A what? And How much did you say that thing costs?! These have been recurring comments I ve heard while wearing this Gerald Genta Mickey Mouse watch. Or, as it is officially called, the Arena Retrograde Mickey Mouse reference 103613. And I understand. Especially when a bit of context is missing.Truth to be told, it was often comments made by people who know I do something to do with watches. People who have heard of , and perhaps of Patek Philippe, but that s about it. Yes, I also hang out with that other kinds of people (I won t say normal). My first encounter with a Retrograde Mickey Mouse watch must have been years ago when my colleague Gerard brought back some brochures (remember those?)...
Where does the time go? It only feels like a week or so ago that I was sat at my desk watching s presentation at Watches And Wonders 2021. That was back in March. You may recall that released an update to the Explorer II. Subtle and minor tweaks rather than something totally wild and new, but does anyone really care six months on?As with any announcement or launch, people get excited. People get very excited. Forums and Facebook groups become filled with guesses and theories about what the Crown will bring out next. March 2021 was no different. had hinted that something was happening with the Explorer. Still, nobody quite predicted the Explorer II would just get a minor facelift.What did...
Alles Roger, watch fans? Wrist Game or Crying Shame is here again with the Seiko Spring Drive Tuna SBDB013. Let s see what you think about this dearly departed diver. But first…Last week, the rocket boosters were ready for liftoff with the Fortis Official Cosmonauts Chronograph. I showed you a full set, but with a catch. This watch was a two-tone model and you crushed it in the comments. Still, the vocal opponents lost out to the actual voters because this watch rocketed to a 59% Wrist Game win. I was absolutely sure that this one would fail to launch, so it goes to show that I just don t know you that well. I ll shed a tear later. First, though, let s talk about something that can han...
We value your opinion, dear readers, and you should let us know what the finals are going to look like. In this round of the Summer Splash, it s the Doxa Sub300 Carbon versus the Omega Seamaster Diver 300M. The choice is up to you, dear Fratelli, so cast your vote at the end of this article. Your pick will potentially go on to win it! So who will it be? The great white shark or the cheeky yellow tropical fish?Omega Seamaster Diver 300MThe summer is coming to an end this week in The Netherlands, where I live. Temperatures are dropping and I noticed I am picking business shirts and sweaters over my polo shirts again. It makes the white dial Seamaster Diver 300M even more versatile, as I can t ...
The F.P. Journe Automatique Lune you see here is the latest iteration of a design that debuted in 2007. In addition to the previous model s 40mm case size, the latest iteration is also available in a 42mm case, just 10.6mm thick. It features a new, larger crown, with F.P. Journe s signature silk rope knurling. Available in either platinum or 18k rose gold, on either a bracelet or an alligator strap, the case is nearly identical in design to Chronometre Optimum we checked out a few weeks ago.The Automatique Lune features a solid gold dial with a galvanized silver layer on top. In the center, one finds three-dimensional Clous de Paris hobnail guilloche. Outside of it, elegant Arabic numerals a...
All this commotion because of a different dial and bezel color? Absolutely! Because when it comes to this new Mido, its the color that plays quite a different tune. Lets take a look at the updated Decompression Timer 1961.?I?was a?bit sad that I?missed last years Mido Ocean Star Decompression Timer 1961. Mido piloted it slightly under the radar. Before I?managed to get my hands on the press sample, the entire limited batch was already long gone. All 1961 pieces disappeared sooner than they reached shops, which only confirms just how hot the offering was. It wasnt just the provocatively daring decompression rainbow dial from Mido s vintage grail watch that we know and love, but also the rivet...
Welcome to the third and final Wild Card round. Yes, this competition has spiraled into something much WILDER than we could ever have imagined, but we ve got to roll with the punches and listen to the community. With the shadowy Kraken Kartel pulling the strings from 30,000 leagues beneath the sea, the Fratello Summer Splash has all the creative license it needs to grow in any way its participants demand. And so now we present the remainder of the Fratelli s picks. I hope you enjoy sifting through them and picking your favorite as much as I did assembling the list.As with the previous two Wild Card rounds, the top two will go through to the Wild Card Decider, which will be published followin...
For several months between October 2020 and January 2021, Seiko held an online contest where anyone could submit a potential design for a future limited edition Seiko 5 model. Over 48,000 entries came, 16 watches were chosen for voting and a watch emerged as the winner. The Custom Beatmaker SRPH19K is that watch.Seiko makes a lot of limited edition watches. Hardly a week passes without an announcement of some new color variant on any one of the hundreds of models made by the massive brand. The Seiko 5 lineup leads that initiative. When these watches first debuted a couple of years ago, there were something like 26 unique colorways. I declared that this watch already felt like the brand s Swa...
I talked about the black Omega Seamaster Diver 300M Chronograph in the previous installment of The Best Boring But Brilliant Watches In The World, but now its time for something completely different. The Patek Philippe Calatrava. The Calatrava started out as a humble dress watch, but it also has a more outgoing and exuberant side that might surprise you. However, at heart, a Calatrava remains a very traditional and soft-spoken creation.Forgive me for sounding pretentious, but a classic Patek Philippe Calatrava reminds me a bit of a Schubert piano sonata. If my dad reads this, he would be proud, because its proof he didnt play me all that classical music for nothing when I was still a young l...
