Welcome to the Speedmaster World Cup. In the absence of Euro 2020, we thought our beloved readers might enjoy a tournament of a different kind. Weve assembled eight groups (A CH), each governed by a different Fratello team member. Each writer has been assigned four watches, which they will pitch to you during the group stages.All we need you to do is vote for your favorite to move on in the competition. The next round will be the quarter-finals, which will see the eight group winners go head-to-head for your votes. The four winners progress to the semis. Following that, a third-place play-off will precede the final round, due to be held on Sunday, December 13th (get the beers in).If you have...
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Some time ago, I went through some brochures from Dunhill. Gerard pointed out the Wheel watch. An interesting construction of hiding the crown. The case design is inspired by old motors and it is shaped like the evocative metal spinners often used to attach wire wheels to period sports cars. The crown is hidden by the engine-turned bezel. This systems cleverly protects the crown from knocks. The monolug system looks good and emphasizes the cases spinners design.The watch pictured above is the Wheels watch Petrolhead model. 42mm case diameter and an automatic movement (ETA 2824-2 + Dubois-Depraz module for power reserve) with date and power reserve feature. Only 1500 units available. The case...
Youve probably read our enthusiastic reviews on the new Bvlgari Octo Finissimo watches. Today, we show you a video review of the three Bvlgari Octo Finissimo watches that are about to hit the boutiques this month.Nothing beats trying the watch on the wrist yourself, but a video might be a good alternative if you arent near a Bvlgari boutique. In this video, we will show you the Bvlgari Octo Finissimo in polished ceramic, satin-polished stainless steel and in rose gold (on a leather strap).Bvlgari Octo Finissimo reviewThe side-by-side comparison of these three references (ceramic ref. 103368, satin-polished steel ref. 103297, and the rose gold ref. 103286) shows how different they will appear...
Over at The Watch Gallery in the United Kingdom they are doing some cool stuff on-line for their customers and potential new clients. They recently published a video featuring professional watchmaker Jamie Hardes (at omega London at One Hyde Park) showing you the anatomy of a omega. He disassembles their omega calibre 3132 movement, featured in the omega Explorer ref. 214270.The current version of the watch that was used during the climb of the Mount Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and his team, worn on the wrist of Ian Flemming when he wrote the James Bond novels and many more adventurous people out there (including the elegant wrists of Victoria Secret Angel Alessandra Ambrosio). In 2010, om...
Wait a minute? Didnt Bukowskis?auction a CK2915 before for a record price?Yes they did, and we reported about it here. We also published an interview with the collector who bought that CK2915-1 for a whopping?$275,508 US dollars (including buyers premium). You can read that interview here.Speedmaster CK2915-2So now, it is time for another CK2915 for them to auction. This time, the 2nd iteration of the Speedmaster CK2915, indicated by a -2 designator. Interesting enough, the first CK2915(-1) and this 2nd iteration CK2915(-2) are pretty similar to each other. The first generation Speedmaster CK2915 was only in production for a very short time, and during those first years of the Speedmaster pr...
Were back again for another Sunday Morning Showdown Last week was not a fluke, and we have another Watches And Wonders 2022 brawl today. Two writers once again face off in an opinionated showdown. Were focusing our love/hatred on a single omega novelty this time. And, yes, I mean novelty in the way the trade shows use it (something new), but also in the amusing sense of the word. The omega Air-King sure garners both an amusing and bemusing response, but one that is ripe for scrutiny, which weve seen before, as this is not the first time the Air-King has found itself in the Showdown arena. Today your votes determine whether the revisions push the Air-King further into the rate it camp or swin...
