Today, the 27th of April is King s Day in the Netherlands. King Willem-Alexander van Oranje celebrates his birthday and therefore I will show some watches that have a bit of orange (oranje) in them.King Willem-Alexander is also a big fan of watches, and you might even see him wearing an Omega Speedmaster once in a while. I personally think it is cool that he wears a Speedmaster while he can (and probably does) wear any high-end brand on any day of the week. His wife, Queen?Maxima Zorreguieta, often wears a .FOTO: ? GTRESONLINEAfter seeing an image of Willem-Alexander in a Dutch newspaper, I thought I recognized a Speedmaster on his wrist. After going through dozens of images of our King, I f...

A few Speedy Tuesdays ago, we showed you the new Omega Speedmaster Moonphase Co-Axial Master Chronometer collection, except for the version in platinum. This limited edition of 57 pieces only (referring to 1957, the founding year of the Speedmaster collection), with a case made of platinum,?using red liquidmetal(tm) for its bezel and has a platinum dial. Using a platinum dial and red accents made me think of the introduced?Globemaster Annual Calendar in platinum as well.More background information on the Speedmaster Moonphase watches and calibers as well as an introduction of the Speedmaster Moonphase Co-Axial Master Chronometer can be found here.You can ask yourself whether a Speedmaster sh...

When the watch craze begun for me, somewhere in the 1990 s, I met with a watchmaker (who I became friends with) who had this interest in Zenith s El Primero chronograph movements. Oh, and gold watches. He showed me his Zenith El Primero Chronomaster?with full calendar in gold and I was sold. Every time I see this watch – be it in gold or stainless steel – I remind myself to buy that watch at some point.So, when Zenith contacted me whether we would be interested in doing a review and photo shoot on their Zenith Elite Chronograph Classic I immediately said yes. A while ago Bert and I traveled to Switzerland to do a little tour visiting watch manufacturers and one of them was Zenith...

It is amazing what JC Biver from Hublot accomplished in the past decade or so. Of course, his track record goes much further than Hublot (think Blancpain and Omega for example). Today he manages Hublot and the success he had with the brand is also being applied to TAG Heuer and Zenith.However, those two other LVMH brands have their own customer ‘profile and matching watches. Just like Hublot. You can think or say anything you want about Hublot (some purists regard is as fashion watches, others are totally into them), but they are doing very well since Jean-Claude Biver and?Ricardo Guadalupe are calling the shots.This year, Hublot?introduced a couple of new models that I think are quit...

This weeks #TBT focuses on a model from brand thats finally getting some long overdue attention: the Gallet Multichron 45. Here on Fratello Watches, weve had a couple articles on Gallet C and more are coming C but Ive mainly had my attention on the larger 3-register Multichrons (Gallets name for their chronographs). Today, though, well look at a more diminutive piece thats a lot simpler in execution, but no less interesting. Lets jump into it!The Gallet Multichron 45 is a simple, elegant chronograph that balances dress and sport35mm – don t be afraid!When it comes to watch diameters, 36mm seems to be the cutoff between the wearable and the passe. Im not sure why, but I suppose this siz...

1997, 21 years after the introduction of the Patek Philippe Nautilus stainless steel sports watch, Patek Philippe introduced a new watch aimed at a younger clientele: the Aquanaut. Now, in 2016, almost 20 years later, they?introduce a new variation on the Patek Philippe?Aquanaut?Travel Time, a watch that was introduced in 2011: It is the reference 5164R, where the R stands for rose gold.I ve always been a fan of the Patek Philippe Nautilus 3700/1A and 5711/1A and prefer them as clean as possible (no complications), as it was meant to be in my opinion. That is a bit different with the Aquanaut. Perhaps I am a bit too much of a purist when it comes to watches, but the Aquanaut always was the n...

