There s no question that the Omega Swatch Speedmaster MoonSwatch has become an international phenomenon. Some of us (this guy included) naively thought that these 11 watches just might fly under the radar. OK, well, maybe not everywhere. But at least you d be able to buy them in SOME cities… right? Wrong! The hype certainly exceeded at least MY expectations. It seemed like everyone and their moms wanted to buy this colorful collab! Unfortunately, buying a MoonSwatch now is easier said than done, and that has left a foul taste in many watch lovers mouths. Those who thought the colorful MoonSwatch might be perfect for summer sadly may not even have a chance to get one by fall. That s ...
It s our pleasure to present our video interview with Omega CEO and President Raynald Aeschlimann. He talks to Fratello about his all-time favorite Speedmaster watch, as well as his first Speedmaster ever. And yes, of course, we ask him about the MoonSwatch.I remember meeting Raynald Aeschlimann for the first time during a golf event in Switzerland in 2014. At the time, he was Omega s Vice President of Sales (worldwide). We spoke briefly, and he made a remark about Speedy Tuesday. I can t remember the exact wording, but from what he said, it was clear that he liked the initiative. The fact that he even knew about it caught me by surprise, as Speedy Tuesday had just started two years prior.He...
Recently, we started holding our Speedy Tuesday events again, the first of which took place in Biel, Switzerland. Today, we re announcing our next Speedy Tuesday event and opening up the registration to you. This event will take place on July 5th in the wonderful city of Milan, Italy.The Omega Speedmaster and Italy have a special relationship that goes way back. Did you know that the first Speedmaster limited edition was made for the Italian market? We re talking about the Speedmaster Apollo-Soyuz from 1976 that commemorated the mission of 1975.Later on, more specials for the Italian market followed. The most famous perhaps - besides the Apollo-Soyuz - was the Albino from 1997, which commemo...
Fratello On Air is back with another brand-focused episode. This time, Balazs and Mike focus on Bulova. Finding six favorites from this legendary brand was a real task, but we ve pulled out some winners. We hope you enjoy it! This podcast player is blocked because you did not accept marketing cookies. Change cookie settings Bulova, the brand founded in New York in 1875, is on the hot seat. We do our best to find six attractive models to help paint a picture of how varied this brand was during its heyday and even after the quartz crisis. Expect the unexpected - especially when it comes to Balazs s picks!Handgelenks KontrolleBefore getting to Bulova, we take care of our Handgelenks Kontrol...
The Louvre is probably the most famous museum in the world. Vacheron Constantin has been a partner of the Parisian museum since 2019, and after an intense collaboration with its curators and historians, the brand now releases four very artistic Metiers d Art timepieces. The starting point of the watches are symbols of four different eras. These artistic masterpieces are at the center of an exceptional watchmaking show staged by skilled craft makers. The Louvre and Vacheron Constantin reinterpreted iconic symbols from Ancient Egypt (2035-1680 BC), the Persian Empire of the Achaemenids (559 C 330 BC), the Hellenistic Greece of the Antigonid dynasty (277 C 168 BC), and the Roman Empire of the J...
If I actually kept track of my most-worn watch this year, Im sure my red all-metal G-Shock would come out on top. Thanks to its unfeasibly comfy single-link bracelet, it sits softly on my wrist despite a bulky case and long-ish lug-to-lug. To be truthful, I might even be particularly close to my G-Shock as I m one of the oldest editors here. Im not saying how old, but I remember the first time digital displays were cool. With a return to form in 2022, the best brands want us to go #DIGITAL, and there are plenty of cool reasons.As a kid, the last thing on my mind was whether or not a movement was mechanical, how many jewels it had, or something called power reserve. Today, #DIGITAL cool comes...
