Friend of the show Lawrence Larry McGlynn has a website called Space Artifacts, which is worth a visit if you re into space-related topics.Larry is also known for his role in the Space Dealers TV show (Discovery channel) where he hunts down valuable items that were used in space (and on the Moon). He also loves the Speedmaster, and he has helped us on a few occasions to sort out topics and enabled us to have a little interview with Apollo astronaut Dave Scott (click here). For this week s instalment of Speedy Tuesday, he contributes a report on this visit to the Sotheby s auction Omega Speedmaster: To the Moon and Back | Celebrating 50 years since Apollo 11. It was hosted on July 19 in New Y...

The return of the Seiko 5 Sports line is here with 27 different models based off of a familiar case.Between entertaining my daughter in the kiddie pool, drinking ice cold Keo, and engaging in deep, meaningful discussions with my wife (ok, shed beg to differ on that last point) while on holiday in Cyprus, I actually did check my email every so often.? On one of these occasions, I received an email from Seiko informing me about the return of the Seiko 5 Sports line.? Aside from seeing a very familiar case (that, mind you, had already been leaked some months back on forums) and a different style of logo, I kind of passed the email off as a typical email from Seiko that tells me of news that we ...

Sitting across from Kay Jaeger in the lobby of the Hyperion Hotel in Basel has been one of the highlights of brand meetings for my scouting team at Skolorr this year.In contrast to all the pomp and circumstance of watch fairs-to all the big names vying for attention with ginormous booths and ten-foot-tall logos-to all the hustle and bustle polluting the atmosphere-taking an hour to sit and talk with one of the industrys most passionate brand owners was a welcome respite. And, counterintuitively, probably the most eyebrow-raising encounter thus far.Kay is not a watchmaker. He is a watch lover, turned brand creator. You can tell by his surname he is one half of the artisan watchmaker Jaeger &a...

A significant part of the Fratelli enjoys blue-water-view holidays at this moment, and even your trusted supplier of This Week in Watches, Michael Stockton, was out of office. So for this week, I ll try to be a good stand-in as?I had part of my summer wind-down already. You probably saw IWC take off in the U.K. with a Silver Spitfire and introduce a right-hand Big Pilot for left-handed pilots. And you probably saw A. Lange & S?hne present a new model from their 25th Anniversary collection at a classic car show in Germany. Our Bert Buysrogge was present at the latter and will do a nice write-up on that. No way I m gonna spoil that here.A lot of news this week came from the East, thou...

Watches, such as the Tissot Heritage 1973 dont often happen these days.Let me explain why we have to talk about them. Reeditions, homage watches or vintage reinterpretations are pretty standard in the industry these days. We covered some of them in the past. However, it seems that the golden age of vintage watches ended with the 1960s. Watches, and especially chronographs of the 70s were much different than the timepieces that came out a decade earlier. They were huge compared to the small 36-38mm chronographs of the 50s and 60s. They were much more colourful, and most of them had automatic movements. As they are less classic than those mentioned above 60s chronographs, brands dont want to r...

The charm of Angelus extends beyond big diameter chronographs with the Angelus Dato 12.Angelus Must Haves for CollectorsIf you re serious about collecting vintage chronographs, Angelus has some serious candidates to consider, but today we will discuss the Angelus Dato 12. Regarding the chronographs, though, notable examples include the Angelus L.E. chosen by the Hungarian Air Force or the Angelus Chronodato introduced in 1942 as the world s first chronograph with a full calendar (day-date and month). The title? world s first always helps, and the model quickly became popular. Balazs did a?marvelous job covering the Chronodato and the whole 21x Angelus movement family. If you missed it, you c...

We ve covered SevenFriday quite a few times in the recent past. And one thing that resembles on most occasions is the shape of the case. Whether you love it or hate it, the shape of the case helps you spot a one from miles away. For this article, we picked a different version which is still typical SevenFriday. Time to have a closer look at the SevenFriday W1/01 the Blade.SevenFriday W1/01 the BladeWhen you search for SevenFriday, look at the image results, and you can see why they stand out. Their cases usually are a mix between square and round. Combined with the lack of lugs makes it something you don t see a lot, apart from them, of course. Typical, one of those designs which you either ...

