Introducing The New Breitling Endurance Pro Watch Collection
Breitling flesh out its Professional collection with a new suite of Endurance Pro quartz chronographs made with ultra-lightweight Breitlight?.Breitling is no stranger to adversity. Amid a pandemic, Breitling has faced the challenge of maintaining a fixed release schedule and executing a global communication strategy head-on. A successful webcast that may have had a few technical hiccups but still got the message across. Better still, it came at a fraction of the cost for what Breitling would have spent for a Baselworld booth.Endurance Pro collectionNow Breitling is gearing up for Geneva Watch Days. But just before the first major “fair” since COVID broke kicks off in earnest, we ...
H. Moser & Cie Streamliner Centre Seconds Matrix Green
Back in November 2019, during my last trip as a journalist with Fratello Watches, I attended Dubai Watch Week. I genuinely love the event as one can get unprecedented access to many brands, their CEOs, and, more often than not, their latest creations. That is the story of how I managed to check out the, then new, H. Moser & Cie Streamliner Flyback Chronograph. Fast forward to almost a year later, and we have the second model from the Streamliner family; the H.Moser & Cie Streamliner Centre Seconds.I snatched the Flyback Chronograph from the wrist of Moser CEO and all-around cool guy, Ed Meylan’s wrist, during one of our talks. It was a very different look, something Moser fans ...
Hands-On With Seiko Prospex SLA039 Diver's Watch
In a previous Seiko review, I mentioned the magic case sent to us at HQ by the kind people at Seiko NL. Within that case sat 40 novelties. Since initially poring over them, we’ve been racing through our hot takes and reviews. But first impressions count. Some of those pieces jumped out at me right away and I’ve been eager to get round to writing them up. In this case (pun intended) there were several special pieces that appealed to me. The Seiko 55th anniversary models struck a chord, but this is the one I was looking forward to the most - the Seiko Prospex SLA039.Back in 1965, Seiko lanced its first diver in the shape of the 62MAS. Now, 55 years later, Seiko celebrates this anni...
Hands-On With The New Nivada Grenchen Antarctic Spider (2021)
Every time I get a press release from Nivada, I have the feeling that their modus operandi comes from the title of the classic Lox song featuring Puff Daddy, “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop”. The brand does not seem to know how to slow down - much to the watch community’s delight. We are always hungry for new releases. Nivada’s latest and greatest is perhaps one of their most iconic non-chronograph watch models, the Antarctic Spider.If the name Antarctic sounds familiar, but the look doesn’t ring any bells, don't worry, you are still remembering correctly. The classic Antarctic, which Admiral Byrd used during Operation Deep Freeze, had a different, much simp...
Torre Straps The Ultimate Vintage Watch Strap (2021)
There is something distinctive about the leather straps of yore. Something which we do not see in today’s modern offerings. Although the quality of modern leather straps is undeniable, sometimes a watch calls for a period-correct counterpart with the signature features of the era. Strap thickness, taper, rounded ends, box-stitching, and hot-pressed lines on the keepers. Matteo Torre spent many years studying vintage watch ads and catalogs from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Thanks to this deep dive, Matteo Torre developed his own style that is based on precise reproductions of the era. It may sound unoriginal, but the results confirm quite the opposite. In today's oversaturated market, T...
Hands-On With The New Citizen Caliber 0200 (2021)
In the ever-flowing stream of watch releases, you sometimes forget about a watch that might have caught your eye at its introduction. That’s certainly not the case with the new Citizen Caliber 0200. Back in March, when “The Citizen” was announced, there was quite a buzz surrounding the brand’s new high-end mechanical offering. In the five months that passed, the watch was always in the back of my mind as an upcoming release that I really wanted to check out as soon as I had the chance. Finally, that chance is here - time to find out whether Citizen can shake things up with their new high-end offering.Whenever brands are having a go at releasing a modern luxury steel s...
The 10 Best Affordable Dive Watches Today
We could literally make a list of new dive watches every week. The appeal of dive watches is endless. They make for sturdy daily watches and are certainly overbuilt for most of our desk-diving adventures. But if you do happen to go out scuba diving, they will also get that job done without any problem. For this article, we have selected the best affordable dive watches currently out there. What does “affordable” mean? That’s obviously a very personal question. We have set the bar at $3,000. It’s a lot of money, yes, but it also gives us a nice price range to come up with some amazing choices.We have been focusing on giving our recommendations for the best watches beca...
