This is largely going to be a visual exercise. What youre about to see is three Fratelli - Sofia, Nacho, and Jorg - trying on a wide range of watches. Nothing new so far, I agree. But what they will be doing is wearing very differently sized watches, ranging from the elegant Cartier Tank Solo to the beast-like Omega Seamaster Ploprof to see and feel what fits and what doesnt. We are trying to settle a watch/wrist size dilemma - is there such a thing as a watch that s too big or too small? Since this is no exact science, there is and will be plenty of room for debate.Whether something is too big or too small in the case of a watch is always - and I repeat, always - a matter of personal prefer...

The patina comeback kid bounces back into the spotlight, trending again after a few quiet years. Bronze is cool, but I dont think we can stress this enough: not all bronze is exactly the same. The entire point of bronze is the fact that it is the only watch case material that becomes a part of you. And I dont mean the green wrist-circle you got from that huge 45mm crusty green bronze diver back in 2014. The Oris Big Crown Pointer Date Bronze is a sleeker and more elegant twist on the golden-tinged alloy, and it now comes on the brand s most comfortable bracelet.Bronze does develop a patina, just like a Submariner from the 60s. Born when it was an actual tool, it all but loses its resale va...

Hi and hello dear watch lovers. After a few weeks of pondering, I have finally made my decision as to which one of you should receive the totally unique Dekla Flieger pictured in this and the previous article. Warning: get your smart trousers before you read this article as some of the Fratelli s answers were brain-boggling, to say the least…As usual, I picked my favorite responses to share with you. I hope you enjoy the top six as I saw it, and please feel free to continue the conversation in the comments section below. Check out the initial article here and don t forget to visit the official Dekla website here, where you can design your own vision of pilot perfection…CAPTBRANDO...

When a brand states that it is independent, its challenging for buyers to make a distinction. To the end consumer, a nice watch is a nice watch. Whether it s financed by an umbrella corporation or benefactor, to us, a timepiece is a product of design and watchmaking. However, when it comes to Oris, the independent nature of the brand seeps through to the fresh, innovative, and occasionally bonkers watch concepts. Todays release combines those three sentiments - the Oris Aquis Sun Wukong Artist Edition. I delve into what makes this new Sun Wukong limited edition such a left-field curveball from the team in H?lstein.I always get excited whenever Oris brings out a new Aquis limited edition. For...

TAG Heuer dives into 2022 with a lite version of the recently introduced 43mm Aquaracer Professional 300. The Aquaracer Professional 200 is ready for the life aquatic in any of its myriad and sundry forms. You can go swimming with it in the pond behind your house, the pool, the lake, or the sea. And it also will hold its ground while ice-climbing - ice is frozen H2O after all - and in an urban setting too. A refreshing dive in the city-square fountain, perhaps? Anyway, TAG Heuer presents us with sporty watches that come with black or blue dials and in two sizes - a petite and elegant 30mm and a perfectly conservative 40mm.You would think that Jack Heuer spent all of his time trackside. But a...

Exotic materials - titanium, ceramic, and carbon. What do we think of them for our watches? Tune in to the latest episode of Fratello On Air to find out what Balazs and Mike have to say.What happens when two vintage watch lovers come together to discuss exotic materials? Well, we had to open our minds and consider alternatives to our beloved stainless steel. In the first of a two-part series, we talk about materials that find their way to watch cases. Titanium, ceramic, and carbon are in play, and while they aren t our favorites, we come up with some suggested models.Getting into exotic materialsAs always, we begin with the Handgelenks Kontrolle. Balazs is rocking his vintage Heuer Montreal ...

Whether we re talking about Seiko or Grand Seiko, both have been on a weekly tear regarding new releases. Each week, we seem to get something. This week, it s time for something different, though, with the all-new King Seiko Collection. These watches answer a lot of asks for the purists out there with only a few questions left remaining. Let s have a look.We ve watched Seiko tap into its back catalog with serious regularity over the past four or five years. In general, I m a fan. Yes, I d like to continue to see a healthy mix of new designs, but I still enjoy the occasional nod to the past. With today s new King Seiko Collection, the watches take us back an incredible 57(!!) years, yet the p...

Some watches are just more memorable than others. The brand puts them onto the market, creating a massive buzz for some reason. So far, so good. Then, after the initial reactions, they stay in the public consciousness and never leave. When Hamilton released the Khaki Field Mechanical, this is precisely what happened. To say that it received critical acclaim from the media would be an understatement. The Khaki Field was praised by almost every media outlet that featured it. It was only logical for Hamilton to strike while the iron was hot. Many newer, different variations of the Khaki Field Mechanical have come, but none have had more impact than the bronze version.I felt it was logical to co...

Sometimes I feel slightly schizophrenic, probably a normal feeling for a horological obsessive. Some days, I feel like only wearing patterned, bright-colored socks (well, thats every day) with a searingly yellow Doxa. On other days, I hanker after the crisp monochrome, graphic panache of a matte black dial. Tool-zen, if you like. This story is my take on the best German monochrome watch design. There s an emphasis on functionality and tool watches, no matter how used-up that term might seem in 2022.To be fair, here at Fratello Watches, the Speedmaster is the king of monochrome. But this is about Germany s best. There is a reason we associate pilots watches with Germany, whether it be Sinn, L...

The story of the Royal Oak didn t start in 1972. Rather, it began two years before, right before the Basel watch exhibition of 1970. At the time Audemars Piguet produced about 6,000 watches per year. They were mainly small dress watches, some jewelry pieces, some extraordinary watches with complications, and of course, a lot of extra-thin watches. At the time, Audemars Piguet had around 70 employees.But the future of the brand was about to change, and in ways that few back then would have probably thought possible. The Royal Oak would alter AP s destiny forever, becoming an icon in the truest sense of the overused word. This year, the Royal Oak turns 50 years old, so I d like to take you bac...

