One of the benefits of having the Speedy Tuesday feature is that you often run into interesting people with interesting stories. Last week I was in Tokyo and met a guy who picked up his Speedmaster Speedy Tuesday in the Omega Boutique in Ginza (and I joined him) and had a wonderful time with him discussing watches and Tokyo related things. One of the guys that joined us in Tokyo for our Grand Seiko reader s journey was a Speedmaster fan himself as well, and we had interesting discussions on the importance of details on these vintage watches. For this week s Speedy Tuesday however, we have collector Mark Sinclair talking about his Omega Speedmaster 50th Anniversary ‘Patch reference?311...

As you could read in last week s installment of our 52Mondayz, Gerard is currently somewhere in South-America and he only brought one watch with him. So, I will take over this week and talk about a watch that I will wear.Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 15202STI wrote about this watch often on Fratello Watches, from the beginning in 2004 till somewhere last year. It was my Holy Grail when I started collecting / buying watches in the late 1990s. I also gave it a mention in the podcast talk I had with Chris Mann of Time 4A Pint. You either love the Royal Oak or you hate it, there is little in between. It might also be the case that you slowly grow into liking these watches, as your taste in (fine) wa...

Every November, the Movember Foundation (founded in 2003) encourages men to grow their moustaches to raise money in support of 1200 health projects world wide. The Movember Foundation s mission is to help men live happier, healthier and longer, and raise awareness (and funds) for prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health and suicide prevention. Oris announces their partnership with the Movember Foundation and introduce to you the Oris Movember Edition. A special edition timepiece that is based on the iconic Divers Sixty-Five that we ve praised here many times. Part of the sales will go to the Movember Foundation.Oris Movember EditionThe Oris Movember Edition has the original 1960 s O...

In 2017, Favre-Leuba celebrates its 280th anniversary. Founded as a small watchmakers workshop in Le Locle in 1737 by Abraham Favre, Favre-Leuba can look back on a successful history marked by uncompromising courage, a bold pioneering spirit, the enduring refusal to accept boundaries, and the drive to grasp opportunities and strive to achieve the extraordinary. The anniversary is a remarkable milestone in the illustrious history of Switzerlands second-oldest watch brand, and something the company is celebrating with a truly unique watch that quite literally goes above and beyond what other watches are capable of and makes a very clear statement.The Dawn of a New EraIn terms of function and a...

Balazs and I arrived to the Doxa booth one afternoon at Baselworld 2017 for a meeting with Rick Marei, the General Manager and spirit of the lauded brand. If youve never met Rick, hes unlike anyone in the established watch business. As someone who runs a business that sells entirely without distribution, you could liken him to the owners of most micro or start-up watch businesses. But C he runs Doxa and Doxa is no startup.?? Sure, theyre not or Omega, but theyre a brand well known to those who dive or most who care anything at all about the history of watches. So, its interesting to hear Rick speak and how open and honest he is about what hes doing, why he does things his way and to pick up...

At Fratello we all have a thing for vintage so it s always a pleasure to see watch brands introducing vintage inspired models. We ve mentioned it earlier and now we ll have a closer look at the?Oris ChronOris Date that was introduced during Baselworld this year.Oris ChronOris Date, an icon returnsSo after almost 50 years the?Oris ChronOris Date returns. First introduced in 1970, the ChronOris watch was the first stop-seconds chronograph for the brans. It s name is derived from the words chronograph and the brand name. The original watch came with the typical 70 s case design as seen on many watches from that era. With a pusher and two crowns the watch is a bit different from the re-launched ...

Todays edition of #TBT takes a look at a watch from one of our favorite brands, but its a piece that few discuss or even mention. The Seiko 8M35 Yacht Timer is a watch that Id admired from afar for a long time and finally decided to buy C and Im glad I did. From a brand that has issued its share of attractive and, lets just call them, busy quartz chronographs, Id count this on the side of the former.Looking at the original Seiko Yacht TimerIn the early 1980s, Seiko introduced the 7A28 caliber as the worlds first analog quartz chronograph (we looked at a 7A38 with date function). The brand created seriously styled stainless versions, gold plated variants, and even hooked up with Giugiaro to c...