TimeZones 2011 Watch of the Year competition has started and there are six candidates you can choose from when voting. Go to the TimeZone website and leave your vote for your favorite watch manufacturer. Make sure you are a registered user of TimeZone and read the voting policy before doing so.The candidates of the 2011 edition of TimeZones Watch of the Year are:A. Lange Sohnes?Richard Lange Tourbillon Pour le M rite. Limited to 100 pieces only in platinum (model shown here in 18 carat red gold) and the fourth piece from this Glashuette manufacture with the Pour le M rite distinction. The tourbillon with a patented stop-seconds mechanism and the fus e-and-chain transmission have been develo...
At Watches and Wonders 2022, IWC dazzles your eyes with the snow-white ceramic Pilot's Watch Chronograph Top Gun Edition Lake Tahoe and calms you back down again with the camouflaged green Woodland. Many people have told me that I have gone beige lately. And that's right, I like a bit of beige in a watch IWC's Mohave models, for instance, but also the Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra Small Seconds I tried not too long ago. With that knowledge, you would expect me to prefer the blended-in Woodland over the blizzard-like Lake Tahoe. But it's the black-and-white Lake Tahoe that stole my heart.Love at first sight. It happened to me back in August 2021 in Geneva during a visit to the IWC boutique. It...
Tennis star Maria Sharapova just turned 21 years old on the 23rd of April. TAG Heuer organized a big birthday party for their ambassador of sports watches. The press release states that TAG Heuer was honored to do so. Yeah ??I understand the whole ambassador concept, it seems to attract potential buyers. But why giving a birthday party AND brag about it in press releases? Anyway, it does produces some nice pictures ??...
When RJ and I discussed the topic for this week's Speedy Tuesday I had no idea how timely this is. See, for someone who loves vintage Omegas and especially chronographs (Seamasters and Speedmasters alike) the Speedmaster 125 is always in the back of their minds. It's an odd-one-out in a good way for so many reasons. Reasons which we will talk about below. So after our discussion, I said to myself; We've covered this watch numerous times, not sure if there's anything else left to say. Well, when I looked back in our archives I realized that the last article about the Omega Speedmaster 125 is from 2013. And that mainly concerns?Adrian van Hooydonk BMW Group's design director and his 125. One c...
First things, first, Happy Christmas to all of the Fratelli From the team here at Fratello Watches, we hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday and that there were many horological gifts under your Christmas trees Whether those watch-based gifts were from friends, family, or even self-bought that's not important!Around this time of the year, brands (or, more specifically, the people working for the brands) traditionally tend to have wrapped things up for the Christmas break. Yes, even the watch industry needs a Christmas break That said, there have still been some exciting things that came up this week. Let's have a look!Grand Seiko GS9 club and SBGE263 Eagle US LEIn some exciting news for...
Part of being a Paneristi is to collect nice and special watch straps. I have written about straps made from vintage ammo pouches and one not for Panerai in this case made from the leather interior of a Mercedes SLR 300 (1956) formerly owned by Jean Todt.Last week, I received an e-mail about DaLucas Panerai Straps. The owner, Daniel Luczak, creates one-off straps for Panerai watches made out of ammo pouches and other vintage leather used for (mostly) military purposes. Each strap is individually named and will never be duplicated.On PaneraiSource.com, youll find a well written and documented review of DaLuca straps. As I wrote some time ago, these kind of straps and intiatives makes me wan...
The Watch Photographer, friend of the show and famous because of his omega calendar is now offering his beautiful omega GMT-Master ref.1675 (ca.1971) for sale. We can easily say that this is the most popular GMT-Master of this moment and still considered to be affordable when it comes to collecting vintage omega watches.What once started as being the watch for (PanAM) pilots, grew out to be the most popular watch for?travelers?of all sorts. The current GMT-Master II ref.116710LN is the result of decades of small and well thought-of tweaks and adjustments to the original GMT-Master, such as the ref.1675. GMT-Masters prior to the ref.1675, carry the 6542 reference number (1954) and have no cro...
