Watch Roll – One of the most useful accessoriesWhen you own two watches you could say you already have a collection. So if you travel, even if it is to meet up with other watch collectors, or for a weekend away with your girlfriend, you need something to carry your watches in. A watch roll is the perfect solution. Now, they come in different sizes, materials and quality. Today we will have a

Lac CradoA nice leather strap can really change the look of your watch. Whether it's vintage leather with gorgeous patina or suede that's as soft as plush it gives character to any timepiece. A color-coordinated stitching can look cool if it's not pushed too far. Like black and white for a Submariner or a Speedmaster, a dark blue and red for a GMT-Master Pepsi and so on. Then you have the exotic

The dust has settled down. Meanwhile, most of us are used to the fact that Seiko doesn’t supply its enormously popular SKX 007 and SKX 009 models anymore. When taking mechanical diver’s watches seriously, if possible at all, what are your options in Seiko’s current line-up of automatic diver’s watches?Starting with the Seiko SKX 007/9 USP’s…one size fits allFirs

Bilbao is the largest city in northern Spain and the 10th largest overall in the country. It is an industrial port city with a population of about 350.000 people. Other than being an important place for the northern Spanish industry, Bilbao is also the capital of Biscay, one of the territories of the Basque country. The landscape is just beautiful with large mountains on both sides, and the Nervi

Our Watch of the Week is the MeisterSinger N 01 40 mm. The original MeisterSinger but a new model nevertheless. With its 40-millimeter case diameter it is three millimeters smaller than the classic model in our collection. Only three millimeters? In the world of watch design, that makes a huge difference. Although wristwatches are now designed larger than they used to be, a watch 43 millimeters i

Welcome back to Wrist Game or Crying Shame where you can choose whether you’d like a serious watch or not. We’ll find out with today’s Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control Perpetual Calendar. But first…Last week I gave you the Seiko 6159-7001 Professional diver for consideration. Even though it carried a stiff price tag, the watch swam away with a 67% Wrist Game win. I was happy

Over the last couple of months, Seiko has graced us with quite a few new Presage releases. The Presage line is known for its incredible craftsmanship when it comes to the dials of the watches. Recent releases featured beautiful enamel and porcelain dials, created by Japan’s extraordinary craftsmen. But great craftsmanship also comes at a price. If you are not willing to spend a thousand Euro

Not many words stir up emotions and a sense of adventure like being asked to get packing for a #Safari. You might consider it a hashtag, travel goal, or lifestyle. It evokes adventure, warmth, and dusty dunes. Like me, you might even have memories of a mythical rally, where cars as unlikely as the Mercedes SL and Porsche 911 battled through the desert. The word Safari will conjure up images of con

Does the top condition rule apply to every watch? Today we will challenge the holy mantra that pristine condition is the ultimate key in determining how much we can enjoy a watch. For the purpose of this study, we will be looking at none other than the top collectible Seiko 62MAS diver.That morning I woke up quite early. It was not even 7 am when I put my daughter in her bike carrier and headed to

As the final months of 2021 draws closer and the year of the Ox comes to an end, Vacheron Constantin thinks ahead not to January, but to February first. This is when Chinese New Year celebrations will take place and the year of the tiger will begin. The Swiss brand marks the transition into the new year with two limited edition watches that pay tribute to the auspicious animal. A symbol of good lu

Independent watchmakers are definitely some of my favorites in the industry. In fact, I’d go as far as to say they are my favorite. I love the creative freedom they can enjoy, not shackled by huge investment groups and boards of directors, each with their own conflicting ideas of what the product should be. That kind of approach works for some brands, but it leads to dull and sterile watchma

This is going to be a highly debatable list. It's going to be far too short of a list. That's also why it's going to cause some annoyance amongst sneakerheads and time geeks alike. First of all, there isn't room for all the iconic trainers of the past - you will find either your favorite shoe or even brand missing - and why I paired the shoe with a certain watch was a very subjective process. This

When we speak about the history of watchmaking, we typically mention France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States. The last was made famous by Hamilton, Elgin, Waltham, Benrus, and Ball, among others. Of all these brands, Benrus is perhaps the only “survivor” of the OG American watchmaking tradition. That doesn't mean that some of these brands don’t sti

The three-handed watch is a simple standard of telling time. The addition of hands marks the inclusion of additional complications. A GMT hand tracks another timezone. Chronograph hands and sub-dials measure elapsed seconds, minutes, and hours. These extra hands and relevant complications are tacked onto the original concept and mechanism of simple time tracking. They are task-specific, and their

Since the original debut of Grand Seiko’s Seasons collection in 2019, the artisans in Studio Shizukuishi have continued to pay tribute to nature and the 24 seasons, or sekki, as they are referred to in Japan. Having started with the 62GS style and then GMT designs, Grand Seiko now releases two new season-inspired models in the Elegance line. These two releases - SBGW281 and SBGW287 - feature

Casio G-Shock holds a special place in the hearts of all of us at Fratello. Almost all of the team members own one or more G-Shocks that get plenty of wrist time. I own five different models that I still wear regularly when going out to play tennis. G-Shocks look good, have a ton of functions, and can take a serious beating. What more could you want? With the 40th anniversary of the G-Shock brand

Independent watchmaking is not what it used to be. We still have hundreds of wannabe Kickstarter brands delivering the usual polarizing goods, but there are fewer than before. As in any developing economy, there is a rising middle class - the medium-sized brands. With the safety of moving from Kickstarter gambling to regular restocking, it's getting closer to the big-brand experience. Spoiler aler

On November 11th and 12th, the biggest watch event in the United Kingdom will take place. WATCHPRO Salon is a prestigious event, but we are making it accessible to everybody with a passion for watches, says Lucy Cheesewright, head of WATCHPRO Live.Over 50 brands will be exhibiting at the WATCHPRO Salon 2022, including Czapek, Grand Seiko, Laurent Ferrier, Oris, Parmigiani Fleurier, Doxa, and many

Today, we take a closer look at the Ollech & Wajs OW M-110 AS, a tactical watch with a surprising level of detail. This is my first time going hands-on with a watch from O&W, and I’m excited. I’ve admired the brand’s watches from afar, but a chance run-in along with a clumsy move led to communication with the team there.Every so often, my clumsiness is fortuitous. A few w

Mr Jones Watches is on a roll this year. The perennial fun-watch favorite for many of us here at Fratello, the brand is diving deeper into the realm of mechanical watches for 2023. Not that long ago, we saw the release of “A perfectly useless afternoon” with an STP1-11 Swiss automatic movement inside. Now, at the end of the summer and beginning of autumn, Mr Jones is giving us many mor