Let s say you ve always fancied a tourbillon watch but never had the hefty funds required to own one. In today s market there are several ‘affordable watches that feauture a tourbillon. Although affordable is a personal thing of course but with an average price tag of around 100K for a tourbillon, buying one for roughly 15K classifies it as affordable instantly. Let s have a look at the TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 02T Tourbillon chronograph.Being part of the Carrera manufacture line, the Heuer 02T tourbillon has the same case design as the Heuer 01 line. Both are fitted with their own calibre movements that evolved from their first in-house movement.Modular case designThe TAG Heuer Carrer...

Now it is time to introduce you another new watch brand. This time it is Karl-Leimon Watches.?Never heard of Karl-Leimon!You are probably asking, how is Karl Leimon? Karl -Leimon is actually the names of the founders of the watch brand. One founder is called Karl and the other Leimon. The two founders met at university and united together by their passion of classic vintage watches.The company is based in Tokyo, Japan and are currently raising funds for their elegant and timeless watch collection on Kickstarter. So far, they have done excellently as the have raised 100% of their funding target and they have around 2~3 weeks more to go until their campaign ends.For Karl-Leimon, creating the b...

This will be the cheapest watch ever covered at Fratello Watches. And until we would do the illustrious Casio F-91W, it will most probably remain that way.Casio MRW S300H-8BVCFFirst I want to apologize for the picture quality of this weeks 52Mondayz. I had no access to a decent camera and thus the pictures in this weeks article are made with a mobile phone and and compact camera.Casio MRW S300H-8BVStill in a not very easy going area in Latin-America, I had to look for another watch which doesn t get me a lot of attraction. For these occasions I love to look at watches which do give wearing pleasure without costing a lot of money.A lot of wearing pleasure at minimum costsJapanese brands like ...

Watch experts often refer to watches with reference numbers, especially with models that have many variations and long history. 145.022-69 instead of Omega Speedmaster Professional and 1675 instead of GMT-Master. Of course, this is the most specific way to refer to a watch. But it is the original name that starts the story. And lets admit, a name sounds better than a number. In this episode were going to dive into watches and their names.Imagination and AttractionSome names really trigger a complete story. Tudor Black Bay for example. I immediately imagine myself drifting together with with the watch. On a small stealthy boat, I float along a dark bay with a light-tower and the moon as only...

More than 90 years of experience in the watch industry underpins ARCHIMEDEs expertise. Starting with the design, through the production till the final control: Everything is made in Pforzheim / Germany. Here the prototypes are built, the ICKLER cases manufactured and finally the whole watch assembled and controlled.For Pilots, frequent flyers, globetrotters and business travelers (and of course for those who just like watches) ARCHIMEDE presents now the all new Pilot 42 GMT. Whether you are a frequent traveler or just have regular communication with people in another time zone, knowing the time in more than one place can be very useful. GMT is short for Greenwich Mean Time. It is the average...

English watch brand Farer introduced their first series of three-hander watches in 2016 and later on, in May this year, another collection was introduced with a GMT function. Now, only a few months later, Farer comes up with a model based on the sought-after Super Compressor watches.A super compressor case manages to keep water out by increasing water resistance the deeper the watch went in the water. The case back of a super compressor pressed harder on the O-ring gasket when the pressure increased. This way of sealing a watch was patented by?case manufacturer Ervin Piquerez S.A. (EPSA) and they have produced super compressor cases for dozens of brands. The 1960 s design with the two crowns...

