Jacques Cousteau LOdyss|eA few days ago, The Odyssee (or LOdyss|e) movie has been released in France. It is a biopic about the life of Jacques Cousteau, his wife Simone and his sons Philip and Jean-Michel. It wont be in the theatres before January 2017 here in The Netherlands, but it will be on my to-do list that month.From the Wildbunch (distributor) website:Summer, 1946. The Cousteau family Jacques, his wife Simone and their two children Philippe and Jean-Michel live in their beautiful house by the Mediterranean sea. By day they dive, by night they watch the stars. Its paradise on earth. But Jacques is never content. He lives and breathes adventure and believes absolutely in the virtues...
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As one of the most recognizable luxury watches, the Cartier Tank's sleek design adorns the wrists of many of this French Maisons followers. Today, Cartier revealed the return of the legend let's give a warm welcome to the Cartier Tank Must!In the 1970s, Cartier created a new line of watches: Must de Cartier. The original Must was controversial yet legendary. While its form paid homage to the original Tank Louis Cartier, the material used for the case and bracelet sent shockwaves through the industry, attracting a whole new clientele to the brands door. Why? For the first time ever, Cartier did not use precious metals for the case. The Must de Cartier was an affordable turning point for the l...
You may remember my introduction to the striking black and yellow depth gauge that Oris released at the start of May. The Depth Gauge was one of Oris's most technologically advanced timepieces. It features a mechanical method for divers to track their current depth underwater. However, as I noted back then, mechanical depth gauge watches are not exactly commonplace in our industry.Before I get stuck into this review, I wanted to add a caveat that there is a limitation to the Oris Depth Gauge, and that is, it only tracks the current depth. Therefore, there is no record of the deepest point of the dive. Now, for decompression time calculations, this is an essential factor to take into account....
I love a good list because it really makes me think. I find myself see-sawing between picks for hours, wondering whether I can include the curveball I cant take my eye off over one of the more obvious choices whose omission will no doubt rankle the masses. However, that is my cross to bear (talk about first-world problems). As such, I gamely tackled a question posed to me in the office the other: what are the best five Bvlgari watches on the market right now? Some of my picks may well be low-hanging fruit, but Ill wager the top five contains a couple you didnt see coming. Read on to find outBvlgari is an odd brand. It has, perhaps most like Cartier, a wider reputation as a jeweler. However, ...
Its Speedy Tuesday Just last weekend Ive met Ben Oliver, a car journalist from the United Kingdom who writes for a number of titles. He told me about his love for mechanical watches and vintage chronographs in particular. One of the watches he carried with him last weekend it was during the Concorso dEleganza Villa dEste 2014 in Italy was the 17mm thick Omega Speedmaster Professional Mark III from 1972. A watch that is quite difficult to fit under your sleeve. The Omega Speedmaster (Professional) Mark III reference 176.002 was introduced in 1971 and featured an automatic chronograph movement for the first time in a Speedmaster. Omega and Lemania jointly developed this movement (officially ...
I know how important this watch is for Ben Clymer, so before going into details about this Omega Speedmaster Hodinkee 10th anniversary limited edition, allow me to address a few words to explain.10 Years of HodinkeeBen is a Speedmaster fan. He showed me his Speedmaster Mark40 that he received from his grandfather, and basically started his interest in mechanical watches. He also always shows me his latest Speedmaster purchases, and those range from early CK2915 references to the Speedmaster Speedy Tuesday (ST1) and the recent Speedy Tuesday Ultraman. He also was there with me when I bought my gold Speedmaster Professional in Munich when we were both there to talk at a watch congress?in 201...
Since the release of the Speedmaster Speedy Tuesday Ultraman, we get some questions about the original version from 1968. Time for us to recap our article from 2016 about the Speedmaster Ultraman reference 145.012-67. This will give you some more background on the original Speedmaster Ultraman.For the Speedy Tuesday Ultraman, Omega and us (Fratello) wanted something more colourful, like the 2004 Speedmaster Professional Racing for the Japan market. A few brainstorming sessions later led us to Ultraman. The original Speedmasters with the orange hand from 1968 that can be seen in the 1960s TV series Ultraman are simply amazing and appreciated by many collectors.Omega Speedmaster UltramanWe don...
SuitbertW posted a short pictorial on the Purists visit to Audemars Piguet. Click here to view all photos.Check all other posts about this visit in the Audemars Piguet??Discussion Board??as well!!...
Since 2017, Oris actively supports the Movember foundation. To raise awareness about mens health and the need to improve it (and to raise donations), Movember supporters reveal themselves by growing a mustache in November. So, November is the perfect time for an event to accentuate Oris dedication.Having started in 2017, Oris each year presents a special Movember edition of one of their watch models and donate part of the revenue. This commitment was the peg for a grand event that Oris hosted last week in Munich.Oris Watch Night in the Munich HearthouseOris, of course, also presented their other novelties as well as some models representing their different collections. But they had also invi...
When Piaget created the Polo in 1979, the aim was everyday sophistication. But the new Piaget Polo Skeleton Diamond Paved is anything but an everyday watch. Could I wear this delectable Piaget? That is the question of the day. I am a 62 Norwegian with a beard, just back from hacking big lumps of ice and snow from my car (feel free to stereotype me). I'm not a big fan of the term metrosexual, which is what came to mind when I saw the first images of this new Piaget in white gold. Could I pull it off?While writing this, I am wearing a Seiko Marinemaster 300, one of only two 44mm+ watches left in my collection. Did I put it on today to saw a hole in the ice and go diving with my speargun? No, I...