There is no shortage of brand collaborations in the watch world. Their attractiveness usually hangs on your personal relationship with both brands. I can certainly see how this new Bvlgari Ducati Aluminium Chronograph will resonate with aficionados of watches and motorcycles. These are two passions that go together like peanut butter and jelly, or prosciutto and Parmigiano, if you prefer.?The Bvlgari AluminiumBvlgari introduced the Aluminium range in 1998. It is a thoroughly original 90s design that has aged very well. Sure, the prominent logos on the rubber bezel divide opinions. However, there is no denying that the watch has a distinct visual identity and numerous characteristic design...
Seiko divers- Unmistakable, ubiquitous, legendary. Since the Japanese brand released its very first diver in 1965 - the famous 62MAS - it has not fallen short of coming up with new collections that have been revised and then re-interpreted. Amongst the upgrades, one will find better construction, brighter and longer-lasting lume, and upgraded movements, while the styling of the watches remains more or less the same. That is true with the Prospex line, however, in the past few months, all of the divers got a full black-ops treatment with the three new models in the Prospex The Black Series.This series is not new, as Thomas Stover wrote about when the brand introduced three models this year. B...
Chances are that if youre above the age of 40, when you think of , you think of a five-digit reference. These watches were made for an astonishingly long period from the late 70s into the early 2010s. Today, well talk about a slice of this timeframe with a focus on steel sports models from the 90s into the 2000s.By the 90s (and probably earlier), one could argue that no one really needed the functionality found on a sports model. Thats not to say that something like a GMT complication wasnt useable. Still, these were already modern times and instruments such as dive computers were already replacing the mechanical dive watch. For , this meant a move to selling the idea of something as a too...
For Fratelli living in the proximity of London or traveling there today or tomorrow, this episode of Coffee Corner Watch Talk contains an urgent message. Let me start with that. The inaugural display of The OAK Collection - a spectacular, one-of-a-kind collection that reflects French businessman Patrick Getreides 40-year horological passion - will only be shown at the Design Museum until Wednesday, May 25th before it goes on a world tour. Now, for something less pressing, I have an announcement about a free app called Regulateur. It s a handy tool that will make life so much easier if you have trouble setting your watches and complications. And for those who have been dying for a mystery/adv...
Its not exactly a secret that round watches are an easier sell than their square counterparts. If you ask around industry experts, youll often hear the 10% rule thrown about, suggesting that nine out of every ten watches is round. But that doesnt mean the remaining 10% comprises naught but squares! No, the humble square watch has all kinds of creative shapes to fight against for your attention. Tonneau cases, rectangular cases, ovals, rhomboids, shields, and all kinds of gons. When it comes to true square watches in the modern industry, however, there is one that always leaps to my mind first. I am (obviously) talking about the NOMOS Glashtte Tetra, one of the four models that have been eve...
Hamilton has a rich legacy in American watchmaking, and not just for railroad and aviation watches. The company created the Canteen watch worn by U.S. Navy frogmen (the predecessors of the Navy SEALs) during World War II. The commercial version of this watch debuted in 1951 and was simultaneously immortalized through its prominent feature in the movie The Frogmen. Fast forward 70 years and Hamilton has now given the Frogman watch a complete overhaul. The result is the latest-generation Khaki Navy Frogman Automatic featuring a modern engine and a contemporary look.In a market filled with vintage-inspired dive watches, this is a bold and refreshing move. Hamilton could have capitalized on its ...
Would you believe that a new Rado Over-Pole has been a long time coming? Well get to that in a moment, but thankfully the watch is here. How did Rado do with this newest throwback release?Call it a premonition, but it was over two years ago that some folks from Rado reached out to ask about my vintage Over-Pole. To be honest, it was an out-of-the-blue message because my #TBT article was more than a year old. Furthermore, it was strange because the Over-Pole was - how shall I say it? - a nearly unknown watch. In that article, though, I did mention that making a new Over-Pole would be a relatively low hurdle for Rado because it was basically a carbon copy of the Captain Cook diver with a few s...