Ah, the sweet smell of victory C or perhaps that was Robert-Jans Drakkar Noir cologne (or was it Kouros?) as he entered the lobby of a Frankfurt hotel lobby with gifts in tow. Lets be honest, it had nothing to do with his eau de toilette C although, now I think it was really Davidoffs Cool Water C and everything to do with the large bags he was carrying. In one was my first pair of klompen (Dutch wooden shoes for the neophytes out there-cmon!) and in the other a copy of Moonwatch Only along with some SpeedyTuesday magazines. But there was something else inside- After exchanging pleasantries C despite being in Europe, no kisses were traded C we took the obligatory IAA wrist shot.?? RJ had his...

The story is well-known, the Fifty Fathoms watch was designed for the French navy. Originally, French officers?Bob Maloubier and Claude Riffaud started to work together on requirements in 1952 for a watch to be used during under-water missions. Diving watches at the time were a piece of equipment that men depend their lives on. After testing some watches, they were quite disappointed with the results. Until they met?Jean-Jacques Fiechter, CEO of Blancpain from 1950 till 1980 and a passionate diver himself. Fiechter understood the need for a proper divers watch and even before came up with their Submariner and Omega with their Seamaster 300, Blancpain was able to come up with a watch that wa...

Charlie Watch CompanyFounded in spring 2014, Charlie Watch is the French watch brand – ambassador of a certain French art of living, both elegant and intelligent, and which qualifies the watch not only as a measuring instrument, but also as a fashion, luxury and identity item. Guarantee of quality and authenticity, Charlie Watch watches are assembled in the heart of Paris in the purest tradition and the unique know-how of watchmaking workshops with expertise, flexibility and responsiveness as key assets.A new automatic watch with complications : Initial Power ReserveAmbroise and Adrien wished to draw a watch that one could keep for years with an elegant and timeless design. Developed w...

It is not often that we come across collectors who have this gold Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch BA145.022 in their collection. We have covered this specific model a couple of times in our Speedy Tuesday feature, but it remains to be a rare find and sight. The price on these watches drastically grew over the last couple of years, which might have something to do with the rare sightings of these gold Moonwatch models. Besides that, a number of collectors feel that the Speedmaster was meant to be in stainless steel.The first Speedmaster Professional in gold was introduced in 1969 and in production till 1973. A beautiful commemorative edition for the Apollo XI moon landing. The all-gold Speedmaste...

I will be very much off the beaten track in the week to come. In an area which could be described as potentially unsafe when wearing luxury accessories. It will not be the first time for me over there, so I pretty well know what to do and don t. Wearing a yellow gold Day-Date with President bracelet would be one of the things to avoid, so I chose another watch for this weeks 52Mondayz.Tissot Navigator Automatic reference 44646-3XRemaining in the same era as last week, when I wore this Omega Speedmaster Professional, this week I chose to wear a lesser valuable watch. A 1974 vintage Tissot Navigator Automatic with reference 44646-3X.The Tissot Navigator Automatic 44646-3X on my wristQuality v...

We understand that it is not (always) easy or even possible for everyone to enjoy the latest novelties or see certain watches in person. Sometimes, as we are in the watch industry ourselves, we tend to forget these things a bit. That s why we love to host events in close cooperation with brands and boutiques. This way, we can bring our readers closer to the brands and vice versa.Last weekend we co-organized an event with the Tourbillon Boutique in Baden-Baden, Germany. Tourbillon Boutique is part of Swatch Group, and has around 20 boutiques world wide. In the Tourbillon Boutiques, you will find the high-end Swatch Group brands such as Omega, Blancpain, Glashtte Original, Breguet and Jaquet ...

ShopWorn has introduced a new shopping concept to the world of luxury watches by being the first and only ecommerce website to specialize in selling store-display model timepieces. By virtue of their sourcing strategy, buying shopworn and unsold watches from authorized retailers and Swiss manufacturers, ShopWorn guarantees the authenticity of its product. Watch enthusiasts can find real deals with authentic luxury watches priced below dealer cost.What are ShopWorn watches? A shopworn watch by definition had been on display in an authorized retail store. As they are display-model watches, they have spent most of their existence protected behind a glass display case or securely tucked away in ...