If you ve read my recent article, you may well have noticed me banging on about dial textures and why they re so important. The dial is probably the first thing we see when looking at a watch for the first time. They say first impressions are the key to success, so the dial is quite an important element in this regard. It s not just color that can make a dial truly eye-catching, texture can and does play a key role when it comes to this. I decided to go back and take a look at some of the best dial textures out there today, as well as the brands responsible.As a forewarning and a caveat, I ve purposely tried to steer clear of guilloche dials for this article. Guilloche is an art form of its ...
The Submariner is a legendary dive watch. Safe to wear in a tux as well as in the briny depths. As I write this sentence, a gentleman sitting opposite me on the train comfortably wears one as he feverishly types on his laptop. With a storied history and proven dependability, the Submariner has become the trophy for the hard-working backbone of society. As a result of more well-to-do ambitious workers in this era, demand outweighs s steady output. Therefore, it hasn t taken long for prospective buyers to seek out alternatives. These brands still cement a stake in aqua nautical timekeeping. The watches also go toe-to-toe with the Sub in features specific to diving. Without further ado, these...
Ladies and gentlemen! The time has come for you to decide which of these two summery stunners will rise to glory in the final vote. One of these watches will advance to the last round of the Summer Splash, the other will end up crying in the kiddie pool. The choice is left up to you, the Fratelli. So pick wisely! Will Lex s Sinn rise from the saddle to crush the competition in the final sprint? Or will it be Mike s sterling Tudor soar to victory? Before we proceed to make this second-to-last selection, it s time for this ticking twosome to battle it out.Nacho here, filling in for Lex during his holiday hiatus! The man is so dedicated to Summer Splash that he s off doing field testing on the ...
You have to draw the line somewhere. And I draw the line at cheese. Anything beyond cheese is a step too far for me. Im talking cheese as a building material for watches of course, not cheese as food. Cement, granite, wood, and marble are highly debatable, but at least you cant eat the stuff. Anyway, after looking at all kinds of metals in the first part of this How Watches Work, Im leaving alloys behind and will proceed to look at some of the more exotic offerings out there.Lets start with getting some of the more unusual, maybe I should say ridiculous, materials brands make watch cases from out of the way. H. Moser & Cie. used Vacherin Mont-d Or cheese to make a point regarding the Swi...
Here we have the second of three Summer Splash Wild Card rounds for your voting pleasure. It s been a blast combing through your selections. You will notice that I lifted every single suggestion I could find (apologies if I missed any - given my track record throughout this contest, it is highly likely I ve screwed up somewhere). You may be surprised to see your name or selection on this list, but you shouldn t be! We read and consider every comment left on our articles and we re doing our best to get back to all of you in due course. Thanks for your continued engagement. Now I turn things over to you to select your top two in this round…The top two will go through to the Wild Card Dec...
Today on the Fratello on Air, Rob is joined by the boys from Straum watch company, way up in Norway. This emerging brand is the result of five years hard work, a huge personal investment of time and money, and the inspiration offered by Norway s myths, legends, and landscape. The brand s Oppav model ranks near the top of several Fratello team members wish lists so we thought it d be a good idea to get the lads on the show to find out more. This podcast player is blocked because you did not accept marketing cookies. Change cookie settings You can buy these watches online at?Straum.co. The (very) limited edition model is already sold out and the other four Opphav models (now limited to 5...
Put yourself in my shoes. Youre a young guy, who until not long ago didnt even have a salary. One foot is still firmly planted in the student life, and the other is about to touch down into responsible adulthood. At some point or another, we have all found ourselves in this limbo stage in life. One thing is clear though, you can love watches as much as you want, but those three to four-figure prices are definitely not easily reached. As I make my way through the watches in my collection, you will quickly find that more often than not, they are vintage watches that were bought for a fraction of what their price should be - such as this Tissot Seastar Navigator. Never in the best condition, bu...
Hopefully, you enjoyed the exposure of corruption and scandal in the group stages of the Summer Splash earlier this week. What s a sporting competition without little friendly misdemeanor? I mean, I WAS involved, but not on purpose, I swear! But the time for masking this corruption with chit-chat has long gone. Its time for things to get serious. In the final of the quarter-final match-ups, I will take on B-Dawg Balazs for a place in the final four. Our champions? The Hound of Hungary brings in the uber-cool Doxa Sub300T Forged carbon while I, Bob Sergeant, sit in the corner of the underdog, the Zelos Mako V3 Titanium. Let s be having it!Lets kick things off in this Summer Splash quarter-fin...
Dive watches are incredibly popular in the watch collecting community. Not necessarily because everyone fancies themselves are the next Jacques Cousteau, but more because of how theyre designed to hold up in hostile environments. OK, the majority of us may never take our dive watches into the deep blue, but theyre often the perfect entry point for new watch collectors too. Basic dive watches are often designed to be worn all day, every day, while still holding up to the rigors of daily life above the waves. Today Im looking at one such watch from a new Scottish microbrand, Clemence - the Photic Diver.Now its clear to establish that I classify dive watches into one of two categories. Basic di...
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. Its 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 still affordable. In this installment, we will take a look at the best watches from the 1990s.This week we will continue our journey through watch history to fin...
These days, watch purists love to hate the date. Well, the date window, that is. It breaks the symmetry of the design, they say. It s an eyesore, they claim. And of course, If I need to know the date, I can just check my phone. Now, I can t say these sentiments are totally invalid. As someone with a variety of watches and a smartphone, there are days when a clean, dateless watch is exactly what I want. But imagine you lived a hundred years ago. You re in a sticky situation, with no calendar, no newspaper, and no human nearby to ask, and you urgently need to know the date. With nothing at hand but your only timepiece, you think, Golly, the date on my wristwatch would sure be the bee s knees!U...
