Today on #TBT, well take a look at one of the more legendary tool watches in the Glycine Airman. Its a watch that Ive always desired, but, for one reason or another, never purchased until only recently. Even then, I wound up with the watch before you by accident C more on that later C but boy am I glad I did. The Airman is a great watch and for a piece so well known, its still relatively easy to find and C shhh C its downright affordable! Lets take a look-The Glycine Airman Special advertisement (photo credit: forums.watchuseek.com)History of the Glycine AirmanMuch has been written about the history of the Glycine Airman, so I wont recount the gory details. The long and short of it, though, ...

Zenith developed a special complicated watch, the Academy Georges Favre-Jacot, to celebrate its 150th Anniversary in 2014. Zenith traces the roots of this watch, which is equipped with a fuse-and-chain constant force sytem, to its development of marine clocks. In this video, the movement designer of Zenith explains how the system works and show some of important details in its construction, such as a protection system for the delicate chain and an integrated spring to keep the watch running while it is being wound.This video is blocked because you did not accept marketing cookies. Change cookie settings Want to know more about the assembly of the worlds finest timepieces? Subscribe to o...

El Primero – Zenith Heritage Pilot Ton-upZenith is one of those brands you can hardly go wrong with. Whether it is vintage or a watch from their modern collection, there is plenty to choose from. How come? Simple. The El Primero movement. It was one of the first automatic chronograph movements on the market in 1969. A strong competition was going on back in the day between Seiko, Zenith and a joint-venture of Breitling, Bren and Heuer. All three companies came up with a new self-winding chronograph movement. More than 50 years later, the Zenith El Primero is the last one standing from those three ‘firsts . The Zenith El Primero movement is still in production and also being used...

Jay Pritchett in Modern FamilyThis man really needs no introduction, but you might know Ed O Neill better as ‘Al Bundy or nowadays as Jay Pritchett in the successful sitcom Modern Family. He starred in all 263 episodes of Married With Children, that aired from 1987 till 1997. His movie and TV career started much earlier, but his ‘Al Bundy character was my first encounter with Ed O Neill.During and after Married with Children he featured in a couple of movies and TV shows. But to be honest, I couldn t see him apart from his role as Al Bundy. That changed with the ABC sitcom Modern Family, which I truly enjoy watching. Together with his?beautiful?(young) wife?Gloria Delgado (play...

Oris Bronze Watch – Carl Brashear Limited EditionTo be honest, I d never heard about Carl Brashear before and did not see the Men of Honor movie. I also doubt?if the story, to which I will come back later, would have impact on my decision whether to like this watch, or not. Or better yet, that it would have add value to the Oris bronze watch for me, personally. I doubt that basically. I like the watch from the moment I saw it in the flesh during a preview of Oris BaselWorld novelties in Zermatt.Without further ado, here is my Oris bronze watch review.Bronze Watches EverywhereBronze is trending.?Panerai set the trend with their ‘Bronzo (Luminor Submersible Ref. PAM00382) back in...

German certificate DIN official showcasedWell done – congratulation!On Friday, June 24th STOWA was awarded at the FH Aachen for its excellent Flieger Professional DIN watch with German DIN standard 8330 for Flieger watches.After multitude testing it was fix – the STOWA Flieger Professional DIN is not affected by the physical stresses of air traffic and also it represents no hazard potential or compatible with other onboard instruments of the air craft.Developed and designed by Jo?rg Schauer and Hartmut Esslinger, the founder of frog design – besides others he worked successfully for Wega, Apple, Sony and many more – the STOWA Flieger Professional DIN watch combines a ...

Welcome back to #TBT where, this week, we take a look at one of the more likeable watches Ive picked up over the last year or so: the Wakmann Big Boy Chronograph. Now lets get something straight, the term Big Boy was decided upon by @watchfred and I over a series of communications. Honestly, we had both acquired examples of these pieces over the last year or so and were at once excited by them and puzzled about what to call them. So, we came up with Big Boy because, well, the watches are, umm, big and they needed some sort of name other than divers chronograph or the like. Theres no real common reference for these watches and as Ive used the word these, the term Big Boy actually refers to a ...