Tomorrow is the big day for omega, but especially for all the omega fans. Where omega would normally introduce its new watches during Baselworld, they now use the Watches Wonders exhibition. So far, the bets seem to be on a new omega Explorer II watch. We will be on location with omega to see the watches in the flesh, take pictures and get those real-life impressions.Whether they will introduce a new omega Explorer II or not is not stopping the watch collectors and speculators from making strategic moves. Not too long ago, I was contacted by a Dutch guy who follows me on Instagram, whether it would be wise or not to sell his current Explorer II. I am by no means someone to give financial ad...
Fratello is a broad church. We want everyone that visits our site to feel welcome and find something for them among our many pages. As such, in the run-up to Christmas, we want to focus a little more on ladies watches. Of course, these articles are mostly for our female readers, but also provide valuable insight into some of the watches the women in your life may be lusting over this yuletide.Today, two of our editors, Kristin and Franziska, share a recent email exchange regarding the perfect watch for the festive season. Wed love to know your thoughts on the format, so drop us a note in the comments section at the end of the article.19th November 2020Dear Franziska,I hope you are doing well...
Youve seen them on the bookshelves at (vintage) watch dealers and collectors: the Mondani books. We talk to Giorgia Mondani, who joined her family business at a young age and shared her love for (omega) watches with her +180.000 followers on her Instagram account.The Mondani books are massive in weight and size and are a bit more serious than nice looking coffee table format books. These are books with a purpose. They help collectors to research their vintage (omega) watches and ensure they know what to look for. As you know, it is all about the details when collecting vintage watches.Ive been a follower of Mondani for many years and bought a large number of their books myself. It started wi...
Welcome to another episode of Fratello On Air Finally, Balazs and Mike got their collective acts together, and theyre back with a return engagement Settle in and enjoy the banter about our favorite watches from 2021, along with a healthy rant for good measure!Folks, were back and better (or worse) than ever Balazs and Mike come together at the end of 2021 to talk about some of their favorite watch releases from another wild year. We wont give away everything, but the list is heavy on dive watches and chronographs. Seriously, what else do you expect from these two?Tudor, Breitling, Synchron, Excelsior Park, and Omega make the list along with a few more. Plus, the dynamic duo shares some recen...
As watch enthusiasts, we love any reason to covet and add extra value to our pursuit of new additions to our collections. One such tenuous reason used to explain to our spouses and significant others why we really MUST HAVE just-one-more-watch is using connections to movies.I'm sure that we've all used the line, but this is the exact same model worn by Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now It's a timeless classic No? Just me? OK. Without further ado, here we go my top 5 movie watches:Seiko H558-5000As worn by Arnold Schwarzeneggar in Predator and CommandoYou can spot Arnie wearing his Seiko H558-5000 Quartz Diver, hunting bad guys in Commando, and stomping aliens in Predator. With Arnie being the i...
Lange and Sohne is back with a host of new releases. In this brief article, we take a look at the flagship model, the limited edition Triple Split chronograph in pink gold with dark blue dial.Lange and Sohne rarely fails to impress. Since returning to the market in 1994, theyve made some incredible watches that easily rank amongst the best of the best from the likes of Patek and other high end brands. Today, Lange returns with a new version of a watch that first debuted back in 2018 the Triple Split chronograph. The original model came in white gold with a gray dial whereas todays piece is in pink gold with a bold blue facade.The Long Triple SplitLange will make 100 pieces of its newest Tri...
A recurring theme in our TBT articles revolves around the aberrations from various watch companies. These are the one hit wonders, the exceptions and they're typically major breaks from a brand's ethos. Think of watches like the Nivada Datomaster, the Meylan chronograph and even the omega 1655 Explorer II and you'll be on my thought train. Today's excerpt continues the trend with a look at the original Rado Captain Cook. As you'll see, it's a timely article, but it's also a look at a watch that's essentially escaped view from all but the most ardent dive watch collectors. Hoist the mainsail all aboard (Come on, you have to chuckle a bit ?? )A New Rado Captain Cook Was at Baselworld 2017If ...