The Dynamic might not be the first watch that comes to mind when asking for a re-edition. As a matter of fact, it might not even be a watch to most, except for maybe the vintage guys. And even some of THEM raise an eyebrow when I sport my beloved Dynamic. Yet, this watch has so much character, it s incredible. I m fairly sure Omega will never bring back the Dynamic, but one can dream.To be clear, when I say Dynamic, I do not mean the models from the 90s. Rather, I m talking about the oval, funky, two-tone models with the quirky strap system. They re fun, cheap, and wear fantastically!A page from a vintage Omega catalog - Photo credit: www.old-omegas.comDesign iconWhile the Omega Dynamic cam...
Welcome, one and all, to this week s Sunday Morning Showdown! In this series, we take two watches that share some key features, or that at least exist in the same conceptual ballpark, and pit them against each other. This week, we have a fantastic showdown for you all. Two divers, both of which feature exotic materials for their cases, go head to head and battle it out for the win. Its also my (Nacho s) very first time stepping into the Sunday Morning Showdown arena. And who better to go up against than the old war dog that is our very own Balazs Ferenczi? But will this be like the tale of David and Goliath? Or will the more experienced fighter proceed to a masterful takedown? In the end, it...
Last autumn, I was the Fratello correspondent at the Oslo Watch Fair and spent some time in the Blancpain booth. There, I tried on the last edition of the intensely blue Blancpain Air Command in titanium and fell for its charms. But I did so despite its 42.5mm case, which, even with the lightness of titanium, was still rather large. This has all changed with the new Blancpain Air Command 36.2mm.It is as if Blancpain read my mind, but why would I say that? Well, the top story last week on Fratello was my yarn on the 36mm IWC quartz-powered 3741. This got masses of comments from the Fratelli (thanks!), and it almost seems like our collective message of small-cased love reached Blancpain. The b...
Last week, I wrote an article about when and how I would engrave one of my own watches. Well, not engrave it myself, of course, but you get the idea. At what moments in my life would I let a skilled person engrave something on one of my case backs? I considered some plausible occasions, but we also asked you, dear Fratelli, to send us examples of your engraved case backs. So here I am again with an overview of occasions and some nice examples of case back engraving from our own community.It might have been our own poor explanation of what we were looking for or the fact that we used examples of famous vintage engraved case backs. Either way, we received a lot of entries of case backs that we...
Theres a chance that this subtitle raises a couple of questions about the Dietrich SD-2 Skin Diver. But before I explain exactly what an amphibian field watch is, let me first come clean. The confession I want to offer is that I only just found out this detail about the watch. You see, I find it more interesting to wear the watch first and read the press release later. This allows me to get an honest first impression of a watch and helps me better approach how I feel about it. Sometimes reading the press release is an experience full of disappointment and contradiction. Other times, it confirms exactly what you might imagine about the watch. With the launch of this latest Dietrich, I experie...
In 1904, Louis Cartier made the first-ever pilots watch for his pioneering aviator friend from Brazil, Alberto Santos-Dumont. It was a stylish tool watch that went up in the sky and became a universal classic. In 1983, the Casio G-Shock Square broke onto the scene. The watch was the vision of Kikuo Ibe, the Japanese Casio engineer who threw prototype watches from the building he was working in… Not out of anger, but because he wanted to create an unbreakable watch. It took over 200 prototypes to reach his goal, but eventually the robust, colorful, and affordable G-Shock became a pop-culture phenomenon. In 2022, the Cartier Santos and the Casio G-Shock Square are not what they used to b...
Going hands-on with the green-dialed Patek Philippe 5270P-014 perpetual calendar chronograph is like going to see the Berliner Philharmoniker expecting them to play a Beethoven symphony, but hearing the orchestra perform deep house instead. The 5270P of 2022 has come a long way since the classic grand-complication model debuted in 2011. The radiant green lacquered dial with its black-gradient rim is the most eye-catching new element. But there are more subtle changes at hand. Lets have a closer look.Since 2011 when the 5270 debuted, a couple of versions have followed. It all started with a white gold model with a brushed silver dial, and in the current collection, theres both a yellow gold a...
