Our friends from Arcadia lent us one of their beautiful Vintage 22 timepieces to give it a test drive. A rose gold classic designed watch with a vintage Valjoux caliber 22 movement. That’s something we couldn’t refuse of course!This beautiful 43mm rose gold column wheel chronograph has a lot of ingredients from vintage chronograph watches, but has been restyled and totally made up to d

It’s Speedy Tuesday today and after the recent passing away of Neil Armstrong – perhaps the most famous Speedy owner – we thought we need to focus on a special Speedy. What would be better than to put a Speedmaster in the spotlight that has a moon and stars on the dial?Picture from Antiquorum’s Omegamania auction.One of our friends and avid readers of Fratellowatches sent u

There are a few brands out there which have a huge group of collectors. These brands are significant not only in the watch world but often in another area of life like sports or science. I think Heuer needs no introduction. Even for a non-WIS the name (TAG) Heuer rings the bell. Early Heuer vintage models are pretty sought-after. In this article we will get to know one of their classic yet afforda

When I think of German watches, my mind heads in three distinct directions. The first two categories I think of are the tactical/military and the rather high-end. The former is inhabited by brands such as Sinn, Stowa, and Laco, while A. Lange & Sohne and Glashutte Original dominate the latter type. The last sub-genre I think of when considering the Teutonic path contains watches of the modern,

Last year we reported about the new project by (amongst others) Octavio Garcia, former Head of Design at Audemars Piguet. The Gorilla Fastback was born and we brought you a review and a #52Mondayz feature on this watch. Today, we show you the new Gorilla Fastback collection consisting of three pieces: The Acid Green, RS White and Phantom Black.Gorilla Fastback CollectionThere’s more to it th

Normally, our contributor Gerard talks about one of his watches in this 52Mondayz feature. Whilst he is enjoying a deserved holiday, I decided to do this week’s write-up for 52Mondayz. It took a while before I decided which watch I wanted to cover, but going through my modest collection I stumbled upon my trusty Seiko SKX007.Without further ado, here’s the Seiko SKX007.Seiko SKX007Seik

Toc19, a hand wound watch that makes a personal statementToc Watch, or Toc, launched their first watch at the end of July and crowdfunded it in just 24 hours. It was pretty incredible for Will and Max to watch as their year-long project became an overnight success. They are eager to push on from here and are excited about the future.The pair set Toc up in July 2016. Their mission was simple; desig

Although some people were sceptic about him at first, Daniel Craig has proven to be among the greatest James Bond actors. James Bond started wearing an Omega Seamaster Diver 300M in 1995 (GoldenEye) and continued to do so when Daniel Craig took over this role from his predecessor. This year, Omega celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Omega Seamaster Diver 300M watch and introduced a new and impr

The strap game is strong for the Speedmaster so we continue our quest to that perfect 20mm weapon of choice. We were contacted by Paul from Paul Twice to give their straps a try and we gladly did so. By the way, the name Paul Twice refers to the two Pauls who are running the company.We were asked to select three straps from their webshop and we decided to go for the cognac suede, brown horween?and

Wrist Game or Crying Shame returns with a look at an Ebel 1911 Chronograph.Back in ’98, I was a fresh young face in the workforce, but a bit of hard work didn’t stop me from partaking in a bit of high-rolling high jinks.? It was during a long weekend that I packed my bag and made my way to the airport in “the 216,” aka Cleveland.? My buddy flew out of the mean streets of Ne

Christopher Ward is introducing a new watch on this special day, the 5th birthday of their in-house caliber SH21 movement!It is the Christopher Ward C60 Apex Limited Edition dive watch; only 100 pieces will be made available. Mike France, CEO and Co-founder of Christopher Ward, comments: With the first of the Apex series, the C7, we introduced a semi-skeletonised architecture to expose the beauty

There wasn’t much Longines news this year. After their move from Baselworld to ‘somewhere else’, it remained very silent and the ‘somewhere else’ is yet to be discovered.Instead of ‘somewhere else’, we received an e-mail with some novelties: the new Master Collection. Downloading the press kit in English leaves us with a technical specification sheet in Tu

I thought the Royal Oak Jumbo (or “Extra-Thin”) had hit its peak a few years ago, but it clearly hadn’t. Prices are going through the roof, as you will see in this article.I’ve been writing about the Royal Oak (and the Jumbo in particular) a lot over the years here on Fratello. It was my dream watch for a long time, I had a few Royal Oak variations, including the 15202 R

It started off with one of these random messages that pile-up in the Fratello inbox. I picked it up and I couldnt have been happier about it. This is not only the story of an innovative watch but also the story of a hardworking dreamer with no previous experience in the watch business. People thought he was crazy and professionals told him to forget the idea. The idea to create an “always-on

For a long time now, I’ve been keen to see the artificial aging for which Laco has become renowned firsthand. I’ve seen it on photos. I’ve heard tell of its authenticity. But until now, I’d never had the chance to study it up close. The model that finally gave me the insights I’d been craving was the Laco Kempten Erbstuck, a 39mm flieger-style watch sporting the brand

I thought the Royal Oak Jumbo (or “Extra-Thin”) had hit its peak a few years ago, but it clearly hadn’t. Prices are going through the roof, as you will see in this article.I’ve been writing about the Royal Oak (and the Jumbo in particular) a lot over the years here on Fratello. It was my dream watch for a long time, I had a few Royal Oak variations, including the 15202 R

The boys are back in town after a desperately long hiatus. We’ve plugged in the fridge and switched on the freezer - Balazs and I are back and this week we have our top Olympic moments and some awesome vintage Omega purchases to share with you.We decided to choose our bronze, silver, and gold performers/moments from the Olympics this year, to round off what turned out to be a pretty darn exc

Watchmaker jargon can be difficult to understand. You read a review about a watch you're interested in, but there are lots of words being used that don't make a lot of sense. Sometimes in the watch industry, we forget that people of all experiences are trying to enjoy the same products. We can be a little non-inclusive when it comes to our vocabulary, instead preferring to stick to traditional ver

We like to talk about vintage watches a lot within the Fratello team. Though most of what we write about is largely focused on the most recent releases and developments, for many of us, a lot of the fun can be found in the sometimes weird and often wonderful world of vintage watches. It's a world full of history, remarkable watches, incredible stories, and quirky details. It inspired us to come up

After a much-deserved two-month summer break, we are back with many new strap makers on Watch Strap Review. I’ll bring you some incredible brands and a ton of excellent watch straps in the upcoming months. To begin, for your reading pleasure, here is the Strapatelier from Singapore. For such a small country, Singapore has a very active watch community that helps these little ateliers to be b