I must admit that we do not actually use many of the functions. They are nice-to-haves instead of must-haves, making a G-Shock mostly a style statement. But G-Shock has its G-Squad collection of sports watches that embody the ultimate in functionality. This makes total sense because G-Shock was created on a small number of functional aspects that still define the brand. But what if you combine the style of the original G-Shock from 1983 with the ultra-functional sports characteristics? Enter the G-Shock 40th Anniversary DW-H5600EX-1.To be honest, I am generally not...
Introducing: The 2024 Releases From Naoya Hida
Japanese independent watchmaking has a particular charm, often showing a spare yet intricate way with dials and small-cased sensibility. With a few quietly released collaborative efforts, Hida-san’s main focus is on a small output of orders. Nevertheless, the 2024 releases from Naoya Hida & Co. show a more extroverted side to the brand coming through.Naoya Hida is the thinking man’s option, with his atelier offering bespoke and exclusive Japanese minimalism. It’s a world in which dial art is rendered in pure metal, engraved, and obsessively filled with lacquer, but this year, there is a colorful twist. If you also include one of the best yet quirkiest alternatives to th...
Introducing Tudor's Pelagos FXD Chrono Pro Cycling Edition
Tudor has announced the release of a special FXD chronograph. The Pelagos FXD Chrono Tudor Pro Cycling Team Edition commemorates the brand’s relationship with the Tudor Pro Cycling Team (a Swiss professional development road bicycle racing team that participates in the UCI Europe Tour). It should come as no surprise if this latest release from Tudor is giving you dej vu. My mind first went to the Tudor Pelagos FXD Chronograph Alinghi Red Bull edition released last year.It looks like (thus far) Tudor is utilizing the FXD chronograph platform to highlight the brand’s relationship with various sporting endeavors. From a design point, this makes sense. Tudor emphasizing its burly 43...
Breathing New Life Into A Vintage King Seiko 44-9990
Vintage King Seiko presents a fantastic opportunity for affordable options that reflect excellent watchmaking. The King Seiko 44-9990, also known as the 44KS, is one such example.Recently, I had the opportunity to acquire a King Seiko 44-9990. For many newer enthusiasts, King Seiko is a name that is more familiar in the context of the modern Seiko brand. That modern context has King Seiko as a product line that sits somewhere in between Grand Seiko and Seiko. But in the 1960s and into the mid-1970s, King Seiko represented some of the best of what Seiko had to offer. During that decade, King Seiko and Grand Seiko were essentially in-house competitors, each with a separate factory. The concept...
Hands-On: CIGA Design Central Tourbillon Mount Everest
A tourbillon is less relevant now than ever. What was once advantageous in a pocket watch became less so in a wristwatch, which is naturally subject to a broader range of motion. With cheaper quartz modules outperforming all but the most accurate mechanical movements, a tourbillon remains a display of watchmaking ability and intricacy. A rotating carriage mounted in the heart of the dial draws the focus even further. The CIGA Design Central Tourbillon Mount Everest Homage Edition is one of a few watches in which such a complex mechanism could be overshadowed by other aspects of the case, dial, and hands. Let’s take a step back and drink it all in.Browse the CIGA Design website, and you...
The Scuderia Ferrari One by Cabestan
Cabestan proudly announces a partnership with Ferrari to celebrate the oldest and still existing Formula 1 racing team in the world, Scuderia Ferrari. With their debut in Formula 1 in 1950 (Grandprix of Italy), the Scuderia Ferrari team is active in Formula 1 for 60 years now. The Scuderia Ferrari One time piece by Cabestan has been created by Jean-Francois Ruchonnet, who is deeply passionate by high performance cars and car races, such as Formula 1.Mr. Ruchonnet created the Scuderia Ferrari One to embody the excitement, the innovation, the technology, the style and the attention to details of Ferrari. A time piece that will only be made available to the clients of the Italian prestige car b...
#TBT Bulova Stars and Stripes Chronograph
The Bulova Stars and Stripes chronograph is the perfect thematic embodiment of what I like so much about vintage watches. Namely, it's a watch unlike anything produced by the brand prior to its 1970 debut and when production ceased only a year later, Bulova never produced anything like it again. Call it a case of cold feet, a reflexive reaction to the automatic chronograph onslaught, or whatever, but the fact remains that this watch was a one and done from the brand that brought us innovation such as the Accutron. Still, though, I think you'll soon agree that this watch is worth a discussion here on #TBT. Let's check out the rockets' red glare on what must be one of the most unique watches i...
Preview of Geneva May 2017 Auctions Antiquorum
In the past couple of years FIDES, the investment group that owns the Geneva & Hong Kong branches, has been carefully getting this group back on its feet. An interesting development since Antiquorum NY has been completely separated from Antiquorum Geneva & Hong Kong, is the newest divide line has been drawn: the websites have been totally separated. The NY company is keeping the www.antiqurorum.com and Geneva has launched the new www.antiquorum.swiss to differentiate itself as a separate company. I thought it would be annoying, but it's really not. The Geneva based auction house has also launched its own app and looking forward to seeing how this new independence continues to evolve....
Interview with Zsolt Csorg? Of 10ora10, Budapest
Zsolt Csorg? says that vintage watches are almost the only practical vintage objects. I will repeat that to myself in the morning, when my 1979 daily beater Honda decides, once again, not to start up.I travel to Budapest for business a few times a year. Well, I used to until a few months ago, you know… When I had some spare time, I always rushed through the city center streets to visit the charming little vintage watch store 10ora10. While I lurk around the nicely styled displays decorated with framed vintage print ads, the owner of the shop Zsolt Csorg? always pulls out something interesting. Anytime I sport my art deco Tissot with a beautiful patina and sword hands, the eye-popping B...
Breguet Reine De Naples 8918 Continues A Long Tradition
1810 was a remarkable milestone for watchmaking history. Caroline Murat, the younger sister of Napoleon Bonaparte and a huge art collector with her singular vision of beauty acquired over 30 Breguet watches and clocks. It may not come as a surprise, but one of them was special as it was designed to be worn on the wrist by Breguet's artisans at Quai de l'Horloge in Paris.Men still preferred to possess traditional pocket watches. But the Queen of Naples revolutionized the way timepieces could be worn. With the delivery of the first wristwatch in 1812, the chic oblong-shaped repeater with a moon-phase indicator and a thermometer on a gold thread bracelet became a revolution in the watch industr...