Harry Belafonte is a hero to many, including Fratello reader Billy Denty. This is for good reason. A successful musician who sold more than 3,000,000 albums, he was also a man of immense social conscience. He led a remarkable life, and today, thanks to one Fratello reader, we get to see Belafonte s Wyler watch up close.You have probably heard of Harry Belafontes work, even if youre unfamiliar with his name. Born in 1927, Belafonte started his career in music as a club singer in New York to pay for his acting classes. Hed been inspired to take up acting when, working as a janitors assistant, he received two tickets to the American Negro Theatre. Belafonte fell in love with the art form of act...
Today, we re celebrating King s Day here in the Netherlands. It s actually our King s birthday tomorrow, but that s a Sunday, so the festivities take place today. A lot of people already started partying last night, during King s Night, and this morning, the flea markets opened up all around the country. But the most important way of celebrating is that cities, villages, pets, and people are all decked out in orange, our national color. That s why, today, we thought it was fitting to introduce you to Nomos s new limited-edition Metro Neomatik Orange models in collaboration with Ace Jewelers from Amsterdam.Ace Jewelers has collaborated with Nomos on numerous limited editions. Most of those ha...
Panerai moves quickly! After a busy Watches and Wonders 2025, there s already another new release. The Luminor GMT Power Reserve Ceramica was announced with the brand s official timekeeping role at the Salone del Mobile. This is Milan s Design Week, and the event is the world s largest furniture show.Furniture may sound like a funny connection to Panerai, but the brand sees itself as a practiced creator of functional design. Plus, with futuristic materials and innovation, the link makes sense. The fact that the Salone del Mobile takes place in Milan only bolsters the partnership. But enough about the trade fair - we re here to look at a specific new watch, the Luminor GMT Power Reserve Ceram...
Today, we ll go hands-on with the new Ianos Dytis, the final diver in a trilogy of watches from this independent brand. Because of its more compact size, the Dytis may prove to be the most popular yet. This doesn t take away from prior releases, but the trend toward smaller watches is clear.I remember seeing the first Ianos release, the Avyssos (Abyss), at Fratello HQ in 2019 shortly after its introduction. It was an impressive watch for several reasons. The unique design set a trend for the next piece, the Mihanikos, and today s subject, the Dytis. A sub-seconds register, which is uncommon for a diver, became a style hallmark as well as the strap channel on the case back. The Dytis is the l...
This year is full of watch brands celebrating all kinds of anniversaries, but if there s one with a milestone anniversary, it is Breguet. The house celebrates its 250th anniversary this year. Yesterday, the festivities began with the release of the new Breguet Classique Souscription 2025. It s a brilliant first step in a new direction under the leadership of recently appointed Breguet CEO Gregory Kissling, and we are curious to find out what else to expect from the brand. For now, we have selected our five favorite watches from its current collection to warm up for what will hopefully be a great year for Breguet.Before we get into our list, it ll be good to address how we selected our favori...
Welcome to another episode of Fratello On Air! This week, we discuss two popular complications and their usefulness. It s the type of nerdy talk we hope you enjoy!This podcast player is blocked because you did not accept marketing cookies. Change cookie settings Watch complications are a big part of why many of us collect timepieces. Dive watches, chronographs, alarms, and others form the cornerstone of some collections. Today, though, we focus on two types of watches that couldn t be any more different if they tried! The GMT and perpetual calendar genres were popular at Watches and Wonders 2025, so we discuss the utility of each.HandgelenkskontrolleBefore tackling two very different com...
It s nice to review a truly affordable watch like the Sternglas Hamburg Automatik every so often. After all, entry-level mechanical timepieces are great for daily wear and can provide a start for new collectors. Sternglas does these watches well and adds thoughtful details, including attractive dials with uncommon lume colors. Today, we ll look at the latest addition to the lineup, the Hamburg Automatik Edition Marine.With the introduction of the Marine, Sternglas now offers five versions of the Hamburg Automatik. Indeed, it s a popular model because of the color options and attractive pricing. Also, the brand makes ordering easy and offers a wide range of strap and bracelet choices. Let s e...