In 1957, Omega introduced three watches for professional use: the Railmaster for scientists and engineers, the Seamaster 300 for divers and the Speedmaster for sports, race car drivers and engineers as well. Now, 60 years later, Omega felt the time was right to bring hommage to these watches. Let us introduce you to the 60th anniversary limited editions of the Railmaster, Seamaster 300 and Speedmaster.Holy Trinity of OmegaThe rumor machine started a while ago already, will there be a re-edition of the Speedmaster CK2915? What about the Seamaster 300 and Railmaster? Those are also 60 years old. Very true, and of course Omega did not forget about that. You dont need to be psychic to see what w...
We like to talk about vintage watches a lot within the Fratello team. While the daily routine is largely focused on the most recent developments in the world of watches, the most fun for many of us lies in the world of vintage watches. It's a world full of history, remarkable watches, incredible stories, and quirky details. It inspired us to come up with a series of articles focusing on the best watches per decade from a select group of brands. Some of them priceless, some of them still affordable. In this installment, we will take a look at the best King Seiko, and Grand Seiko watches from the 1970s.In the 1960s, we witnessed developments that challenged the status quo of watch design forev...
What is Speedy Tuesday?It all started in a sunny Cannes in 2012, where I stayed over for a holiday. I also remember it was actually in the Radison Blu hotel there, where I made a wristshot of one of my Speedmaster watches and posted it on-line saying Speedy Tuesday (it was a Tuesday). Then, together with the team, we decided to make it a recurring item here on Fratello Watches. We are all Speedmaster fans, some of us have impressive collections, some of us only have one. But we all love the Speedmaster, for many different reasons.Our first Speedy Tuesday event took place in 2013. An official event with the support of Omega, in the ESA/Estec Space Expo visitor centre. A few more followed, wit...
Speedmaster Professional SnoopyIts Speedy Tuesday This week we received one of our favorite modern Speedmaster Professional editions from one of our readers, the Speedmaster Professional Snoopy.The Speedmaster Professional Snoopy pictures have been submitted by Daniel Justin Teo. He is an enthusiastic follower of our Speedy Tuesday topic and lives in Singapore. While growing up, Daniel Justin Teo writes us, Snoopy was one of his favorite characters. This, and the Eyes on the Stars being his personal slogan, makes the OMEGA Speedmaster Professional Snoopy his favorite daily timepiece. Besides OMEGA, Daniel Justin also collects Jaeger-LeCoultre watches.OMEGA Speedmaster Professional Snoopy 357...
This one seriously surprised me the first time I saw it hit the inbox. The second time this question was asked, you could have knocked me down with a feather. At the third time of asking, I figured it was time to stop being shocked the people wanted to know and get on with answering the question. Which watches do Rugby referees wear?So, which watches do rugby referees wear? Off the pitch, I cant comment. Im sure some of the best refs in the game have a few fancy watches they strap-on when they dont have to worry about getting trampled by the stampeding juggernauts of the modern game. But on the field of play, a referees timepiece is often determined by sponsorship agreements between the comp...
A few weeks ago, we asked you to share your Speedmaster story with us, and with the Speedmaster community. Besides admiring other peoples Speedmaster watches, its the stories that make the watches truly special.The cool thing about Speedmasters is that theres often a very nice story behind the reason for buying them. People tend to purchase Speedmasters for a specific and special reason. These vary. For example, maybe you joined the Speedy club because of your connection or association with the space program? Perhaps your first Speedy was a gift, an heirloom, or a blind trade? We are interested in hearing and reading these stories. And we bet you are too For this weeks installment of Speedy ...
I am so looking forward to this. The Fratelli, long regarded as THE GREATEST collection of watch fans on the internet, have stormed the castle. Theyre pitching tents in the courtyard. One of thems even brought a paddling pool Thats right, in our quest to find the best summer watch of all, its time for the Summer Splash Wild Card Round, courtesy of well YOU!So where to start? This idea for a Wild Card round resulted in one of the most intense editing periods of my life. I went through every Summer Splash article and tried to pull every watch mentioned into the mix. As such, Ive had to split the Wild Card round into THREE separate heats, which will culminate in a FOURTH article dubbed the Wild...
Its fair to say the Hamilton Intra-Matic gets a lot of airtime on Fratello, but with good reason. Since its (re)release, it has been one of the most praised watches in its segment. Earlier today, we broke the release of the Intra-Matic Chronograph with a green dial. It was an olivine stunner that wowed the team, but what I have for you this evening might top even that Proving that less is sometimes more is the newly-released Hamilton Intra-Matic H chronograph.Upon first glance, you might not be able to tell exactly whats new about the H variant of Hamiltons now-famous Intra-Matic, but the differences are quite significant. Majorly, this watch is hand-wound. And while that is certainly the bi...
Longines simply can't make a bad Heritage watch.Out of all the Swatch Group brands, Longines is the one company that nails their vintage reeditions 99% of the time. They are also doing it with a very small but talented design team in house. I should know, I've met them in Basel last year (thank you Swatch Group Germany!). For many years now the Longines Heritage models are the favorites of the press (first) and the enthusiasts (as soon as the pieces hit the stores). This was exactly the case last year when during this aforementioned visit the guys showed me not only one but two future-Heritage watches. The first was the Military Pilot, which I reviewed in March. The second was this cool piec...
If you've read my first-ever story on Fratello, you already know this by now. But in the first two years of my collecting journey, I was on the run. Im not sure what I was running from exactly, but I was buying watches fast. And when you go fast, you don't always make the best decisions. That's how I ended up with a 1974 omega Datejust. It was a 1603 with a beautiful blue pie-pan dial and pretty yellow tritium lume pips. But it was also attached to a very worn-out Jubilee bracelet. To cut a long story short, it didn't give me the butterflies when I was wearing it, so I ended up selling it after a few months.?That omega Datejust was supposed to be the star of my collection at that moment. Its...