A Grand Seiko is still quite uncommon in this part of the world. A pity actually, as they have wonderful timepieces in their collection that can easily compete with some Swiss and German counterparts. Although I am not particularly a fan of quartz watches, with a few exceptions, I was offered to have a go with this Grand Seiko SBGV009 that has a quartz (caliber 9F82) movement.I asked Seiko how come they had a couple of these Grand Seiko quartz models in stock for our market and they told us it is because they had quite a bit of demand for them. Now I understand that my opinion does not reflect everyone s opinion and that there might be a gap between what you and I think are the most interest...

Today we have an Omega Speedmaster for you in store that we haven t covered here before. Although the reference number does not give it away, it is a Speedmaster with a blue dial. Very difficult to capture on photo, as the lightning conditions inside made it difficult to capture the blue dial.Blue dial Omega Speedmaster ProfessionalIn 1968, two Omega Speedmaster models co-existed: the reference 145.012 and its successor, the 145.022. In this year, the Omega Speedmaster Professional received a new Lemania based movement and the dial and hands changed as well.It was of course still a year before Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong would set a foot on the Moon, so the case backs had the Seahorse log...

When I was in Munich a few months ago, I ve met with Roy Davidoff. We were both visiting a watch event there, and he told me about his boutique in Geneva. The Davidoff Brothers boutique is located in the city of Geneva, just a small walk from the famous Rue du Rh?ne with all its brand boutiques and famous shops. Actually, the Davidoff Brothers boutique is just across the street of the MB&F M.A.D. Gallery.The Davidoff Brothers focus on vintage watches only, made between the 1940s and the 1980s. As the name of the boutiques already implies, the two owners are brothers Roy and Sacha Davidoff. Both infected with the watch virus from a young age and with a professional career in the watch ind...

In our on-going quest for affordable mechanical watches I stumbled upon Oris. Oris is a brand that only produces mechanical watches, there is not a single quartz watch in their catalog. Besides that, it is an independent brand that has produced watches from this little Swiss village called H?lstein since 1904. Their key to success is perhaps best captured in their slogan real watches for real people, something that we – here on Fratello Watches – certainly try to promote as well. Although there is still a lot of fun in writing about high-end complex pieces as well of course, but at the end of the day, most of our readers – and you can include us into this category as well &...

Today we talk about my passion for the Seiko 6159-7010 Grandfather Tuna and its modern interpretation, the Seiko Emperor Tuna.Seiko 6159-7010So there I was, fighting inescapable jet lag while meandering the halls of the surreal world that is Nakano Broadway. If youve never been to Nakano, its a haven for the otaku who collect anything (and everything) related to the Japanese world of comic books and their manga characters. So why was I in this people-watching mecca and why are you reading about it on a site devoted to watches? Nakano Broadway houses several pre-owned watch shops including the well-known and worthwhile Jack Road. It is also home to many shops selling consignment items that co...

On the 14th of December 1934, exactly 80 years ago today, watch manufacturer Lebois & Co was founded by Raymond Dodane. This French entrepreneur and watch manufacturer was the third generation of the famous Dodane family, who are best known for their watches using the family name on the dial.Although Lebois & Co was sold to an Italian import company in 1947, the watches were?still being produced and sold (mainly to Italy). The watches were?made in the Dodane factory as well as a number of?Swiss watch manufacturers.In 1972 Lebois & Co ceased the production and distribution of watches and the name disappeared from the watch industry landscape for a long time. Some collectors of vin...

I remember that in the 1990s, parents of my friends and even some of their grand parents at that time, were wearing Rado watches. The shiny black ceramic timepieces that looked stylish – a bit B&O style – and were impossible to get scratched. Most of them were quartz watches though, so I quickly lost interest in them as I merely saw them more or less as a lifestyle or ‘design product.Now to be honest, Rado has not been on our radar for a while, except during BaselWorld 2013 when we took the orange Rado HyperChrome Court Collection watch for our Last Queen s Day article. This Rado HyperChrome Court Collection combines the typical Rado style of ceramic cases (and bracele...

Yesterday I joined the press conference in the Cite du Temps in Geneva about the new watch certification based on new quality standards for the Swiss watch making industry. This news was communicated by Omega and METAS (Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology), more specifically by Nick Hayek of the Swatch Group, Stephen Urquhart, Andreas Hobmeier?and?Raynald Aeschlimann of Omega and Christian Bock of METAS.After I received the invitation I quickly googled what METAS was about and it appeared to me that something was coming regarding certification. However, I could not foresee what it exactly would mean as they do measurements and tests in all kind of areas. So I was happily surprised yesterday...

Here on Speedy Tuesday we like to cover vintage Speedmaster watches as well as modern models. A question we often receive though, is which current models we think will be the classics of tomorrow. By modern, we mean the models that can be bought new today.Models like the Omega Speedmaster Pro Snoopy Award (2003) and Apollo XIII (1995), the panda dialed Mitsukoshi (2003) and Apollo 11 35th Anniversary (2004), there are still relatively modern and became very sought after. Not from the start I have to say. Some of these models were in the shops for a long time at the time they were introduced and now that the stock has dried up for a couple of years already, the original buyers will easily get...

Armin Strom does not only master the art of skeletonizing watches, they also know how to keep them still fresh and wearable. With the the?Skeleton Pure Collection, Armin Strom seems to be aiming at a young audience. A young audience that respects the craftsmanship of skeletonizing movements, but also who enjoys a modern sports-type watch with quite some presence on the wrist.During our recent trip to the SalonQP event in London, we had the chance to see the new Armin Strom Skeleton Pure watches.Armin Strom Skeleton PureThe Armin Strom Skeleton Pure Collection consists of the Earth, Water, Fire and Air models, each limited to 100 pieces only. They all have different case materials, but based ...

