Some collectors or watch afficionados will tell you that the only good Omega watches are vintage Omega watches. In my opinion, they do have a point in terms of looks and value. Vintage Omega watches are the rising stars on watch auctions and who doesnt want to own a very early Speedmaster?As for the modern Omega watches, a lot of eyebrows are being frowned, but the fact that Omega is stepping up the ladder cant be denied. Creating their own in-house movements (again), making watches with complications and spending huge amounts of money on their marketing machine. They want to be or perhaps are already in the league where they wanted to be for a long time, stepped away from brands like Long...
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The Oyster Perpetual is the distillation of the three core criteria for every omega: The Oyster case for water resistance, the Perpetually winding rotor and the Chronometer rating for timekeeping. With a solid platform, omega can go wild with crazy dials for a more personal touch. For this week's Pre-Owned Picks, I select some standout OP configurations from Chrono24.A few weeks back, Rob and I went toe-to-toe over the best beater watch from omega and Grand Seiko. The term beater, otherwise known as the go anywhere, do anything watch, may seem a misnomer for a circa 4,000 luxury object, but in this wild and wacky watch world it isnt so insane.The sporty Oyster Perpetual is designed to be tou...
For the past few years, there's been one thing you can bank on: Breitling nailing its new releases. Under George Kern, the brand has gone from strength to strength, leaving a rocky start to the relationship that saw the startling redesign of the Navitimer in its rearview mirror. Now, the focus is on the AVI collection, which has, over the past couple of years, defined its own design language with aplomb. Today, we're taking a look at five of the new Breitling Super AVI B04 Chronograph 46 GMT watches. But be warned they are not for the faint-hearted.Using the original 1953 Co-Pilot ref.765 AVI as its base, Breitling has released five chronographs inspired by four iconic fighter planes. There ...
Is there such a thing as the end of your horological journey? I used to believe that there wasnt. But after wearing the Omega Seamaster Professional Diver 300M Chronograph in Sedna Gold, now I am tempted to think that there is. This started out as a story about my favorite model from the Seamaster Professional Diver 300M range. But it turned into an experience of answering questions and ticking boxes with regards to my personal journey with watches. Let me explain why this Seamaster Professional Diver 300M Chronograph in 18K Sedna Gold stole my heart.This story actually starts out pretty randomly. One afternoon not too long ago, Robert-Jan and I were discussing our favorite models of the Sea...
When we first saw the new omega Datejust II presented at BaselWorld 2009, we werent very enthusiastic about it. We were not ready for a leap from a 36mm to a 41mm diameter. In all honesty, we feel we might be a bit too Rain Man-ish when it comes to sudden changes in product design. Especially when it comes to products that we love so much. For example, it takes us ages to like a new BMW car when it is being introduced, because we love the current or former models so much. The same goes for new omega watches. Perhaps you recognize this?behavior? (please do)Last summer, we were visiting a omega boutique in Orlando?(who also had a lot of pre-owned watches for sale) and tried the Datejust II for...
Patek Philippe not only surprised us by introducing white dial versions of the Nautilus collection, they also made us gaze at this other white dialed watch. The Patek Philippe Grand Complication 5402P, a split seconds and perpetual calendar in platinum.The 5402P is the successor of the 5004P, a rattrapante chronograph? with perpetual calendar in a 36.7mm case, also available in other case materials than platinum. Not only the dimensions of the watch case and the dial lay-out changed, Patek also did some innovations regarding the rattrapante mechanism. A number of technical measurements (a.o. a new isolator system and a new split-seconds lever) improved the reliability of the split seconds ch...
I must say, I'm a bit overwhelmed by writing this article. I'm someone who likes to understand everything that he writes about. But when you get asked to write an article on a watch by A. Lange Sohne, you almost certainly know that it'll involve a complicated piece. The word piece, of course, refers to not only the watch but also to the article at hand. When I saw the first pictures of this new A. Lange Sohne Richard Lange Minute Repeater, I thought I got lucky. Not a single complication, just the hours, minutes, and sub-seconds. But then someone pointed out that bulge on the left side of the caseIndeed, when you slide that bulge, it releases the minute repeater mechanism. A minute repeate...
Heres our selection of pre-owned picks for the 2nd week of 2020. Last week we had a watch planned that was sold just before we published, so were making up for that.Every week we pick a few pre-owned watches from the largest market place for wristwatches in the world, Chrono24. Watches that we love ourselves, or think they will be interesting to you. So to be clear, we picked the watches, Chrono24 only sent us the images without their watermark and in a proper resolution.Pre-Owned Picks Of Week 2Last week I wrote about this omega GMT-Master II 16710, but it sold before we published this article. To make up for this, Ive picked two GMT-Master watches this week: Two different references, a GMT...
The Bulgari Octo Finissimo line has received a lot of praise for its impressive list of industry firsts including the thinnest tourbillon movement, the thinnest minute repeater movement and the thinnest automatic movement. Secondly, watch media and watch enthusiasts alike have praised the unique design of the Octo Finissimo as one of the most remarkable new watches out there.Like many, I also love the fact that Bulgari had the guts to start making incredibly thin in-house movements to break a number of industry records and I also appreciated the design of the first few watches that were introduced using a combination of shapes that define the unique character of the Octo Finissimo.The Octo F...
Friend of the show Lawrence Larry McGlynn has a website called Space Artifacts, which is worth a visit if youre into space-related topics.Larry is also known for his role in the Space Dealers TV show (Discovery channel) where he hunts down valuable items that were used in space (and on the Moon). He also loves the Speedmaster, and he has helped us on a few occasions to sort out topics and enabled us to have a little interview with Apollo astronaut Dave Scott (click here). For this weeks instalment of Speedy Tuesday, he contributes a report on this visit to the Sothebys auction Omega Speedmaster: To the Moon and Back | Celebrating 50 years since Apollo 11. It was hosted on July 19 in New York...