It s just over two months ago that we published our review of the Undone Basecamp. They seem to be busy at Undone because even in this short period, we ve seen quite some new additions to their line-up. Our next, and probably last, Undone review is the Urban Type XX Classic Flyback Chronograph, or short:Undone Type XXWe already criticized the use of the iconic Explorer-II 24-hour hand as hour hand in the Undone Urban Explorer model in our last review. But with every newly presented watch model, it becomes clearer that Undone overly loves to get their inspiration from rather well known and authentic designs from the past.Undone Type XX s design is borrowed from historical iconsAgain, certain...

Omega Geneve Dynamic watches from the 70s are fun, exciting and still very much under the radar.Mind you; its not an easy task to search for Omega Dynamics on the web. The brand released various models at a different point in time, all under the name; Dynamic. Most of you probably remember the latest Dynamics (III) that first came out around 1995. It went on to a few years with the last model (a Targa Florio edition) coming out in 1999 if Im correct. You had time-only and chronograph version, with large pump pushers and vintage-style dials. They came in a capsule; collectors often refer to as the tin can. I have to say, while those watches are not everyones favourite, they represent excellen...

Christiaan van der Klaauw is a stand-out brand in the watch industry. The Dutch brand focuses solely on creating astronomical watches hence the official name Christiaan van der Klaauw Astronomical Watches. Next to that they are part of the select group of brands that are recognized as ‘haute horlogerie brands by the prestigious Fondation Haute Horlogerie.At Baselworld 2019 we were able to witness some of the remarkable pieces in the CVDK collection including a beautiful custom version of the Real Moon Joure and a? stunning version of their Planetarium model with an aventurine glass dial. A new addition to the collection presented at Baselworld 2019 is the CVDK Hypernova Grey. The addi...

With one of the most recent additions to the Speedmaster family, the Apollo XI Limited Edition in Moonshine gold, there s finally a gold Moonwatch again. Time to share my personal top 5 Speedmaster models in gold.The gold Moonwatch has been discontinued for a few years now. Three years ago, the movie ‘Money Monster‘ featured a gold Speedmaster, but it was a discontinued reference. This Speedmaster reference 3195.50.00 was simply an all-gold version of the regular Moonwatch and was in production between 1999 and 2012. The reason it got discontinued I don t know and can only make a well-educated guess, as these watches weren t cheap, to begin with, and gold was a bit out of fashion...

Swatch creates a playful tribute to the century-old Bauhaus movement in typical Swatch style. Meet the Bau Swatch collection.For a lot of kids born in the seventies and early eighties, a Swatch is the first proper watch they owned and vividly remember as well. I still remember mine very well. Although I have to be honest here, I had to look the exact model up in an older version of the Swatch-Clopedia that has an overview of all models that Swatch made from 1983 on. After a good couple of hours, I finally found my first Swatch, and it turned out to be the Swatch Bar Oriental from 1989. The most remarkable thing about it is that there is an image of a jazz drummer printed on the strap and mus...

Watch Strap Review is back with a brand-new article featuring FinWatchStraps from Finland.Its been a while since out last Watch Strap Review so for all of you new readers, let me sum what this series is about. In every article, we feature a strap maker and review their product. We try to bring new brands, names you have not heard of before. Also, we try to feature as many countries as possible not always the usual suspects. So far, we introduced 30+ brands from Europe, USA or Asia. Some names like Erikas Originals since became super popular. Wed like to think that our article has something to do with that. All jokes aside, we focus on the products and the craftsmen not the hoopla around them...

