We are at the stage where our writers go head-to-head and hope to battle their way through to the semi-finals. At this point, each of our writers has only one watch remaining. Today, we have our last quarter-final that sees a bust-up between Ben and Bert. We need your help to find out who will be one of the four final contenders. Where will your votes fall?We re at the sharp end now. Ben has one watch left, as does Bert. We need you to pick your favorite in this March Mania quarter-final. Following this round, the semi-finals commence this coming Monday, so you ve not got long to register your opinion. Go hard or go home. It s time to leave it all on the court…Login to your Fratello ac...
Welcome to WASP 5.0, the fifth edition of the Fratello On Air Pod-column, Watching Sports and Sporting Watches. This week, Rob and Balazs celebrate reaching their fifth episode by sharing some of their favorite players from around the four major North American sports leagues.R&B had planned to pick one player each and assign each superstar an on-field/court/rink watch and one off-field/court/rink ticker. Apparently, this was Rob s idea. Unsurprisingly, Rob got confused and just picked two players from each league and gave each of them a very special timepiece. This podcast player is blocked because you did not accept marketing cookies. Change cookie settings We ve got surprising choi...
Back in January when the new Bvlgari Octo Finissimo S with a steel silvered dial was introduced, Rob called it a possible contender for the watch of the year. But is it really? Time to find out. I had a chance to go hands-on with the steel Octo Finissimo model that is closest to the original concept of the titanium version that was introduced in 2017. The big question is whether it is better than the black and blue dial versions in steel? With those two models appealing to a broad audience, could the monochromatic steel version take the Bvlgari Octo Finissimo crown? As it turns out, the answer is not that simple.As most of you know by now, quite a few Fratello team members are fans of the Bv...
Wow, this is all happening so fast. When we started the competition, we had 96 watches. Now we have started the end game! We are at the stage where our writers go head to head and hope to battle their way through to the final. At this point, each of our writers has only one watch remaining. So today, we have our third quarter-final that sees Mike and Tomas battle it out for a spot in our March Mania Final Four. We need your help to find out who will be one of the four final contenders. Where will your votes fall?Were at the sharp end now. Every writer has one watch left. We need you to pick your favorite in this March Mania quarter-final. Today is our third quarter-final that sees Mike and T...
I am back once again like a renegade master, with another issue of Independent Insights. Last time around, I shed a little light on some cool projects from independent brands and will continue to do so today. Right on!I have followed the independent scene and been an active part of it for a long time. As such, I decided itd be nice to round up some of the projects I think are worth a few minutes of your time. Heres what caught my eye this week.MING is teasing something new…MING is no stranger to this site, and I m sure not a new name for many of you too. One of our editors, Mike, is a big fan of the brand and usually covers any of any new releases. For example, you can read Mike s take...
We like to talk about vintage watches a lot within the Fratello team. While the daily routine is largely focused on the most recent developments in the world of watches, the most fun for many of us lies in the 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 priceless, some of them still affordable. But all of them are interesting watches. In this installment, we will take a look at the best Omega watches from the 1960s.In the 1960s, we witnessed developments that challenged the status quo of ...
We are approaching the end of March and thus the end of March Mania. It is a very successful but especially fun project on Fratello, and we thoroughly enjoy seeing the results and the discussions below each round. We would like to thank you for that!We even noticed some of you are starting to call yourself Fratelli already, in the comments. And we really see that as a token of appreciation for what we do, but also for the other readers that vote and comment on these March Mania articles. On April 13, we will be giving away a few straps from LIC and a Hamilton Intra-Matic Chrono watch from our shop to some of you. Make sure to read how you can participate in this contest in order to win those...
Giles Ellis joins Rob on this latest edition of Fratello on Air, as the pair discuss the trials and tribulations of independent brand-ownership, the thrill and responsibility of opening a mono-brand store, and how Giles got into watchmaking in the first place. This podcast player is blocked because you did not accept marketing cookies. Change cookie settings As always with the owner, founder, chief designer, logistics manager, and coffee maker extraordinaire of Schofield Watch Company, the chat is a fascinating meander that touches on many different subjects linked to starting up on your own in the modern watchmaking industry. We hope you enjoy the show!...
Tips & Tricks: try these at home! In its most recent Square modules, Casio offers a dual system to adjust your G-Shock s time automatically. These modules offer the already known radio-controlled Multi-Band 6 adjustment. And now additionally, the latest G-Shock modules offer a Bluetooth time adjustment system, taking the time from your smartphone.Casio already had experience with radio-controlled watches in its Wave Ceptor models, but radio-controlled Square G-Shocks have been with us since 2008. It was first introduced as Multi-Band, effectively receiving five radio signals, and later as Multi-Band 6. Multi-Band 6 is a radio-controlled time adjustment originating from a radio time-signa...
Wow, this is all happening so fast. When we started the competition, we had 96 watches. Now we have started the end game! We are at the stage where our writers go head to head and hope to battle their way through to the final. At this point, each of our writers has only one watch remaining. So today, we have our very first quarter-final that sees Jorg and Balazs battle it out for a spot in our March Mania Final Four. We need your help to find out who will be one of the four final contenders. Where will your votes fall?We re at the sharp end now. Jorg has one watch left, as does Balazs. We need you to pick your favorite in this March Mania quarter-final. Tomorrow RJ and Gerard will have a go ...
