The TAG Heuer Carrera 160 Years Silver Limited Edition watch launched back in January. As one of the brands most handsome releases this year, were happy to bring it back to your attention. Harnessing the old-school vibes of Heuers golden age, this Carrera adds a touch of after-dinner class to a collection that is, in its modern guise, far more sporty in style.When youve been around for 160 years (as Heuer has), you can be forgiven for running out of model names. But it has to be said that TAG Heuer could have given its new Carrera any name under the sun and it would still be a handsome addition to the catalog. The new TAG Heuer Carrera (reference number CBK221B.FC6479) was a welcome return t...
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It is Speedy Tuesday Just a few months ago, Bert Buijsrogge and I visited the OMEGA museum in Biel, Switzerland. With the focus on Speedy Tuesday, Bert took some photos of the Speedmasters (and Flightmasters), Apollo suit and NASA equipment (including the Moon buggy prototype). If you remember correctly, we already did a report on the OMEGA museum a while ago (click here), but lacking the photographic skills of Bert of course.Except for the beautiful vintage Speedmaster Professional from Bert above, on the NASA console (used for the Apollo space programme), we dont have any descriptions for the rest of the 77 photos. Just sit back and enjoy. If you have any specific questions regarding a pho...
TAG Heuer dives into 2022 with a lite version of the recently introduced 43mm Aquaracer Professional 300. The Aquaracer Professional 200 is ready for the life aquatic in any of its myriad and sundry forms. You can go swimming with it in the pond behind your house, the pool, the lake, or the sea. And it also will hold its ground while ice-climbing ice is frozen H2O after all and in an urban setting too. A refreshing dive in the city-square fountain, perhaps? Anyway, TAG Heuer presents us with sporty watches that come with black or blue dials and in two sizes a petite and elegant 30mm and a perfectly conservative 40mm.You would think that Jack Heuer spent all of his time trackside. But apparen...
It is not rocket science: everyone is after the same type of watches. For whatever reason, whether thats a genuine interest, lack of confidence, or the fear of missing out on things. It doesnt matter, in all honesty. I am happy to notice a small shift in things, at least in some of the watch collecting circles out there. People buy (again) what they truly enjoy and like. This 18 carat rose gold Omega Speedmaster Day-Date reference 3623.33.01 is one of those watches that only a few people will care about.And thats also fine, it means that those who do enjoy it, will be able to pick one up for a fair price. I wont say cheap, as 5,650 is a lot of money to many.? But compared to the more favored...
Its Speedy Tuesday We realize weve been discussing the Omega Speedmaster Pro X-33 quite often here lately, but it seems we are not the only enthusiast about this model. Recently we received an e-mail from Philip Kisloff who owns an Omega Speedmaster Pro since 1977 with a very nice write-up on the new Speedmaster X-33 3rd Gen (reference ?318.90.45.79.01.001) model. We would like to share his article with you today. Review of the new Omega Speedmaster X-33 SkywalkerI've owned an Omega Speedmaster Caliber 861 for almost 40 years, wearing it proudly for almost every day of that time. For one thing, it's a tangible connection with the greatest feat of exploration in history. Even on its own, th...
It's been a while since Hamilton's operations have been conducted from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but the spirit-of-liberty style flows through the veins of Switzerland's most American brand. What I think the brand has done very well in recent years is streamline the DNA of its collection. Ten years ago, it had ballooned in too many disparate directions to make any sense to me. Now, though, we have a wealth of functional field models, which are the brand's biggest recent success, in my opinion. We have a raft of highly technical pilot's watches, which are an essential element of the brand's character. And last but not least, we have an easy-to-understand selection of timeless American classics...