Available Now: Baltic x Peter Auto Tricompax Chronograph
The worlds of motorsports and watches have more than harmoniously coexisted since the former’s inception. The timing element plays a key role in the adrenaline-fueled, high-octane field of motor-vehicle racing, making a chronograph an essential piece of kit for any racer worth their salt. Some of the most iconic watches in horological history have been created with this purpose in mind. Inspired by the golden era of motorsports (and some would say watches), Baltic has come together with Peter Auto to create the Baltic x Peter Auto Tricompax. This is a ’70s-inspired chronograph with sporty ambitions and a sharp look. Naturally, when Baltic reached out and asked if we'd like to rec...
Not Small Enough: Watches At 36mm And Under
Watches at 39mm in diameter have been dubbed the “Goldilocks” of watch sizes. Really, 39mm is the perfect medium size for a watch for most wrists. And then, sizes typically only go up from there. Well, 39mm can’t be “medium” if there aren’t “small” watches balancing out one end of the spectrum. The watch industry and community have become more comfortable with smaller watches as we swing back from the large-watch extreme of some years ago. Here we’ve compiled a solid collection of watches measuring 36mm and smaller that are perfect when the “one-size-fits-all” is still too big for your tastes. And who knows? Maybe all of our t...
Seiko SRPJ41 And SRPJ43: Kawamura Collage Watches
Seiko has been on fire with a flurry of great releases this year. These Kosuke Kawamura Limited Editions seemingly came out of nowhere. No big fuss up front. It took us by surprise when Seiko showed them to us without prior notice. What is the key takeaway of these two new limited editions? They were designed in collaboration with Japanese artist Kosuke Kawamura, who is primarily known for his collages. The resulting watches have turned out to be Seiko collages themselves, and they’re pretty cool if you ask me.There is a black-and-teal version - SRPJ43 - which is limited to just 500 pieces. The orange-and-teal SRPJ41 is slightly easier to come by at 3,000 pieces. Let's have a closer lo...
Citizen Promaster Aqualand JP2000-08E: Evergreen Legend
Let us present the Citizen Promaster Aqualand JP2000-08E, a watch that was more important for dive-watch history than you probably realize. In 1985, almost simultaneously with the introduction of electronic dive computers, Citizen introduced the grandfather of the JP2000, the CQ-1012-50. Its caliber C020 offered features that were unheard of in dive watches before then - an electronic depth gauge, a dive timer, and a memory to store the maximum dive depth and time. As an extra service, military-issued no-decompression depth and time (no-deco) limits were printed on the outside of the watch’s strap.Citizen Promaster Aqualand JP2000-08EStarting in 1959 with the Parawater, Citizen had alr...
The New Jacques Bianchi JB200 Poulpro Dive Watch
Tracing its roots back to the 1980s, the Jacques Bianchi JB200 went from cult classic to mainstream success. This took place in 2021 when the watch was reissued after a successful Kickstarter campaign raised $791,406. The 1,116 backers who supported the project helped achieve 527% of the funding goal. Two years later, the brand now introduces the sequel to the JB200’s reissue. Instead of the signature “frogman” image on the dial, the new Jacques Bianchi JB200 Poulpro features the Mediterranean’s most intelligent eight-legged cephalopod, the octopus.But aside from the dial’s shift from mammal to mollusk, there’s more to the new JB200. It does away with the ...
Camp Is The Latest Retro Trend In Watches
It started with a joke. Well, that's what I thought it was, a joke. But RJ was serious. He already expressed his love for the Ferrari Testarossa from the Micheal Mann TV series Miami Vice, which ran from 1984 to 1990. And then he was zooming in on the Ebel Sport Classic Chronograph on the wrist of Don Johnson, who played Sonny Crocket. He expressed his love more than once, and it was inevitable that he would eventually buy that watch. He did. And now he wears that steel and gold chronograph from 1986 with great pride. RJ's move inspired other Fratelli as well. Before I knew it, the Fratello group chat filled up with team members sharing picks of two-tone Breitling Chronomat chronographs and ...