Namaste, downward dogs, it s time for This Week in Watches.Welcome to This Week in Watches for August 3, 2019.? I can t really complain about the heat this week because, lo and behold, things have moderated.? I can t talk about the new Corvette anymore because this is a watch site and I played that card last weekend.? So, I should probably just talk about watches.? You ve now come to know this paragraph as the rant portion, but there s no pain in my game this week.? You see, I currently have four watches in for review (one is the Orient Kamasu we published this past week) and guess what?? They re all?really good and that made me realize, despite all the collective moaning that goes on, we re...

The Certina DS Action Diver Sea Turtle Conservancy 60th Anniversary special edition, the topic of todays review is a special piece.To start with, this is the first DS Action Diver we ve reviewed on Fratello. Well, it s the first steel model anyway as we ve already taken a closer look at the DS Action Diver Titanium (review is coming soon). The DS Action Diver line consists of mostly steel watches, and the STC is such a watch. It is also more than just another colourway with the DS Action Diver line. As a special edition, the watch raises awareness for the amazing work that the Sea Turtle Conservancy is doing. More than that, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the timepieces goes to t...

The Alpina Standard Leihuhr, a customer service phenomenon that evokes the gentlemanhood of an entire era.Singular watchI?was looking for a one word description for a good ten minutes. I?think SINGULAR, as offered by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary does the job on all levels. The Alpina Standard Leihuhr does not have the glorious aura of a moon or diving race. It doesnt have forums with overexcited members creating thousands of threads about every single detail from the indexes to the bracelet. What is it about? For me the Alpina Standrad Leihuhr encapsulate the spirits of nice manners and gentlman-ship of decades long forgotten. This subtle watch reminds me of what there should be more of in...

Summer is here and that means divers are in; we take a look at the Orient Kamasu.With the Orient Kamasu, we have a serious contender for best inexpensive automatic diver.? It just so happens that this watch, like the Seiko SKX007 and Citizen NY0040, also hails from Japan, where making affordable bulletproof divers seems to be an everyday affair. Orient, up until very recently, was seen more as the oddball/insider s choice when compared to its better known Japanese rivals, but better marketing and watches are changing that standing.? So, does the Kamasu have what it takes to dethrone either of the two icons?? We once looked at the SKX007 versus the NY0040 in this popular article, but it s tim...

For years I thought my first Speedmaster would be the classic Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch as it is the watch with the most incredible story of all watches.And obviously, it is the watch the Speedmaster legacy has been built on so it seemed only logical that a brand new Speedmaster Professional or a Speedmaster Professional from 1977 C the year I was born C were the go-to models for me whenever I had to decide on my first Omega Speedmaster. But as you can read from the title, it didnt quite go as planned. My first Speedmaster turned out to be an Omega Speedmaster X-33 from 1998. And it turned out to be a great first choice that only made the Speedmaster legacy more significant for me a...

Without creating any noise about it, Seiko sneaked in a new version of the Marinemaster: the Prospex Marinemaster 300 SLA021J1.The Marinemaster 300 was my introduction to the more expensive Seiko diver s watches. I had a Sumo at the time, which I loved, but then I got to meet the Marinemaster 300 with reference SBDX001. It was a real eye-opener to see what Seiko was able to do for the $2000 price tag it had. The review I wrote back then, became one of our best-read articles of all-time. Since then, in early 2015, the Marinemaster 300 became a very loyal companion on many of my trips. Both professionally and privately, especially when there was a pool or a sea involved.Marinemaster 300 SLA021...

Ahoj, hodinky kolektory! It s This Week in Watches for July 27, 2019.So, we re now in full vacation season mode here in Europe.? That means crowded airports, perhaps time for boring DIY jobs, and other fun activities.? I suppose a lot of these holidays leave a lasting impression after their culmination.? But I was recently thinking back on last weekend s Moon Landing 50th Anniversary.? For sure, the mission and the actual landing represented incredible milestones, but think about what came afterwards.? Can you imagine having blasted off to the moon, either walking on it or orbiting it (let s not forget Mr. Collins), and then returning to home?? Forgetting the quarantine period post-touchdown...