Ah, the sweet smell of victory or perhaps that was Robert-Jan's Drakkar Noir cologne (or was it Kouros?) as he entered the lobby of a Frankfurt hotel lobby with gifts in tow. Let's be honest, it had nothing to do with his eau de toilette although, now I think it was really Davidoff's Cool Water and everything to do with the large bags he was carrying. In one was my first pair of klompen (Dutch woo

Salmon dials have a strange effect on me. Whether it was one of the salmon dial Datejusts?in the 1990s, the salmon dialled Chronoswiss Regulateur Automatique CH1223, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak ‘Jumbo’ 14802 or Sinn 356 watches, I felt heavily attracted to them. Yet, I never bought one as I felt too scared. With this Patek Philippe 5270P (P for platinum), the dial has yet again that sam

This year we’ll already see the 8th edition of the Only Watch initiative. The biennial auction of unique luxury timepieces from which 99% of the proceeds go directly to muscular dystrophy research projects. For the Only Watch 2019 auction, 50 timepieces?are?generously provided by their manufacturers.Of course, at Fratello, we’ve been following the Only Watch initiative from the beginni

Welcome back to This Week in Watches – we have some exciting news this week, so let’s get right down to it!Hamilton Chrono-Matic 50First up on This Week in Watches is a new Hamilton.? We received word a little over a week ago that Hamilton was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Caliber 11 with a limited edition release based upon its highly collectible vintage “Chronograph E

I love a good auction. They used to scare the heck out of me when I first got into watch collecting. But now I swear by them as great access points for all collectors. If you’re just starting out you can always find the odd bargain. Sure, it may go for a low price because no one else likes it, but who knows? It could be the next big thing! For established collectors, auctions present an oppo

Waking up every morning and checking my inbox is a treat. As a die-hard watch lover, working within the industry means each day is a little like Christmas morning. Although many days pass without the kind of treats I’d gone to sleep dreaming of, every so often I wake up to something surprising. Pleasingly, it isn’t always from the brands I’d expect. With the release of the Big Ze

I can’t express how happy I was to see this Omega release in our inbox. I’ve been waiting for this a long time, as the original Seamaster 300M Chronograph in tantalum, titanium, and rose gold from 1993 is one of my favorite “eccentric” watches.Soon after I purchased the full titanium Seamaster 300M Chronograph (2298.80), I decided my grail Seamaster 300M would be the versio

Welcome back to our Watch On Your Wrist? Instagram extravaganza! Tag your watch snaps with #fratellowatches to be in with a chance to win!Every week, we select four images. You can vote in the article for your favorite image. The winner moves on to the semi-final round (held every fifth week between the previous four weekly winners). Win that and you’re into the final, which will be held at

One of the most heard comments on the Omega Speedmaster Calibre 321 is that you could also opt for an original 1960s Speedmaster reference 105.003. That's the reference the 2020 Speedmaster Calibre 321 has been based on.Whether you prefer a vintage Speedmaster 105.003 over the new Speedmaster Calibre 321 reference 311.30.40.30.01.001, that's a different discussion. It is mainly a matter of prefere

If you’ve got your finger on the pulse of the watchmaking industry, you will have heard about Japanese brand Kurono’s efforts to bring more women into the field of watch collecting by designing and releasing a very attractive watch that was initially only available to women. At first glance, that idea doesn’t sound totally dreadful (although it is clearly problematic) but the dis

There’s no doubt about it, there are plenty of Seiko watches in the current catalog. You name it and they probably make it. Plus, Seiko has reissued a lot of watches during the past ten years. Are there any gems to remint?The other day, I was going through some of my Seiko watches. I do this every so often to check on the quartz pieces. It’s important to see what is still running, what

It's been a few weeks since some of the Fratello team packed our bags and headed to Switzerland for Geneva Watch Days 2021. That may technically now be old news, but some of the fantastic things we saw were top secret and under embargo, so we've been unable to share them with you. Well, today, I can share one of those fantastical things now that it's made its way into the open. That is the new pro

The pursuit of creating the ultimate sports watch - it's the great motivator behind many of the watch world's finest creations. Today, we witness one young independent brand's effort in achieving sports-watch perfection. The Norqain Wild ONE was presented today as the culmination of the brand's collaborative endeavor with industry giant Jean-Claude Biver to achieve just that. Norqain also introduc

For some reason, it’s already the end of September, and Europe is finally cooling down. It’s been a great summer, in fact, warmer than ever. But there’s nothing like the beige, browns, and rich orange #fallcolors on the neighborhood trees to mark the shift to a season of big cups of latte and crisp mornings.I don’t know about you, but I love the warm touch of beige on a mat

Twenty years ago, Audemars Piguet introduced the first Royal Oak Concept, an extreme-looking watch (both then and today) made of Alacrite 602 and titanium. Alacrite is a lightweight alloy mainly used in the aeronautical industry. Not only was the design extreme, but the movement inside was also rather special. Besides a tourbillon, the Royal Oak Concept from 2002 also featured a Dymograph. The Dym

Mondaine is a watch company that, while perhaps well-known within Switzerland, gets fairly little attention beyond the watchmaking capital’s borders. In truth, the watches aren’t that exciting. There is little variation in design, they’re immensely affordable, and the quartz movements inside are not of those few that excite lovers of mechanical calibers. However, it’s in th

How good is the Tissot PRX really? Well, after writing about and praising the watch multiple times, I decided to buy the PRX Powermatic 80. Every time I was able to put one on my wrist or simply saw one in the wild, the watch impressed me a lot. As such, I decided to delay my purchase of the current Moonwatch a bit and put my money where my mouth was with the PRX. With a month-long trip to the Uni

Three years after the 2019 introduction of the original Skyflake (SBGA407), Grand Seiko has announced its spiritual successor. The new Grand Seiko SBGX353 Skyflake comes in a 34mm Elegance Collection case and is powered by the brand’s 9F61 quartz movement. Stripped of its Spring Drive power-reserve indicator, the beautifully textured dial is allowed to truly shine in an uninterrupted and mor

However colorful or eclectic my collection is, the Chromachron color-time watch by Tian Harlan has never been on my wishlist. Sure, I know I have my fair share of weirdo watches, but who would have thought that one with no hands and, seemingly, no way to tell time would get a feature in #TBT? Well, here we are…Michal Pastier, a former colleague and now a friend of mine, is also one of the mo

Options. Who doesn’t like to have options? That’s exactly what Code41 offers you with its new NB24 Chronograph Edition 3. You now get the choice of two different case designs. The first is the trusted NativeDNA case that the brand used for the previous two iterations of the watch. New this time around, however, is the brand’s Stratom case, which brings a completely new look to th