The vintage Omega Constellation is the watch that basically started it all for me. The passion for watches that is. A number of relatives of mine had (and have) an Omega Constellation and it were these timepieces that got me interested in watches in the first place. I inherited a nice vintage Omega Constellation from 1968 which I truly cherish as it has been on the wrist of my grandfather for over 40 years (on a daily basis).?I also bought some Constellation watches myself as well through the years.So, it is about time I give the vintage Omega Constellation a bit of well-deserved attention here on Fratello Watches. A few months ago, we (Bert Buijsrogge and I) visited a collector of rare and ...
Today, well take a look at a Baselworld 2018 release, the Tudor Black Bay 36 in blue. In fact, well show some pictures of the 41mm version in blue and black, as its tough to spot the difference in photos unless theyre next to each other. Weve not given the bezel-less Black Bays a ton of coverage, but I am here to change that as this was and is a sleeper type of release. But first-lets go back in time.The Tudor Black Bay in 36mm next to the 41mm VersionBack in the 1980s and 90s I can recall walking into Mayors Jewelers that were often found in many of South Floridas shopping malls. It was usually my Dad and I visiting the shop while my Mother and sister were off browsing elsewhere. Wed take a...
Bi-colour was a long time coming. Some say it still isn t here, but I beg to differ. The combination of stainless steel and a precious metal has been back in business for a few years (or was it here all the time?) and I am heavily in love with it.Actually, the first serious watch that I got 20 years ago was a bi-colour watch. Without any research on the internet or influenced by other enthusiasts, I picked this watch. Meaning that I just liked bi-colour already at that time. Now that I am past 40, I care little about the general consensus or what other people think of what I am wearing anyway. I can imagine that if you are in your early twenties, it is more important to care about what s acc...
Aurel Bacs & Livia Russo in association with Phillips auction house are back for their seventh Geneva watch auction together. In addition, they assembled a special Daytona thematic auction they have dubbed The Daytona Ultimatum.Although it is Mr. Bacs second Daytona thematic auction (Lesson One at Christies in 2013), it will be the first one for Phillips and is set to be their most successful thematic sale to date.The Geneva Watch Auction: Seven also packs quite a punch with some interesting, stunning and rare timepieces from a variety of brands. Many of these have important provenance and it was fascinating to research several of these.I was excited to get an early preview last week an...
Before I get to the Speedmaster Solar Impulse Co-Axial GMT that came into my hands in a very unusual way, let s talk about the Solar Impulse project first for a brief moment.Solar Impulse, or HB-SIA as it is officially called, is a European project to have a solar-powered aircraft flying long distances. Omega is one of its main sponsors and provided the Solar Impulse with a light-weight landing light system, an energy dispatcher and an instrument to help the pilot maintain the stability of the aircraft during approach and landing. The latter was designed by ESA (also a sponsor) astronaut and head of flight test operation Claude Nicollier. This system – or instrument – indicates f...
SIHH and Baselworld are behind us and with a few exceptions and later introductions planned for this year (wink wink), we ve seen all watches for 2018. Time to make up our mind on the Top 5 Baselworld and SIHH 2018 watches. Mike will give an overview of his Top 5 watches that were shown to him in Baselworld and RJ will show his Top 5 watches that were introduced during the SIHH in Geneva.Top 5 Watches Baselworld 2018Please find Mike Stockton s Top 5 watches from Baselworld below.1. Tudor Black Bay 58For me, the Black Bay series of watches have always been great looking, but have lacked a certain staying power. I just forget about them and their normally thick cases really ruin it for me. The...
Join us on Saturday, June 16th for the Glashtte Original event that we host together with the Tourbillon Boutique in Baden-Baden, Germany.Glashtte Original will bring their Baselworld 2018 novelties, some vintage pieces from their archives and a dial-maker who will demonstrate how they achieve to create these fabulous dials. This is something not to be missed.Held in the Tourbillon Boutique in Baden-Baden, a wonderful spa-town in South-Western Germany and on the border of the black forest. We will have only a limited availability for this event, so if you want to join us make sure to fill out the form below.The Glashtte Original event will take place on Saturday 16th, starting at 11:00AM....
