Welcome to the 43rd episode of Fratello Talks. Today, we are feeling retrospective, so we decided to look back at some highlights released throughout this year so far. You join RJ, Lex, and Nacho, who will run through what, to them, are the best watches of 2023. Each has been tasked with picking their five favorites from the year. They kept these picks to themselves, but as you’ll see, there

Nearly two years after the official announcement of the project and almost a year after the first round of sales, the Code41 Mecascape Sublimation One is available for order once more. The first run sold out quickly, but Code41 has now opened up order slots for 30 new pieces. This is a gorgeous object that would make for a fantastic conversation piece, and it’s worth recapping.It was Decembe

OK, I’m possibly a little late to the party on this launch. Behrens released the Orion One on January 1st - it was a nice little treat to start the new year! But here we are in November, and this may (or may not) be the first time you’ve properly read about it. I briefly mentioned it in a previous article, but it has taken me until now to get my hands on one and dig into it more deeply

Seiko 5 is a watch line synonymous with entering the watch hobby. It is full of reliable, affordable, and rugged automatic watches. They’re the epitome of what makes Seiko one of the most significant watch manufacturers in the world and have long been a default choice for an entry-level mechanical timepiece. My first mechanical watch was a Seiko 5 SNZG11. Recently, I had it restored.The Seik

While browsing the ViaPaneristi forum, I came across a post by AdrianNJ. He shows off his neat collection, and one of the watches really stands out…. this D.Dornbluth & Sohn!! Good Taste!Picture by AdrianNJ

Erik sent me an email with the link to his website a few days ago. It is about photography and horology.See for yourself, click here.

In the first weekend of December, I will be visiting the Watch2008 event. A two day watch event, to be held in a castle in Maastricht. A city with a very nice shopping center and lots of nice watch and jewelery stores.Anyway, one of the exhibitors on the Watch2008 event is Rainer Nienaber, from Bunde/Germany. This watchmaker, born in 1955, created his first wristwatches in 1995. Before that, Niena

Sinn‘s EZM (Einsatz Zeit Messer) watches were always dedicated for professionals who need to depend on their watch, like firefighters… They need to know how long one can stay in a building burning with all the smoke (even with air tanks), to take someone’s pulse etcetera. While Sinn used to have the EZM4 for firefighters, it ceased production a while ago. Now, Sinn introduces the

This article is not going to be your usual Fratello Watches piece. Of course it will feature a watch, a very nice one actually. It will be something else though. To understand the watch and its significance we have to see the whole picture and that needs to be explained a little bit. Our topic is the Pinion (Axis) Iron Heart. Cool name, huh? Wait till you read the story.Pinion Iron HeartYou have p

What happens when you receive a Speedmaster for your 13th birthday? Right. A few decades later you are organizing The Ultimate Speedmaster Exhibition together with your brother (and fellow collector) to celebrate the 1st anniversary of your vintage watch boutique.Last Wednesday, the 28th of October, Roy and Sacha Davidoff (a boutique visit report can be found here) held the Ultimate Speedmaster Ex

Chopard L.U.C GMT One Rose GoldA few weeks ago we visited London for a special presentation by Chopard. Their manufacture line, L.U.C, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. For this special occasion the company released two new models; the Chopard L.U.C GMT One and the Chopard L.U.C Time Traveler One. In our previous article that we published a few weeks ago we already talked about four m

Sacha Davidoff Reports On The November 2016 Watch AuctionsBack for their fourth Geneva watch auction, Aurel Bacs & Livia Russo in association with Phillips auction house continue to set the bar high. Whenever their watch auctions take place, the entire watch community is buzzing and especially paying very close attention to results. Their Geneva auction is set to be a record setting' auction a

Our auction reporter Sacha Davidoff is on top of the watch auctions to be held in Geneva. Just like his past reports for Fratello, you can read about the upcoming Christie’s auction in Geneva and his highlights. Without further ado:Christie’s GenevaWe have seen quite a bit of movement across the watch auction departments in Geneva and worldwide for that matter. The Chrisite's Geneva wa

For the third time, NOMOS teamed up with their Amsterdam retailer Ace Jewelers. The result is a limited edition of just 25 pieces, the NOMOS Zurich Weltzeit Amsterdam watch.I vividly remember seeing the NOMOS Weltzeit – or World time – for the first time, nine years ago, during the SalonQP event in London. Something quite different from their Tangente, Orion, and Tangomat models, for e

I’d been looking forward to getting my hands on the Alsta Nautoscaph Superautomatic for a long, long time. It’s a watch that I’d been vaguely aware of since I first saw Jaws some twenty years ago. In my mid-teens, I wasn’t yet entirely bitten by the watch bug, but it came soon after. Once I’d fallen down that rabbit hole, thoughts of the striking Alsta made their way

Every year, we receive a number of questions from our readers about the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genve, also known as the GPHG. According to some, one of the most important watch events of the year. One of the recurring questions on the GPHG is why some brands are missing completely from the nominated watches. Brands that make sense to be part of the nominations, or which could even perha

Lockdown has had a devastating effect on formal wear. Why dress up in a full suit and tie for a Zoom meeting when you can also comfortably Donald Duck it? A little less visually extreme is combining jeans with a sports jacket. It's well accepted and sneakers in the boardroom are possibly also on the way to full acceptance in the near future. And believe it or not, in a distant corner of Germany, i

We spend a lot of time talking about the Bvlgari Octo Finissimo on Fratello (because we love that line dearly), but the Octo Roma line has a lot to offer also. In fact, while the Finissimo is truly groundbreaking, its unerring thinness can, for some, be a dealbreaker. The Octo Roma takes the gloriously architectural lines of its slimmer (and squarer) brother and delivers them with the kind of eleg

Czech inventor Zdenek Jiskra won a bronze medal at the 1937 Paris Fair. And the design and mechanics of the perpetual calendar clock that he won it for are beyond fascinating.The Datumatic table clock shows minutes, hours, the weekday, date, month, and the last number of a year. Through a panoramic window on the back of the beautifully carved case, it even displays an AM/PM indication, just to mak

These days, it’s rare that a new Seiko escapes notice. The brand is seriously popular now, and the watches are more globally available than ever. Every so often, though, a new piece arrives and can't be purchased everywhere. The Seiko Metronome is that watch. As you’ll see, though, the brand name isn’t exactly what it seems.I have a confession to make. It has been a long time sin