Discover how the oscillating pinion and the column-wheel work together Eduard Heuer was the inventor of the oscillating pinion, a key component in the construction of many chronograph movements and, in particular, the component that lies at the center of the system for starting and stopping of the chronograph. We will sit with one of the movement designers of this years TAG Heuer 01 chronograph at Tag Heuers headquarters in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. He will show us how chronographs start and stop, leading us through the chain of events from the moment the chronograph start button is pushed, through the turning of the column-wheel, to the connecting rockers and finally the change of pos...

Some weeks ago we were invited to visit the Jaeger-LeCoultre manufacture, in order?to see the?Grande Complication Workshops during?a factory tour.After arriving in Le Sentier, where we will spend the day at the Jaeger-LeCoultre manufactory, we are welcomed by Marina Greene at the Lounge of the Maison dAntoine. From here we have a great view over the Vallee de Joux.Jaeger-LeCoultre manufacture Grande Complication presentationOur program begins at the Grande Complication Work shop where 12 watchmakers are working on highly complicated watches. Here, master watchmaker Christian Laurent, presents us with the Grande Complication Collection and an in-depth explanation of the Gyrotourbillon?models....

Pinion PureEnd of 2014, Bert Buijsrogge had a Pinion Axis Bronze in his photo studio and decided to do a proper write-up on this model as well. You can find his Pinion Axis Bronze review here. I had the pleasure to wear and try one of the Pinion watches as well for a while, the?Pinion R1969 chronograph, but since it was a prototype that was executed a bit differently from the production model, I didn t do a review on it.But in general I can say that these Pinion watches have a very high standard when it comes to finishing of the case, dial, hour markers, hands etc. It is almost ridiculous for a watch in this price range, even with a loupe there were no flaws to detect and all is razor sharp....

A while ago I wrote an opinionated article on brand ambassadors (you can find it here), and although I am not a particular fan of brand ambassadors who are paid to ‘love a watch brand, I do love to spot Omega Speedmaster watches on their wrists (but no more than spotting them when walking in the city or when having lunch somewhere for example).An ambassador that I was wrong about in the past is George Clooney. I wrote Do I like Omega suddenly better because George Clooney is in an advertisement with a loupe on his forehead? No. . My opinion didn t change, but I ve witnessed George Clooney (my wife still blames?me for not bringing her along) during the Omega event last year in Houston ...

I?had the pleasure to visit the Moritz Grossmann during?BaselWorld. There were several interesting novelties from this relatively young brand (2008) from the praised small German watchmaking village Glashtte. There is one particular model that?grabbed?our attention: the Atum Pure M. It has several remarkable technical and visual properties which Id like to point out.Atum Pure M in stainless steel with jade green accentsSecond?CollectionThe Atum is definitely one of the cornerstones since 2013 and this year the watch brand is expanding the collection of the model. It is the second collection?of Moritz Grossman and named after the mythological god of creation: Atum. We have been told that the...

Since they began their association with Phillips auction house to reboot the watch department, the power couple, Aurel Bacs & Livia Russo, have been rocking the watch auction scene. They have done that with exciting auctions and impressive results. Their two upcoming Geneva auctions in May, including their thematic stainless steel chronograph sale (entitled Start-Stop-Reset), are again impressive. The catalogs are simple and elegant yet bold and exciting. The adrenaline filled action in the room during their auctions is something that watch aficionados fly in to see live or watch via streaming video.There are a few smart moves to note for this team that has put them on top. It begins wit...