Abraham-Louis Breguet was probably the first watchmaker to launch a watch with the help of a Kickstarter campaign. Okay, well, not exactly, but in 1797, he made his 61mm Souscription pocket watch available for order with a 25% down payment. That way, the relatively simple watch with only one hand and a white enamel dial became more accessible to a larger audience, and Breguet could amass the funds to complete the project. Today, for the brand s 250th anniversary, Breguet CEO Gregory Kissling introduces the Breguet Classique Souscription 2025. This 40mm wristwatch in proprietary Breguet gold takes inspiration from the late-18th-century pocket watch in both its design and the hand-wound moveme...
Panerai has unveiled the new Submersible Chrono Marina Militare Experience Edition PAM01699. This tool-ish 47mm titanium watch is a limited edition of 35 pieces worldwide. However, as its name and $50K+ price suggest, the whole package includes much more than a heavy-duty timekeeper…The relationship between Panerai and the Italian Navy is a key part of the brand s history. Panerai says that the relationship began in the 1910s. It certainly heated up during the Second World War, when Italian frogmen used Panerai watches. This latest release, however, the Submersible Chrono Marina Militare Experience Edition PAM01699, is inspired by the Aviazione Navale, the Italian Navy s aviation branc...
About three weeks have passed since this year s Watches and Wonders, so it s time to reflect on some of the great introductions we saw during the fair. It s easiest to divide these into two groups. The first are the watches we admire from a distance, meaning they will likely never be part of our collections due to their prices. The second group is the watches we would consider adding to our collections. For me, the new Tudor Black Bay Pro with the opaline dial is at the top of that list. It s the one Tudor that stood out. But does it stand out for the right reasons? It s time for a little bit of soul searching on my end.Overall, I thought Tudor s releases this year were a reflection of the m...
The Montblanc 0 Oxygen series celebrates explorers and mountaineers. These robust watches often feature worldtimer functionality and a second 12-hour time display. Today s 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen Mount Vinson Limited Edition does too, but it also brings impressive dial-making techniques and advanced materials.With a name like Montblanc, it makes sense that the brand pays tribute to the brave explorers who summit the world s tallest and most challenging peaks. We ve reviewed several of these pieces in prior articles and always come away impressed with the details. Plus, the dial layout and functionality come across as unique - a nice attribute among a sea of similar-looking watches. The lates...
Christopher Ward s latest flagship pushes the envelope of design and mechanics. Put simply, this is a big deal for the brand and the industry as a whole. The C12 Loco proves that higher-end watchmaking can be found at a more accessible price point. I spent a week with the new C12 Loco in its striking white-dial, white-rubber config to see if this most ambitious iteration lives up to the hype.The Twelve grows upThe C12 Loco represents a confident evolution of Christopher Ward s Twelve design. At first glance, the changes in the case architecture are subtle but significant. Notably, the crown guards are gone, giving the mid-case a cleaner, uninterrupted profile. It s a sleek move that lets you...
Studio Underd0g continues to defy conventions with two new colorful additions to its 01Series chronograph range. The Av0cado and Guacam0le continue the playful mantra of Studio Underd0g by infusing color combinations to invoke various types of food. Adding these two style options may seem a bit old hat for Studio Underd0g since it has evolved beyond this original concept into bigger things like the 02Series and various collaborations. However, the reason makes a big statement about copycats and, in the brand s words, plays an Uno reverse card on its imitators.It s fair to say the watch industry is a magnet for counterfeit products. Commonly hailing from the Far East, replica watches exist pu...