The Olympic gold, silver and bronze. But Omegas representation is of course gold, silver and pink gold where the pink gold is their own Sedna alloy and white gold the Canopus alloy. Canopus is a new introduction, an exclusive white gold alloy, which is 100% noble and distinctive for its high brilliance, whiteness and longevity.For the Olympics, Omega introduces to you these 39.5mm Seamaster Olympic Games Gold watches, all in precious metals. The watch is similar to the special Seamaster Edizione Venezia that we showed you here.Seamaster Olympic Gold CollectionA very classic looking Seamaster, which reminds us of the very early models of this collection that started in 1948. Thats right, the ...
After last weeks publication of my article on watch collecting (and thanks for all the amazing comments!), I also received a few messages about my preference for Omega.Although I did touch on the topic of Omega and its connection with my family, I thought I will freshen up a story that I wrote a few years ago.Why Do I Love Omega?I am often being asked why I only buy and wear Omega watches. Well, thats not entirely the case of course. I also own watches from other brands like Oris, omega, Hamilton, Grand Seiko, Seiko, Chronoswiss, Breitling, Swatch, G-Shock, and a bunch of other perhaps lesser-known ones. And in the past, I've owned IWC, Sinn, Audemars Piguet, Linde Werdelin, and others as we...
This article is all about the gold Omega Speedmaster Professional Apollo 11, reference BA145.022-69. The gold commemorative watch was presented to all the active NASA astronauts in 1969, to the US President and Vice President, as well as to some other officials. It also became available to the public, with a slightly different inscription on its gold case back.We've covered it very often, especially when an astronaut's gold Speedmaster has come to the surface or when we saw an interesting example for sale or at an auction. This gold Speedmaster is also referred to as a Tribute to Astronauts watch. It was the first gold Speedmaster that Omega created, and it was offered to the active astronau...
The start of the year is one of my favorite times for writing. Why, you ask? Well, its because the year is so fresh and new. There are no new trends yet for 2022; we still need to give the year a chance to find itself and decide what it wants to be. With that in mind, its the perfect time to appreciate what already exists with the clarity that the new year brings. Some of a brands more impressive work can get lost among the noise of its flagship launches. With that in mind, I wanted to take a look at Breguets Marine Collection. Why? Because I believe its the unsung hero in the Breguet family.Breguet had a solid year last year. While it released a couple of new additions to the Marine line, 2...
We are approaching the end of March and thus the end of March Mania. It is a very successful but especially fun project on Fratello, and we thoroughly enjoy seeing the results and the discussions below each round. We would like to thank you for that!We even noticed some of you are starting to call yourself Fratelli already, in the comments. And we really see that as a token of appreciation for what we do, but also for the other readers that vote and comment on these March Mania articles. On April 13, we will be giving away a few straps from LIC and a Hamilton Intra-Matic Chrono watch from our shop to some of you. Make sure to read how you can participate in this contest in order to win those...
Recently, I wrote about a omega Panerai 3646 with an anonymous California dial due to go under the hammer at Webbs Auction House in New Zealand. One of our readers, Jeff Hess, got in touch with me to point out that my use of the term California to describe the dial was misleading, erroneous, and wrong. Now, I thought that was pretty harsh, but Im not one to take offense easily, especially when the person dishing it out has a good reason for doing so. Having looked into Jeffs justification for his claim, I found myself disagreeing with him still, but we decided together that the mysterious history of the California nickname should be shared openly with the FratelliSo here we are. Jeff and I w...
Earlier this week, I was invited for a media lunch with Hublots new CEO, Mr. Ricardo Guadalupe, and their Asia-Pacific Regional Director, Ms. Miwa Sakai, who happened to be visiting Kuala Lumpur on an Asian tour.All images may be clicked on for larger versions.In addition to enjoying an excellent steak, I also had the chance to play with and photograph the new pieces introduced at Basel earlier in the year.Ive personally found a lot of the brands pieces rather lukewarm in the past it wasnt the aesthetics that didnt do it for me, but rather the lack of anything serious under the hood. However, with the recent Masterpieces, the Unico in-house chronograph caliber, and the new collection, Hublo...