It was the first time that we actually received a couple of requests to feature this CK2998 on Speedy Tuesday. I already mentioned the Omega Speedmaster CK2998 in this article from a few weeks ago, but that was before BaselWorld started and we didn t had the opportunity to play with the watch.Although the watch has been sold out (to retailers) already and I ve read a couple of remarks on Instagram, Facebook and forums that people hope it will be the same ‘good investment as the Speedmaster Professional Silver Snoopy Award from last year, I definitely believe there are some important differences that need to be mentioned.However, let s have a look at the Omega Speedmaster CK2998 and it...

During the SIHH 2016 in January, IWC showed us a range of new Pilot models – or upgrades of existing models. One of the models that received a lot of attention was the IWC Pilot s Watch Timezoner Chronograph 3950.Although I love the clean designed IWC Mark XVIII, Mark VIII Le Petite Prince edition, Big Pilot and the new BP Heritage watch in 48mm, I have to make an exception for the new IWC Pilot s Watch Timezoner Chronograph 3950 as well.At first sight, I ve found this watch to be relatively cluttered when it comes to the design. It also reminded me a bit of the Breitling Aviastar (I covered that one here). ?But when I gave it a closer look, the watch definitely has these IWC design fe...

Last week we told you that our contributor Teun van Heerebeek will exhibiting his art work during the Salon 0024 in Amsterdam from April 29th to May 1st (more information here).Salon 0024 is offering 5 free tickets for our readers (value: $25 Euro). The only thing you have to do to get these tickets for the Salon 0024 in Amsterdam is shoot us an e-mail with your name and on which day you d like to attend this show (Friday 29th of April, Saturday 30th of April or Sunday 1st of May). (1 ticket per person)The event will take place in the?InterContinental Amstel Amsterdam.Click here to send an e-mail. First come first serve....

Although the new ceramic Daytona 116500 and Explorer 214270?got most attention from this year s novelties from ‘Das Haus , the new 40mm Yacht-Master 116621 – or Yacht-Master 40 as they refer to it themselves – is definitely worth checking out as well.I ve been a long-time fan of the Yacht-Master and had a reference 16622 myself somewhere mid-2000s. I did a bit of trading-up to buy one of my grails, but I some times regret having done so. It was a very nice daily wearer, especially during summer times with its platinum dial, bezel and sporty little red accents on the dial.At the time, the Yacht-Master wasn t the most sought-after time piece and list was somewhere around ...

In this weeks #TBT, we take a look at an absolute classic, but one thats decidedly niche in its execution: the Breitling 809 Cosmonaute. The Cosmonaute is certainly one of the brands better known models, but thats likely due to its familial resemblance to one Breitlings most famous creations: the Navitimer. Today, well explore the model, its significance and, of course, Ill prattle on a bit, but this time about why instant gratification is such a rare and beautiful thing. T-minus 3-2-1-its #TBT time on Fratello Watches!The Breitling 809 Cosmonaute head onI found the Breitling 809 Cosmonaute by accident…As promised, lets start with a ramble because I think it helps demonstrate what can ...

I already shared my thoughts on this year s BaselWorld show a few weeks ago (in this article) where I briefly mentioned Chronoswiss. Like many other brands, Chronoswiss grabbed back to one of their original models: the Regulateur. However, Chronoswiss restructured their collection of watches and uses two pillars: Sirius and Timemaster. These names were used for specific watches in the past, but the collection became so big that they used these names as ‘families . You could say that the sporty Chronoswiss watches belong to the Timemaster collection and the classic watches to the Sirius collection.I ve never been a big fan of the Timemaster and that didn t change with the addition of so...

After the Baselworld storm and some other side projects calmed down, I found some time to work on this tasty episode. This time we zoom in on one of the biggest and most bespoke watches of the flower-power seventies: Breitling 1806 Navitimer., a.k.a Fried Egg. To?me its more a gigantic pan with two fried eggs:ColossalWith its 48mm in diameter this octagonal shaped watch was probably the biggest or one of the biggest watches Breitling produced in the seventies. Its a very technical watch, with lots of measurement functions and a slide rule bezel (more on that in a sec). If we take a look at the dial, there are no less than three subsections/rings to separate the several timing functions besid...