Prince Bernhard (1911-2004), member of the Dutch Royal Family, was an avid omega wearer. Dutch magazine Quote published an article in their March edition about the auction of this particular omega Date. Christie?s in Amsterdam will auction this omega Date on the 3rd of April 2007. Maarten van Gijn, Public Relations Marketing of Christie?s, mailed me the picture below and stated that I could use it for this blog. I am curious why the Royal Family is auctioning this watch, in my opinion it should be on one of the wrists of his grand childeren. Anyway, according to Quote Magazine, it will fetch around 3000 Euro....
This weeks MotoringExposure article on watches is about Omegas Speedmaster Missions case. There is one ( 34) up for sale on eBay for $145,000.- USD and as this is a very rare occasion, I thought it might be well worth blogging about. Of the 50 cases produced in total (in three batches of 40 and another 5 in 1997 and yet another 5 in 1998), this Missions case belongs to the first batch. These cases consist of 22 Speedmaster Mission models (with NASA mission patch at 9 oclock) and 1 Speedmaster Replica to honor the first Speedmaster CK2915 of 1957. So, in total, $145K USD will bring you 23 timepieces, a loupe, a spare caliber 1861 movement and a nice case.Click here to go to my more in-depth a...
To be honest, until recently Ocean7 wasnt brand that had watch models that I could mention from the top of my head, except for the LM-7. The Ocean7 LM-7 has probably been the watch model that people will know this brand for, it is a homage to dive watch watches of the 1970s according to the official Ocean7 website. People will immediately recognize the LM-7 being a homage to the famous OMEGA Seamaster Plo-Prof of course. To be honest, Ocean7 did a pretty good job in creating an alternative for the vintage OMEGA Seamaster Plo-prof. This was in the period before OMEGA re-introduced their own homage to this watch a few years ago with their new in-house caliber 8500 movement.Anyway, Ocean7 is a ...
The quarter-finals are here and we still have a bunch of Speedies in this game. But have no fear, the Zenith El Primero A386 Revival is here. Will it push the Speedmaster Apollo 8 off the track like Lewis did to Max (or vice versa), or will we see only Speedies in the finals? Today, Andreass Zenith goes up against RJs Speedmaster Apollo 8.RJ: This is going to be interesting. And truth be told, I would have a hard time making a decision between this classic Zenith El Primero A386 Revival despite being a re-edition or a modern interpretation of a classic, like the Speedmaster Apollo 8. A watch with a Zenith El Primero movement is still high on my wish list, but which one?Speedmaster Apollo...
In this Sunday morning column, two of our writers go head-to-head in an epic showdown for the ages. Strong opinions and hysterical hyperbole are welcome (so feel free to join in with the fun in the comments section below). And don't forget to let us know which watches you'd like to see torn to shreds/effusively exalted next week. We'll try and feature as many of our readers' choices as we can. After last weeks divisive debutant, the Tudor P01, we have a couple of controversial models from Omega and omega. This week, the Yacht-Master stares down the Aqua Terra in one of the loveliest (or should that be lubbliest?) showdowns in memory.Wow, that was close. The polarizing Tudor Black Bay P01 dul...
Panerai News From The SIHH 2013Panerai was giving quite a performance during the SIHH 2013 One of the watches from the new collection that struck me most, was the Panerai Luminor 1950 Regatta 3 Days Chrono Flyback Titanio, or just PAM00526.Normally, I am more in favour of their Historic collection, where the focus is more on the hand-wound Luminor models. The classics, so to speak. However, this new Regatta Chrono Flyback PAM00526 in titanium is from Panerais Comtemporary collection. This collection is influenced by historical designs as well, but with automatic winding movements.This PAM00526 is something that really got to me, due to the Regatta complication (more later), due to its large ...
I guess it is safe to say that we are all awaiting for the James Bond Spectre movie to be released later this year. As you know, Omega has been their ambassador since 1995 (Golden Eye) with their Seamaster 300M watch. In Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, the Seamaster Planet Ocean took over the role of the Seamaster 300M and in Skyfall, Bond?started to wear the?Seamaster Aqua Terra next to the Planet Ocean.It was expected that Omega would release another James Bond limited edition for the James Bond Spectre movie, as theyve done so in the past. Although I expect James Bond to wear both an Aqua Terra and a Planet Ocean or perhaps a Seamaster 300 as well? in the Spectre movie, let first h...
Recently we received an invitation to head to Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom to visit one of the top performing F1 racing teams. Being a returning fan of the F1 this was like being a kid in a candy store. Too bad there was a strict no photography policy at Red Bull Racing but we quickly learned why this was fully understandable.Starting off in the workshop we get a rough presentation of Red Bull Racing, its history and their way of doing things. Although we learn that there are roughly 800 people working there, it feels like a small family. Not just a job but a way of life as they call it themselves. Crazy to realize it takes that many people to race two cars around a circuit. Having go...
At this years Watches Wonders, TAG Heuer introduced quite a few new watches that focus on the brands future. But for the fans of the rich history of TAG Heuer, the brand releases the new Monaco Gulf Special Edition. Its the first time the brand has equipped the Monaco Gulf Edition with its in-house automatic Calibre Heuer 02. The integration of the famous orange and blue Gulf colors is also now more sophisticated than ever. These changes result in a timepiece that is a new, refreshing take on an iconic design of the past.Every time TAG Heuer releases a new version of its icons, the watch community pays great attention. Especially when its a special edition of the classic chronograph that pa...
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 Omega watches from the 1970s.In the 1960s, we witnessed developments that challenged the status quo of watch design forever. The sheer amount o...