Today, I noticed an Omega LED wrist watch on someones wrist in an interior store. Now, if I would be in a watch shop or perhaps in a bar or something, I probably asked him more about this watch. Is he a collector? Is this his only watch? How did het get it? What about the history of this watch? Is he aware that he wears something special? Does he have box, papers and the original receipt? You know the drill, these questions need to be answered if you encounter someone with a nice watch.Now, back at home, I still dont know anything about this man and his watch. I think I will manage to sleep well, but it would have been nice to interact with someone who has a nice time piece. At least when he...
Earlier this year, Omega introduced its gold Speedmaster Professional Master Chronometer watches. There were options in both Canopus gold (Omegas white gold alloy) and Sedna gold (Omegas rose gold alloy) announced. Not only did we have the opportunity to go hands-on with both, but we also had the chance to line the Sedna model up against that other must-have chronograph, the omega Daytona in Everose. What followed was a blow-for-blow comparison bound to titillate any serious watch lover.We did this comparison in a very biased video here, but we also had two writers, each with a preference for one of the chronographs, go head to head. In this case, Jorg took it up for the new Sedna gold Omega...
Over at ViaPaneristi (the other Panerai site) I noticed the invitation for the USA VP-Day event!So if you live in the USA, and couldnt make it to P-Day 3 in Frankfurt, you better check their website....
Watches in TV series, we all know you have been trying to identify Jerry Seinfelds Breitling (or Cartier), Kim Kardashians AP Royal Oak (or Scott Disicks), Dexters Timex, Charlies omega Yacht-Master and Tony Sopranos omega Day-Date. And although Don Draper wore a omega Explorer in HBOs Mad Men TV series, Jaeger-LeCoultre recently released a Mad Men special Mad about Reverso that features aSterling Cooper Draper Pryce logo engraved in the reversible back side of the watch. So it seems that watch manufacturers are pretty aware of the fact that you are eagle eyeing the watches in TV shows.Was this always the case? One of our avid readers Johan sent us a screen shot of the second part of A-Tea...
I have a weak spot for the Seamaster Ploprof, and last year I purchased the steel 1200M version. Although Omega still lists the steel Ploprof on their website, it is out of production since last year. I enjoy the watch a lot and noticed that I am not alone.On Instagram, I got in touch with a fellow owner of the Seamaster Ploprof 1200M. I cant remember exactly when I started to follow him, but I was triggered by his Instagram account name Ploprof_guy. He doesnt have a very big account, but his pictures intrigued me. Besides his modern Omega Seamaster Ploprof 1200M, he also showed old black and white pictures of his father in Lebanon during the war in 1982. I reached out to him and asked him a...
A watch with a 42+mm case size is considered large even by todays standards. This year Montblanc is reviving one of Minervas vintage models, an astonishing 46mm timepiece. The 1858 Monopusher Chronograph Origins Limited Edition comes in a bronze case. However, this is not whats so spectacular about this watch.The Montblanc 1858 Monopusher Chronograph Origins Limited Edition pays tribute to the heritage of Minerva. They do this by taking inspiration from a 1930s timepiece that housed an iconic Minerva caliber: the 19-9CH.?HistoryBefore we take a closer look at the brand-new Montblanc 1858 Monopusher Chronograph Origins Limited Edition, lets talk a bit about its inspiration. The original timep...
Though the season for ice diving is quickly coming to an end, Bell Ross celebrates those brave enough to dive under the frozen surfaces with the BR 03-92 Diver in white. Winter will not officially be over until the 20th of March. But the days have already started to get longer, and temperatures have begun their steady ascent. Soon, in those places where it is still present, the ice will begin to melt. Lakes will go back to their usual liquid state, as the surface layer melts away. However, in some of the northernmost regions, ice diving was still possible until just a couple of weeks ago. Just as hazardous as cave or wreck diving, ice diving is not for the faint-hearted. With todays release...