For those who travel often, a watch with a second timezone indication is a useful tool. Especially when you travel through (and to) different timezones, a watch with a GMT function or (better yet) a world timer complication like this Glashtte Original Senator Cosmopolite can become a pleasant companion. I ve been an avid traveller myself for a while when I was working for one of the Big Four companies a long time ago, and I noticed that bringing?your watch with second?timezone becomes part of the ritual when packing your gear. Nowadays, I travel mainly within Europe and the difference of an hour can easily be done without a GMT or world timer. The occasional travel to Asia or the United Sta...
If youve been a relatively faithful reader of #TBT here on Fratello Watches, then you likely recall some of the articles Ive penned on Gallets equipped with Excelsior Park movements. Weve reviewed several Multichrons including the 12, the 12HR, and a beautiful Decimal and all were equipped with ultra-smooth EP movements. What I believe Ive explained before is that Excelsior Park built watches, using their own movements and cases, for companies such as Gallet, Zenith and Gerard Perregaux, but they also sold pieces branded with their own name. These truly in-house pieces dont seem to come up for sale as frequently, but theyre attractive in their own way and often feature dials nearly identical...
Introduced at the CES 2018 of Las Vegas early this year, The X-ONE H1 is the Swiss answer to Smartwatches. It is combining a Swiss mechanical movement with an electronic module to enhance the mechanical functions of the watch.Conex Watches SA launched on February 27th on Kickstarter an iconic watch in which the digital empowers the mechanical movement. At a starting price of $750 on Kickstarter for the super early birds, X-ONE expects to bring a paradigm shift in Swiss watch making. The X-ONE H1 available at a retail price of $1490 in different versions and materials addresses amateur of mechanical watches and people looking for a unique experience with a smart mechanical watch.A unique expe...
For this week s Speedy Tuesday we have a cool story on how one of our reader s bought a dead stock Omega Speedmaster Professional from 1977. Omega Speedmaster collector Alexander experienced something that a lot of us can only dream about: finding an unsold (and basically unused) vintage Speedmaster, complete with box and papers. Without further ado, here is Alexander s story.Dead Stock Omega Speedmaster ProfessionalI have been collecting vintage watches long enough to know that unless you cross your path with a watch lover like yourself, talking too much about your hobby could become boring for the ordinary people. Since 99.99% of the worlds population tends to think about watches like a ga...
I think that for those of us who enjoy vintage watches, weve really been spoiled for choice over the past several years when it comes to new watches with a retro look. Brands such as Longines, Omega, Seiko, Doxa and even Rado have introduced some rather faithful reissues of beloved pieces and many of them even border on affordable. Today, we take a look at a recent release with a vintage theme from a brand that I always follow C and one that Id love to love more: Hamilton. Youve likely read a bit about this watch, but today well get up close and personal with the Hamilton Khaki Field Mechanical. Now, Ill go ahead and clear this up from the beginning: the Hamilton Khaki Field Mechanical retai...
We have been following the English watch manufacture Pinion from the very start (in 2013), reviewed their Axis, R1969, Iron Heart colab and Pure (Bronze). Almost a year ago, we briefed you already on the Pinion Atom release (here). Learning about its price point made us enthusiastic, as we have been fans from the start and owning one of their watches for under $900 would be a steal.But wait a minute! Where the other collections rely on movements like the Valjoux 7734 (R1969) and Unitas 6498, the Pinion Atom has been equipped with a Japanese movement. The?Miyota caliber 9015 movement. A movement we often find in microbrands, and owned by the Citizen watch corp. As the movement represents a si...