The Bulova Stars and Stripes chronograph is the perfect thematic embodiment of what I like so much about vintage watches. Namely, its a watch unlike anything produced by the brand prior to its 1970 debut and when production ceased only a year later, Bulova never produced anything like it again. Call it a case of cold feet, a reflexive reaction to the automatic chronograph onslaught, or whatever, but the fact remains that this watch was a one and done from the brand that brought us innovation such as the Accutron. Still, though, I think youll soon agree that this watch is worth a discussion here on #TBT. Lets check out the rockets red glare on what must be one of the most unique watches in my...

What were having today at the Fratello Head Quarters, is a real mens dress watch. A type of watch that is not often discussed here, but since this watch ?is such a prime example of what a dress watch should be, an exception has been made.Nowadays any watch, thats not a 47mm diver, is often called a dress watch. Even well known watch blogs, dare to?call a Datejust or Panerai Radiomir a dress watch and while many guys wear those watches with cuffed shirts and to wedding parties, its a fact that many occasions require a different and more discreet type of watch, or no watch at all.Van Cleef & Arpels, well-known for their exclusive collection of jewelry and ladies watches, also has a great ...

Are you looking to buy an Omega Speedmaster but don t know where to start? We re here to help! Over the past 65+ years, Omega has created many variations of one of the world s most famous chronographs. The classic 42mm Moonwatch has been in the collection since 1965, and to the novice eye, little has changed since then. But if you look a bit closer, you will find that the Speedmaster evolved quite a bit in the decades that followed.In this Speedmaster guide, we ll give you an overview of the most important references of the Speedmaster (Professional) and some of its variations. Although this article isn t meant as a pricing guide, we will give some hints, of course. If you re already a knowl...

I ve had several discussion with watch brands on the pre-owned (and vintage) market. Why not take control over their heritage pieces and instead of cursing at on-line market places selling new, pre-owned and vintage watches, do something yourself. Either team-up or start your own alternative.Linde Werdelin noticed that there is quite some demand for sold-out Linde Werdelin timepieces, whether they are delivered to the market last year or in 2006 (their Founders Watch was introduced late 2006).From 2006 till today, Linde Werdelin has produced 4500 individual pieces across 73 individual series. No wonder that there can be high demand for these pieces, as these watches should be regarded as ver...

Reviewing a watch thats outside of ones comfort zone is a good way to keep things fresh: and so it was when I received the very blue Christopher Ward C9 Moonphase. As the resident vintage nut at Fratello Watches who squarely focuses on watches of the chronograph persuasion, I must admit that this was the first moonphase watch Id actually played with. While the Single Pusher Chronograph that Blaise reviewed from Chirstopher Ward might be more my speed, I actually wanted to try something different. Why was that?The Christopher Ward C9 Moonphase has a multi-leveled dialChristopher Ward at SalonQPWe actually have to go back almost six months ago (!!) to SalonQP in London where we first met the C...

June 8, 2017: You can now sign-up for the same adventure as described in this article. Sign-up for the Grand Seiko Experience with Fratello Watches.Last year in October,?I traveled to Japan to join the Seiko Media Experience 2015 tour with 6 other journalists (a.o Jason Heaton, from the Grey Nato, Thomas Wanka from Uhren Magazine?and James Buttery from Watch Pro). It was a trip to remember and I decided to report about this trip in three separate articles.Part 1 C Visit to the (Grand) Seiko and Credor facilities?in Morioka and Shiojiri;Part 2 C Astron GPS and Prospex collections;Part 3 C Seiko Museum visit and interview with Mr HattoriThis is the third and final part of my Seiko Factory Visi...

By the PairAs our host with the most Mike Stockton is busy with other things this week, Im going to take over his world famous #TBT?to bring you yet another amazing time piece from a brand that failed victim to the quartz crisis; Angelus.A good few months ago when I did a guest appearance on #TBT I talked a bit about the Angelus L.E. that was issued to the Hungarian Air Force in the 1950s. I still have that watch in my collection but even then I was eyeing another model.I?love watches with complications, let that be a moon phase, chronograph, triple calendar or even just a date. When you have them combined, as in this case,?thats something worth a closer look. The Chronodato models??were on ...