Whenever Hublot announces new additions to its extensive collection, the first expectations are that we will have some extravagant timepieces. I can say that this year, the Nyon brand yet again does not disappoint in bringing some colorful timepieces. But the main eyecatcher for 2022 is the unexpected but completely logical Hublot Big Bang Integral Time Only in 40mm. This new release could become a very popular one for the brand. Next to that, Hublot also introduces the impressive Yellow Gold Collection and three new Sang Bleu II timepieces. Time to find out more.Hublot doesn t shy away from shocking us with its new releases. Over the years, the brand has proven that creating timepieces with...

Happy Monday to you, Fratelli, and what a Monday it is! Today is the start of LVMH Watch Week, and that means we ll see a plethora of new watch releases. The group s watch brands - TAG Heuer, Hublot, Bvlgari, and Zenith - all have a bunch of new stuff up their sleeves. So allow Jorg and I to kick the week off with a few of the first new watches that caught our attention. In Jorg s article, he ll be showing you some highlights from Hublot, while I ll be introducing the new Zenith Defy Skyline.Last week, Daan de Groot made his editorial debut on Fratello, writing about the new Zenith Defy Revival A3642. It s a near-spitting image of the first Defy wristwatch that Zenith released back in 1969. ...

Watchmaking doesn t have its own version of The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but it should. Who do you think would find their names added to the annals of watchmaking legend if it did? I bet not too many of you named the watchmaking sensation that is the one and only Svend Andersen. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Andersen last year at his atelier in Geneva, and today, I finally get to go hands-on with the Andersen Geneve Celestial Voyager Sunset Over Cappadocia, a reverie in wristwatch form.Svend Andersen launched his workshop in the late 1970s after spending nine years working at Patek Philippe. Over the years, he welcomed and trained high-end watchmakers such as Franck Muller and Felix...

New and improved. I ll bet you ve heard that before. How often is it just sales speak for new and not really much different at all but we d like your money, please, thank you very much? Often, I d say. Here though, in regards to the new and improved Forstner Flat Link, I can guarantee you it is both of those things in spades. And, thanks to that, it elevates the Flat Link to the cusp of my top three Forstner bracelets of all time.Well, in reality, it cracks the top three on the available list. The as-yet-unreleased Bullet bracelet might muscle it off the third step if it had debuted already but, as yet, it is only available on Forstner‘s first watch, the A-12. The differences between t...

Every watch enthusiast can think of a great discontinued timepiece that should return to the spotlight in a more modern version. At the Fratello offices, we are no different. It inspired us to come up with a series about watches that the Fratello editors would like to see make a comeback. Some of the watches are iconic, some of them are less popular. But all of them are loved by at least one of our editors. Lets look at some of our favorites in this series. This time, its Tomas who wants the 1960s Breitling SuperOcean ref. 2005 redone.In Fratello team discussions, we regularly dive deep into the archives of a brand to talk about some of the watches from the past that we love. As a result, th...

Let s face it: most of us are never going to own a Patek Philippe. Most of us will never own an Hublot. If we re being realistic, most of us watch aficionados may never even own a either. I m here to tell you that s okay. Really. It may, in fact, be good. We shouldn t strive to own everything we appreciate, and we should be mindful of what is lost in attaining these luxury and hyper-luxury watches.The hype machine is in full force. I blame Instagram. I blame YouTube. And I blame publications like us at Fratello and the rest. But really I blame us, the public, the consuming watch market. We re adrift in a perfect storm of ingrained FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) blended with algorithm-driven env...

The Dutch have a reputation for being cheap. The English expression going Dutch doesnt help curtail that reputation. And neither does the joke, Who invented copper wire? Two Dutchmen fighting for a penny. Its also true that we - I am Dutch, I cant help that - pride ourselves on our sparing ways. A recent study revealed that the thrifty Dutch spend significantly less than any other European nation on holiday gifts and celebrations. Germans spent the most, Dutch the least. So trying and explain to a Dutchie when and why paying over retail for a watch makes sense seems to be a task of biblical proportions. But if I succeed in that, the rest of the world automatically also gets it, and thats why...

In recent years weve seen a number of brands make a post-quartz-crisis comeback. Le Jour is one such brand. If youre a fan of vintage watches, you may already be familiar with some of its offerings from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Whether its cool racing chronographs or dive watches, the brand has done it all. Le Jours recent comeback has seen the brand working hard to build a varied catalog of vintage-inspired timepieces with an exciting modern twist. One of the latest releases, the Seacolt dive watch, does just that. With plenty of old-school charm, its a modern feature-packed watch, which offers a ton of value for the price. But how do these watches hold up in todays ultra-competitive watch...

We like to talk about vintage watches a lot within the Fratello team. Though most of what we write about is largely focused on the most recent releases and developments, for many of us, a lot of the fun can be found in the sometimes weird and often wonderful 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 are priceless, some of them are still affordable. In this installment, we will take a look at the best Grand Seiko watches from the 2000s.By the turn of the millennium, Switzerland had prou...

Field watches are often overlooked timepieces in today s world of luxury watches. They are far from a luxury statement, and that s exactly how they should stay. There is something really honest about field watches, defined as simple military watches that should do one thing and one thing only - tell accurate time. In the field of battle, keeping exact time was truly a matter of life and death. As a result, field watches are very simple timepieces with their own style and stories. They are stories untainted by extravagant prices and the urge to wear a statement of wealth. No, field watches are about as honest and straight-up as it gets. Time to look at some of the best field watches out there...