Hands-On With The Neo-Vintage Omega Constellation '95
Finally, the Norwegian Fratello editor has an Omega in his collection, and true to my ethos, it's a quirky one. While some of my articles are theoretical, chances are always high that they turn into real desire. And this was certainly the case with the Omega Constellation '95.I have had a conflicted and procrastinated relationship with Omega watches, and while it's not a prerequisite at Fratello, I’ve never had a Speedmaster. As part of my pseudo-psychotherapy, I delved deeper into the subject a few weeks ago, reached a theoretical conclusion, and quickly acted on it for once!To add or to consolidate?This is an important question I keep asking myself, and it's fraught with danger. This...
Hands-On: The Tudor Black Bay Ceramic VCARB
I’m going to be upfront. I was not a fan when I first saw pictures of the Tudor Black Bay Ceramic VCARB. The watch started as an exclusive for the Visa Cash App RB (VCARB) Formula 1 team and has now been made available to the public. People love to say that Tudor listened to the enthusiasts’ call to make it a general release, and who knows? Maybe the brand has. It’s nice to speculate about that, but the fact is that it’s here, and you can buy it. But is it worth buying? Let me explain where my initial aversion came from and how that changed by simply spending time with this new racing-inspired Black Bay Ceramic VCARB.There are two very simple reasons why I wasn’...
Armin Strom: Exploring Its Past And Present
After talking to Serge Michel and Claude Greisler, the two co-founders of the watch brand Armin Strom, it became apparent that they do things differently at their manufacture in the Swiss watchmaking town of Biel/Bienne. Ask them anything, and the two childhood friends who started a watch brand inspired by the open-worked creations of famous watchmaker Mr. Armin Strom will give you an answer. How refreshing! And the open-minded spirit of Michel and Greisler trickles down because, on the work floor of the manufacture, the young, dynamic, highly skilled, and talented workforce displays the same attitude. Stick around to read about my experiences at the manufacture where Armin Strom builds watc...
Geneva Watch Days 2024 Get All The Latest On Fratello
The world of Haute Horlogerie is gearing up for yet another highly anticipated event as Geneva Watch Days 2024 draws near. Since its inception in 2020, this decentralized and innovative watch fair has rapidly become a cornerstone in the annual horological calendar. Designed with a flexible, open format, Geneva Watch Days allows independent and established watchmakers alike to showcase their latest creations in a unique setting that combines the grandeur of Geneva with an intimate, relaxed atmosphere.Unlike Watches and Wonders, its more formal cousin, GWD has a more relaxed, summery vibe. Think less stuffy booths and press conferences and, instead, more open-air displays and cocktail receptio...
Reference 145.022 Speedmaster Professional from 1982
Omega?Speedmaster Pro 145.022This week’s Speedmaster is something that came out of a dusty cabin in Finland. Aki from Finland received this Omega Speedmaster Professional reference 145.022 from his dad, after it had been collecting dust for years. Although the papers and original invoice have been lost, the watch still has the original red box from 1982.Speedmaster Pro 145.022The Omega Speedmaster Professional 145.022 was introduced in 1968, the first watch to have the Lemania based caliber 861 movement. In comparison to the previous Speedmaster Pro 145.012 model, the most obvious changes are the dial, chronograph second hand and bracelet. Under the hood, Omega stopped using the column...
#TBT Gallet Multichron 12 "EP40"
In general, when I purchase watches, I end up liking them. I don't sell my pieces because of this, but there certainly still exists a hierarchy of pieces that I like more than others; it's not unlike that pile of t-shirts we all own, all of which are the same size yet possess an imaginary ranking.?? Amongst my favorite chronographs, I count a Heuer Carrera 2447S, a Breitling 765CP Killy, and a ratty, overpolished Ed White Omega Speedmaster. Every so often, though, I add a watch that climbs to the acme of the horological summit that I've created and it fights hard for more than its fair share of wrist time. Recently, this occurred and I'm happy to share a little bit about this chronograph bec...
COSC Automatic Chronometer Under $700 By FORMEX
Formex unveils the Essence, an affordable COSC-certified Automatic ChronometerWhen something sounds too good to be true it very often is, but there are those occasions when it's worth taking a closer look. Formex, known for their rugged watches, is about to launch a mechanical timepiece, rich in details and features, with a decorated Automatic Swiss Made movement that is officially COSC-certified. With the Essence, Formex brings a highly precise and top quality mechanical everyday Chronometer with a very affordable price tag. Early Bird Specials are available now.A highly precise and officially COSC-certified movement The Essence is powered by Sellita's highest quality grade SW200-1 Swiss ma...