Meet the Raketa Avant-Garde watch. Heavily inspired by 20th-century Russian artists like Malevich and Kandinsky who had a new vision of art, which was characterized by colorful abstract shapes. This new 40.5mm Russian mechanical watch was delivered to our office for a hands-on review, and it caused quite a stir in the process…The fun began when the package arrived. The Raketa box is colorful, decorated with a lot of abstract shapes on its cover. When I pointed my iPhone with Google Translate app at the text on the box, it threw-out Watch Factory and Russia. The brand name is readable without using that app. Some of the other words are apparently too difficult for this app to translate ...
Its not a price tag you are used to seeing on a vintage watch. And honestly, there are not many special pieces you can still buy under $100 today. Even fewer are available if you want to have a full kit watch with its original manual. I guess I was just lucky to spot the Medana Pontife at the right time…I?have gathered so many online sources where I?can scroll through offers for ages. Simply put, I?dont have enough time to pursue them all. One of them is the ChronoTrader that I hadnt visited for months. I dont how I found myself there in January, but I m glad I did.It was a pretty random visit. The first listing I laid my eyes on featured the Medana in the headline. Being a pretty unkn...
My favorite detail is that the case seems to literally eat the crown and pushers. And more than anything, Im really curious to hear your opinion on the super-slim hands. I ve been waiting to announce this release for a while and I m happy to say that this vintage-inspired Yema Yachtingraf Bronze, perfectly balanced with strong black accents, is ready to hit the watch world.?Not even two weeks after I?landed an original Yema Yachtingraf from the 1960s I?got a?message from Yema PR manager Vanessa Ke. You can only imagine the smile on my face when I?spotted a?prototype of the new Yachtingraf in bronze that Yema was working on. What are your thoughts? asked Vanessa. I need to get my hands on it ...
Im sure most of you got started in the watch hobby a while before we got into this weird isolated way of living. Well, not me! Alright, I got a Seiko Kinetic Perpetual when I was in high school, and that was quite a serious watch for me at that time. But it was not until January last year when I got my Oris Art Blakey that the bug truly bit. From then on, I ve been hooked. This is a look back at the first year of an obsession I know many of you share…I think all it really took was a connection. Finding a simple emotional link to a watch seemed to open the floodgates. I never expected it to happen the way it did, but the Art Blakey stirred something in me and that was that. My dad reall...
In this episode of Fratello on Air, we talk about the new Omega watches that have been introduced this week. The new Seamaster 300 in steel and in bronze gold get the most attention. But there was much more to discover! Don t sleep on the 300M Black Black or the De Ville Tresor. Both are stunning watches, but for very different reasons…Yesterday we published nine articles on the new Omega releases. In addition to the rush of coverage, we thought it would also be nice to record a podcast and discuss the new watches. Omega sent us the watches a few days before they were released so we had time to photograph them and create new video content. Most importantly, however, we had the chance t...
March Mania marches on! When we started the competition, we had 96 watches. Now we re at the stage when the last 16 have been scythed in half to leave eight standing. At that point, our writers will have just one watch remaining each. So today, for the very last time, the watches that started in the preliminaries together will go head-to-head for the division champion crown. Where will the votes land?That s it - we are down to the final two match-ups to determine our group champions. Ben and Bert both have just two watches left. The quarter-finals commence tomorrow, so we need you to pick your favorite in this quick-fire round as you ve not got long to register your opinion. Let s do this th...
It seems like only yesterday that Gerard and I had a chance to go hands-on with recent additions to Norqain s Freedom 60 collection. And a quick check proved my gut-feel was right. It was only last December when I had a chance to check out the Freedom 60 39mm models. We ve got some new updates to share with you already, and they are very welcome additions to an increasingly attractive collection.Back in December, Gerard reviewed the brand new Norqain Freedom 60 GMT watches while I took charge of the time-only models. Today, the young Swiss brand releases two new Freedom 60 GMT watches. The first comes with a beautiful opaline white dial, and the second sports a vibrant green dial. These two ...
It s hard to believe that the first MB&F Legacy Machine dropped way back in 2011. Now, ten years on, we look upon the new MB&F LMX as the brand celebrates a decade of innovation.In life, it is said that certain things are an acquired taste. Some come along purely with age, but others require real work. Oddly, a pint of Guinness comes to mind - my first beer ever and wow did it disappoint. Now, though, I love the muddy stuff and can appreciate it for what it is, which is different from the norm. And so it goes with Haute Horlogerie… I think I get it, but I generally watch it from afar and move on to something more easily digestible and familiar. All that changed last September i...
We re back with a deepwater demolition derby as the rebooted Omega Seamaster 300 takes on the Panerai Submersible Azzurro. Who will triumph in this unlikely matchup between two classy dive watches?Before we break down the new Omega Seamaster 300 and the Panerai Submersible Azzurro, it s always fair to ask how I chose these watches. I once stated that Two For Tuesday was created to mimic real-world scenarios. In other words, to guess where people actually cross-shop and to help them come to a decision. For dive watches, I think that anything not named Submariner makes the decision a proper wild card. Still, if a buyer has $10K or less to blow, there are tons of great options. With the brand n...
We are used to seeing minimalistic timepieces from Unimatic. Watches that challenge the norm of watch design by removing elements or redesigning them. It s all done to make sure that the results are as clean as possible. Apart from some spectacular collaborations, we generally see a toned-down aesthetic from Unimatic. That approach has proven very successful. With the release of the brand new Modello Tre ref. U3-AS, the Italian brand lets go of its minimalistic approach in favor of some pretty outgoing results. But don t think for a minute that this piece is not as much about the design as all of the brand s prior releases. On the contrary, it s all about design.Here at Fratello, we are obvi...
