I worked for NOMOS Glashutte for three years. I traveled all over the northern hemisphere on behalf of the brand. Wherever I went, the questions were always the same. “Will NOMOS ever make a bracelet?” As it turns out, yeah, the brand did exactly that in early 2019. I thought it was fine, but I never needed my NOMOS watches on bracelets anyhow. No, I was more interested in the second (

Hold up, hold up. Smartwatches have a place in our industry. I’m not going to tell you you need to shelve your mechanical babies in favor of a modern, super-duper, all-singing, all-dancing, endlessly connected contraption. No. I’m not that guy. But I am a guy who is becoming a little more comfortable with keeping one of these luxury gizmos in his stable. I haven’t always felt thi

Spoiler alert: if you don’t want to know the result of the Stanley Cup Final between the Dallas Stars and the Tampa Bay Lightning, look away now… In the wake of a thrilling, if somewhat unconventional, end to the professional hockey season, Norqain has announced its new partnership with the NHL Players’ Association. The Norqain new Adventure Sport Chrono NHLPA Limited Edition, li

This won’t come as much of a surprise to any of you that read Fratello regularly, but I have more than a soft spot for watches that originate in Germany. Some of my favorite brands (A. Lange & Sohne, NOMOS Glashutte, Lang & Heyne, for example) hail from this part of the world. One brand that doesn’t get anywhere near the airtime of the big hitters that call Glashutte home, is U

As promised, a hands-on review of the new Omega Speedmaster Chronoscope. This new 43mm Speedmaster collection was introduced a few weeks ago in Milan, Italy. However, we've been fortunate enough to have two of these watches in our Fratello offices and were able to give them some time on the wrist.Aside from the new 43mm case size and new movement (the hand-wound caliber 9908), it also brings a new

Ambitious watch design is always divisive. To create true novelty you have to walk the path untrodden. Genuine newness often scares people into rushed hot-takes, polarized opinions, and a babbling state of confusion in the first moment. I was no different. When I first saw the NOMOS Glashutte Autobahn (designed by Werner Aisslinger) I didn’t quite know what to make of it. Now, with a bright

Boring is best. I consider it soothing and much better to deal with than large periods of extreme excitement. I like a watch that soothes rather than tries to whip me in a state of frenzy. And nothing soothes like a classic steel Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso with small seconds, blued hands, and a bit of guilloche on a silvered dial. But I won't call that type of Reverso a masterpiece, that title is re

Tell me the truth, how many of you, like me, nurture the secret wish of having a watch on your wrist with your name on it, or your napkin-sketched logo from that chat you had with your retro-obsessed best mate? While it might seem easy with the help of Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sources, there are as many pitfalls as well as there are success stories when it comes to microbrands.But that d

Our taste in watches evolves constantly. One day, we may like dressy watches and the next day, sporty ones. We may prefer large cases that make us feel the watch is sitting confidently on our wrist, or we may get tired of that and opt for smaller, lighter timepieces. I am not immune to changing tastes, and recently, I realized that I naturally gravitate toward fixed-bezel sports watches with angul

When something or someone gets a nickname, there must be love involved. After all, why go through the efforts of coming up with something creative and catchy for something you don't like? And that's why the headline reads Hands-On With The Full-Metal CasiOak Watches and not Hands-On With The Casio G-Shock GM-B2100; sorry about that, Casio. The three new models, in three colors with a steel case an

Take a classic dive watch from 1977. Combine it with a modern movement and all the specs you might come to expect from a contemporary diver. Now, make the case titanium, and keep the price well under $1,000. Sound too good to be true? Well, it isn't - the Citizen Promaster Mechanical Diver 200m (also known as the NB6021-17E) ticks all of those boxes. I had a chance to spend some quality time with

At first glance, you might think that these two new Unimatic models look like ones you've seen before. And you wouldn't be wrong. However, you will see that the design does indeed differ from the brand’s previously released models. As always with Unimatic, the devil is in the details. But there is more to these releases than just their looks. The Unimatic Modello Uno U1S-PD3 and U1S-PD5 form

The automatic Zodiac Sea Wolf with a calendar and “shovel” hands has been on my wish list for a long time. One finally came to me recently, and it came untouched, with not even a scratch on the lugs or a crack in the bezel. It’s safe to say that it doesn’t get much better than that.About two years ago, I wrote a story about my sunshine Zodiac Sea Wolf 1781W, which rightfull

For the past few months, I've been pondering something: is there a limit to how much value we can get in a watch? We might not be able to answer this question today, but I wanted to pose it anyway. And why have I been pondering this? Well, over the past three years, I've reviewed dozens of micro- and independent-brand watches. Today I’ll share the best ones I’ve found that retail betwe

In our The Best Watches Under $5,000 series, I noticed some of my colleagues had already selected some great pieces. Some of their picks could have been on my list, like the Nomos Zurich Weltzeit and the Tudor Pelagos LHD. As with our previous series, where we had set the budget to a more modest $3,000, we apply the same rules - three new watches and one pre-owned watch, each under $5,000. These d

This week on Fratello Talks, RJ, Lex, and Nacho discuss their parallel passions beyond watches. Because, believe it or not, it’s not just watches that these guys spend every waking hour of their lives on. However, the approach and nature of their passions are no different. It has been an ongoing discussion here at HQ, so today we share with you our parallel passions (or PPs, as Lex so elegan

Meet the new Grand Seiko SBGY040 and SBGW321, a pair of limited-edition watches made specifically for the European market. Similar to most exclusive releases from the brand, these also gain inspiration from Japanese nature. Gardens, specifically ponds and the colorful koi that inhabit them, help define the dial artistry.Grand Seiko has mastered infusing the natural landscape into its dial designs.

It’s been a while since we covered an Undone watch. The Hong Kong-based brand is widely known among watch enthusiasts for its affordable timepieces. Undone’s latest creation is the Urban Automatic, a triple-calendar watch that’s the first mechanical model in the vintage-inspired Urban series. I have always liked the Urban line because it takes inspiration from iconic chronographs

We are about to change the masterhead (logo on top of the page) on the Omega Forum, and YOU can help us pick one. Till last monday, everyone could contribute a logo or picture to be the new masterhead. Tomorrowmorning, I collected all contributions and put them in a gallery on my webserver and now you can participate picking one of the fabulous Omega pictures / photos to be on top of the Omega For

For many people, a watch is not only a device that tells time, as numerous other devices surrounding us can do that today. It is also a piece of art, jewelry, perhaps a status symbol or perhaps equipment for something else as well. From diver watches to chronographs with pulsation scale on its bezel for specific pusposes.? Then you have those watches that people wear all the time; even when playin