It has been a while ago that we covered Breguet here on Fratello Watches (in this article by Ming Thein on the Breguet La Tradition). There is no specific reason about the non-coverage, except that the brand wasn t really on my radar. The brand always appeared to me as very classic – with the exception of the Marine and Type XX/XXI collections – and very expensive. Although Breguet didn t change much, perhaps my taste for watches did.Just recently, I ve started to warm up to Breguet s classic round fluted cases and hand guilloche dials. It is probably because my collection consists – with just a few exceptions – of sporty watches. For formal occasions or ‘just b...

For those people who are not that familiar with the Omega Speedmaster limited edition models, it might seem that there are just LOTS of them without any logical structure. It does need a bit of attention to discover how it exactly works with these limited editions, but for the Apollo XI example, it is quite simple.Since its 20th anniversary in 1989, there is a commemorative Omega Speedmaster Professional Apollo XI edition every 5 years. However, the first commemorative Apollo XI model is from 1969, in stainless steel and in gold (the BA 145.022 we talked about here). In 1979 Omega introduced the 10th anniversary Apollo XI model but didn t deliver it to the (partly German) market until 1980 (...

Last week Bert Buijsrogge and I visited the assembly line of the much talked-about Omega Caliber 9300 movement. This in-house developed movement was introduced during BaselWorld 2011 in the Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean Chronograph as well as in the Omega Speedmaster Co-Axial Caliber 9300.Ever since 2007, Omega is focusing on their in-house developed Co-Axial movements and started by equipping the De Ville and Seamaster models with their caliber 8500. Starting in 1999 already, Omega started using the Co-Axial escapement in movement as such, but (mainly) based on existing ETA movements.For?this in-house column wheel chronograph caliber 9300 movement with Co-Axial escapement, Omega?made huge in...

Just before we left for the SalonQP in London we took the opportunity to join this Seiko event co-hosted with a Dutch magazine called Watching. The Seiko event was held to introduce the Seiko Prospex and Seiko Astron models to the Dutch market.Although these collections are certainly not new, you have to understand that Seiko does not distribute the same models to all countries in the World. The Seiko boutique in Amsterdam carries the regular Seiko collection as well as some models from the Grand Seiko collection. However, the Seiko Prospex models so far were so-called import-models and only available in a limited way.During the evening, the different Seiko models from the Prospex and Astron...

When watch lovers look at the Omega Geneve collection most of them think about the lower valued so called entry-level vintage Omegas. It is wide known among Omega collectors that back in the day when Omega introduced the Geneve collection it was meant to be one of the flagship lines of the brand though. By the mid- to late 1960s Omega shifted their attention.The Speedmaster collection was very successful (and we all know why). The Seamaster collection with its diver watches was also doing great and with the introduction of a few new Seamaster chronographs the brand was getting to a wider audience than ever before. Older collections like the Omega Geneve was re-positioned and put in the marke...

It s early Thursday morning and my alarm clock goes off. This is not something that happens a lot on weekdays, there must be something special going on. My agenda tells me I have to be at Schiphol Airport in two hours.After working my way through a rainy rush hour, I arrive at KLM Jet Center. This place looks like a remote business area, not what you d be expecting when you are travelling to Switzerland. Shortly after I find myself in a lounge, overlooking a large terrain with several jets.It is here that I meet my fellow travellers for today, and hardly 15 minutes later we take off in the Cartier Jet, heading towards the Cartier Manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds.Cartier Manufacture VisitShor...

Are you looking to buy an Omega Speedmaster but don t know where to start? We re here to help! Over the past 65+ years, Omega has created many variations of one of the world s most famous chronographs. The classic 42mm Moonwatch has been in the collection since 1965, and to the novice eye, little has changed since then. But if you look a bit closer, you will find that the Speedmaster evolved quite a bit in the decades that followed.In this Speedmaster guide, we ll give you an overview of the most important references of the Speedmaster (Professional) and some of its variations. Although this article isn t meant as a pricing guide, we will give some hints, of course. If you re already a knowl...

We recently introduced you to the Linde Werdelin Oktopus BluMoon watch with a photo realistic moon phases disc. This Oktopus BluMoon, made of grade 5 titanium, is limited to 59 pieces only. Recently, when we were visiting London, we had the opportunity to see and try the Linde Werdelin Oktopus BluMoon in the flesh.Linde Werdelin Oktopus BluMoonOne of the first things that I noticed about the Oktopus BluMoon was the color of the case. Although I ve seen polished and brushed grade 5 titanium more often, the polished parts had this white-ish look. I don t know how they managed in getting it in that particular tone, but it might have something to do with the level of polishing or perhaps the com...

We love our watches, theres no doubt about that. Thats why youre here, right? There are all those other things surrounding them though; watch winders, watch rolls, tools perhaps but most importantly straps. No decent watch site can function without a strap review. That was in my head when I came up with this idea and presented it to the team.Nevertheless we gave it a twist. We would like to introduce some of the lesser known craftsmen to the wider audience. People whose work we find interesting or out of the ordinary. Who C most of the time C hand make their products at home, educate themselves and improve their technique so when their product reaches you and you put it on your timepiece you...

Besides the launch of new watch models, no less than four new watch brand launches could be found at this years SalonQP in London. For Fratellowatches Emmanuel Bouchet was the most intriguing with the?official launch of the brand and their first watch, the?Emmanuel Bouchet Complication One.Emmanuel Bouchet Complication OneFrenchman Emmanuel Bouchet, who held various positions at the most prestigious watch manufactures and who is well known for creating Harry Winston s Opus 12, chose SalonQP to officially launch his own brand and first watch model, the Emmanuel Bouchet Complication One.A blend of architecture, technical sophistication, fine craftsmanship and an avant-garde vision on time desc...