Even in those early days of watch blogs (we re here since 2004!), when a lot of brands didn t even want to put us on their mailinglists of press releases, Linde Werdelin was already a bit different from the others. They understood the influence of on-line media and were very early with having an on-line boutique for their timepieces. Not only that, but they offered a trial of a week (or 5 days) to have a go with their watches. An interesting approach to make people familiar with – and convinced of – your watches. Founders Morten Linde and Jorn Werdelin can be certainly seen as?guys who do things differently, in the world of luxury watches.Now, years later, the Linde Werdelin comp...

The last time we covered an article on (Jorg) Hysek was in 2008, which doesn t do the man as an artist and designer, nor the brand HYSEK justice.Jorg Hysek was born in Berlin in 1953 and emigrated to Switzerland in 1960. After graduating from the Central School of Art in London, and spending four years in the design department, Jorg set up his own agency named HYSEK DESIGN.His work quickly earned him acknowledgement in the watch industry thanks to the timepieces he designed for the most prestigious brands such as Breguet, TAG Heuer, Tiffany, Ebel, Seiko, HD3(*) and many others. Besides reputation in the watch industry Jorg Hysek is highly appreciated for his designs of writing instruments a...

It s Speedy Tuesday and I?could just rant and rave about the newly introduced Speedmaster Grey Side of the Moon with meteorite dial (introduced here) or I could involve the new and much appraised Daytona 116500LN with ceramic bezel in this article. Let s go with the latter, to add a bit of punch.The Daytona doesn t need much introduction, we did an extensive bit of coverage here and the Omega Speedmaster Grey Side of the Moon was reviewed ‘in-depth in this article. However, both models I discuss here today are BaselWorld 2016 novelties and seem to be in the same price range (CHF 11,800 Swiss Francs for the Daytona, $ 13.500 Euro for the Speedmaster). Two?watches?with in-house develo...

We say this every year, but it bears repeating; Sinn is one of our favorite brands. The German company makes great looking, high quality watches that are equipped with loads of innovation and, yet, they manage to price their timepieces on the right side of rational. We always have a great experience meeting with them at the big show, so we were very much looking forward to sitting down with Sinn at Baselworld 2016.First off, Sinn at Baselworld 2016 represented a slight departure. The brand went with a smaller booth this year, as theyre clearly hard at work building a new headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.? Plus, they ve been busy over the last year with new model additions and a new...

Zenith: An exclusive visit to the manufacture, where Zeniths director of movement development shows important construction details. Zenith developed a special complicated watch to celebrate its 150th Anniversary, the Georges Favre Jacot timepiece which is equipped with a fusee and chain constant force system.Zenith traces the roots of this watch to its development of marine clocks.We will meet with the director of the movement development who will explain 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.Then we visit the complicated Zenith w...

Today, Ill provide a brief plug for something Ive really grown to enjoy: The Grey NATO.Its funny, when you move to a foreign country (for me, it was the USA to Germany about four years ago), you gradually let go of certain things from your homeland. This is especially true when it comes to media due to things like time zones and country rights. Miss your favorite TV show? Too bad unless youre willing to go through VPNs, Slingboxes or pay for shows on iTunes. Alternatively, subscribing to English channels here is like a trip back to 1985 C 2008. Seriously, 2 ? Men with Charlie Sheen has been on here every night for over 4 years (I could act as an extra in most episodes as I know all the lines...

Last year we reported about the launching of Angelus. The brand as we know it in the vintage market is the equivalent of extremely high quality with in-house movements and historically significant pieces. Some if you might remember the #TBT I did a few months back on my vintage Angelus 215 L.E. and Im happy to say that more vintage heat from Angelus is in the pipeline. This time however, Id like to talk to you about their 2016 novelties. Bert and I paid them a visit and had a look at their collection.Direction of AngelusSince the re-launch of the brand last years there has been a lot of criticism coming from all sorts of?directions?that Angelus did not stay true to its?roots. People were dis...