As definite fans of Doxa, we were pretty excited to see an email in our inbox this morning announcing a new release: the Doxa SUB300T Poseidon Edition.? A full 50% of the Fratello team owns either a new or vintage diver from the independent Swiss brand, so we re always eager to hear what s on the way.? To be open, these are stock photos, but we ll go hands-on with the watch at Baselworld 2018 next week.Over the last couple years, Doxa has been busy.? A couple years ago, the 50th Anniversary of the SUB300 was celebrated with some seriously faithful recreations of the original SUB.? The Professional, the Searambler and the Sharkhunter were all made and snapped up by eager collectors.Late last ...
Just recently, we were invited to join the Breitling Roadshow in Zurich, Switzerland. Besides listening to CEO and shareholder Georges Kern during his presentation and gala diner about the future of Breitling, receiving a lesson or two in design by Guy Bove and an amazing history class by Fred Mandelbaum, I sat with Georges Kern to ask him some questions.? About the future of Breitling, the collections, selling on-line and certified pre-owned Breitling watches as well as his personal instagram account, on which he has become very active.Without further ado.Georges Kern InterviewRobert-Jan Broer: What are your most important goals for Breitling?Georges Kern: Globally, the goal is to build out...
It was at least a couple of years ago on an evening that I found myself cruising the internet. I did the normal thing: news, watch sites, eBay, and some dealer sites. At the time, Menta Watches, a watch dealer, was just beginning, but they had already begun featuring some neat watches. Amongst all the chronographs and es, it was a weird, and admittedly plain, watch that caught my eye. And while I was late to the party and the watch was already on hold, the Wittnauer 8025 had left an impression.When I first spied the Wittnauer 8025, I had just come off of buying an example of one of the brands fantastic chronographs, the 242T. This led me down a path of looking into the brands history. Ill be...
There s a new mobile app on the market that helps you to buy and sell your watches: Watchy. We all know apps like Chrono24, WatchPatrol and WatchRecon, and even some retailers have their own app where you can buy their watches or do a trade-in, like WatchBox.All these apps mentioned have their own way of dealing with offering watches, searching watches, commissions etc. Chrono24 is probably the biggest player on the market, but charges a fair amount of money when a deal is made. However, you do get a lot of reach for that. WatchRecon and WatchPatrol scrape listings from all sorts of forums and other sources, where you (mainly) buy from private sellers who want to offer their watch or do a tr...
Over the last several years at Baselworld, Fortis has reinvented themselves by launching a multitude of new watches. This really kicked off in 2015 with the launch of the Terrestis (aka Land) line and we went hands on with the attractive Tycoon Chronograph. In 2016, the brand focused on the Cosmonautis line (aka Space) and a bit of the Aviatis (aka Air) lines we took a look at several models including the Classic Cosmonauts Chronograph, the Dornier GMT, and the Aeromaster Chronograph. In 2017, we saw a real focus on the Aviatis side again. Balazs recently reviewed the Pilot Classic Chronograph and, today, well get familiar with the Fortis Cockpit One Chronograph.If youve not been to the Fort...
Unfortunately, a lot of brands these days already bombard our mailboxes with pre-SIHH and pre-BaselWorld releases. So we know what s coming, some times we even receive invitations to come and have a look before one of the big shows, to do our own photography. To be honest, we favor the ‘being surprised a bit more, like in the old days, when press kits were a binder with some spec sheets and actual photos.Some brands don t share at all before the show, or at least only minor things in advance. Some times it can be useful, to do some preparation because trust me if I say that there s little time during SIHH and BaselWorld to sit down and do a proper write-up.Although we already received...
There are often stories about watches that make us frown upon a bit. Is it a real story? Is there – any – provenance to back this up? A watch that has been handed down or has been sold 10 times already in its life time, often raises these kind of questions. Not with the 6238 we have on Fratello today. We love first owner stories for sure, even when it means the watch has been serviced (as it should) and might contain some original replacement parts. A watch that has not fallen into the hands of dealers or auction houses, where some parts might have been ‘curated to make it an attractive looking watch. None of that in the case of this honest 1968 6238 that belongs to one ...