Last year, for the brand s 50th anniversary, Christiaan van der Klaauw introduced the Grand Planetarium Eccentric. It was a 44mm watch in platinum or rose gold with eight hand-painted celestial bodies circling its aventurine dial. That already sounds quite impressive, right? Well, when I met Pim Koeslag, CEO of the Dutch brand, at Watches and Wonders in Geneva a few weeks ago, he showed me a new version of it, this time with a case crafted from a 1.09kg block of meteorite. I was immediately blown away by the result and had to share my admiration for it with the Fratelli.Luckily, on my way to the Christiaan van der Klaauw booth, I ran into Morgan Saignes, Fratello s former photographer. I ask...
Last November, Awake changed course when it debuted the new S?n Mi collection. Previously, the brand frequently focused on space-themed watches. While these had unique designs, the S?n Mi pieces were more serious with gilded silver leaf Metiers d Art dials. One key point came after meeting with founder Lilian Thibault during the launch - more colors and variants were coming. The new Jurassic Watch duo terrifyingly proves this!While the initial S?n Mi releases exemplified a step forward in?Awake s maturity, the new Jurassic Watch pieces show that fun is still a core part of the brand. As the name suggests, the inspiration for these watches comes from the 1993 blockbuster hit film Jurassic ...
Visiting Greubel Forsey is unlike stepping into most watch ateliers. Tucked away in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the brand has always carried an aura of mystery, spoken about with reverence among collectors but less visible in mainstream luxury circles. That is partly by design.When I sat down with Michel Nyddegger, the brands recently appointed CEO, it became clear that exclusivity is more than a positioning strategy. It is a philosophy woven into every detail of how Greubel Forsey operates.?Nyddegger carried himself with a calm but direct confidence, the kind you expect from someone entrusted with one of the most uncompromising names in modern watchmaking. He made it clear right away that his leader...
Chopard had another great showing at Watches and Wonders this year. The brand garnered much?praise with the new L.U.C Quattro Mark IV series. It s another brilliant addition to Chopard s lineup that will draw in excited buyers for the two new models as well as spark many enthusiasts to explore the past L.U.C Quattro collections. This year s edition of Watches and Wonders was all about the Alpine Eagle for me. The brand s modern sports watch has come into its own with three releases that show its incredible versatility and growth. It has quickly gone from one of the many options in the category to a favorite of mine. Let me elaborate on how two releases perfectly embody that.When Chopard firs...
My favorite guilty-pleasure brand is, without a shadow of a doubt, Hublot. The colorful ceramic models, in particular, have the X factor. Guess what: the quintet of Hublot Big Bang 20th Anniversary watches is made in different materials, one of which is bright red ceramic. The other four are titanium, King Gold, Magic Gold, and black ceramic. I went hands-on with the outspoken watches. On paper, the Red Magic firecracker was my favorite of the lot. Read on to find out if it still was after my hands-on experience with all five limited editions.You cant let two decades of Big Bang watches go unnoticed. Doing so wouldnt be in the spirit of the watch or the brand. Thats why the five-watch-strong...
Wristwatches seem as culturally relevant as ever, even if the market is declining. Like any expression of personality, taste, and style, the wristwatch is under the influence of trends. For the longest time, it was pretty clear what the prevailing trend of the moment was. Today, however, I would like to argue that anything goes. And thats a great thing!Can we declare the end of the trend era in watches? Maybe not, but let me try nonetheless.When the trend was clearLooking back at the past couple of decades, watch trends are pretty easy to spot. We have seen the sports-watch hype and the following trend for watches with integrated bracelets. There was also a clear vintage-inspired era, when e...
The 1990s were a period of significant change in the watch industry. Those years were very much a time of realignment and ongoing recovery after the crippling Quartz Crisis two decades earlier. Today, we re looking at 1990s watches and design principles from that era to consider whether they could inspire the next trends in the watch industry.Is it just me, or do the 90s not seem like all that long ago? It s crazy to think that they were between 26 and 35 years ago now! So you could indeed say a fair bit of time has passed since then. Over the years, tastes have changed considerably. One need only look at the design of the cars, the fashion, and, of course, the watches to realize this. Over...
