It s Speedy Tuesday! As you might have seen in our Speedy Tuesday Event report, Omega brought the original gold commemorative Speedmaster Professional BA 145.022 with them that belonged to astronaut Thomas Kenneth Ken Mattingly II. This Tuesday we discuss his gold Speedy that he – and other astronauts – received as a gift from Omega. Only 1014 of these Speedmasters have been made and even fewer were – of course – particularly for astronauts and other VIPs and have a slightly different engraving then the public models.?Thomas Kenneth Ken MattinglyKen Mattingly worked for NASA from 1966 to 1985 and flew on NASA missions Apollo 16, STS-4 (Space Shuttle) and STS-51-C (Spa...
Recently, I was invited to join the presentation of HYT watches at a very fine restaurant?hosted by one of the top jewelers in The Netherlands,?Pijnenburg in Eindhoven. A mixture of press and clients of Pijnenburg were invited to see the HYT collection and meet with Vincent Perriard (CEO of HYT watches). A perfect reminder that we still had some photos of the initial presentation of the HYT H2 watches earlier this year when we met with Vincent Perriard.Perhaps my bad, but when I first saw the HYT H1 I didn t realize that it is actually not that awkward to have a fluid in your mechanical watch. A fine wrist watch is so often being compared to a car and a movement to an engine. As you know, an...
It has not gone unnoticed that we organized a Speedy Tuesday Event for all those people who are passionate about Speedmaster watches. A lot of media announced the happening on the 29th of October and we have to say that we re overwhelmed by the people who joined us for the Speedy Tuesday Event at the ESA-ESTEC official visitor s centre, Space Expo. A BIG thank you to Omega who made it all possible for us to organize such a cool event. The Speedy Tuesday Event and the support from Omega on this has been the crown on our work regarding the weekly Speedy Tuesday articles.The Omega team making it all possible, special guest James H. Ragan (in the blue shirt) and Fratellowatches Robert-Jan Broer...
The story begins with Michel Parmigiani graduating in 1974 and starting a traditional watchmaking workshop shortly after. Dedicated to his greatest passion, restoration and creating unique pieces for collectors on a side line. In 1980 he was introduced to the Sandoz family and trusted with the restoration of their impressive collection of pocket watches and automatons. Over the years plans rose for a new authentic brand and in 1996 Parmigiani Fleurier (Pf) is born. As they mention on their website, built on a powerful conviction: restoring the value of Swiss watchmaking art as heritage, by making it part of an ongoing tradition of manufacturing expertise. This is expertise realised with the ...
Xetum, the Californian based watch brand from Jeff Kuo and Friend of Fratellowatches for years now, shows us their upcoming November release of the new Xetum PVD Tyndall watch. Now, there already was a PVD Tyndall timepiece, but this time Xetum introduces a limited edition model of 300 pieces only with a carbon fiber dial.Altough the official press release will go out in November, Xetum lets you know that you can be one of the first 75 to pre-order for this PVD Tyndall Carbon Fiber Limited Edition.Xetum PVD TyndallThe Tyndal collection has been there since 2011 (see our more in-depth story here) and is being produced in an environment-friendly manner. Something quite important to Xetum s fou...
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...
Girard-Perregaux is one of these interesting manufacturers from Switzerland that is not on everyone s radar. It is a rather small manufacturer located in La Chaux-de-Fonds but with very impressive and skilled workshops. We ve visited the manufacture of Girard-Perregaux earlier this year (click here) and were quite impressed by their current collection of watches. One of the watches I really fancied myself is their sporty Sea Hawk in stainless steel. Girard-Perregaux sent us this particular watch so we could test drive it for a while and do a review on the Sea Hawk.Some of you who already know Girard-Perregaux quite well, might recognize the Sea Hawk name from their collections from decades a...
It s Speedy Tuesday! We all know the official Omega ambassadors that endorse the latest Seamaster, Deville, Constellation or Speedmaster watch. There is little fun in showing you these guys (or girls) here on Fratellowatches as you probably see them all the time in ads and event reports. As we did with the BMW head of design Adrian van Hooydonk a few weeks ago and with Porsche 911 nut Magnus Walker about a year ago, we d like to show you some ‘real people wearing the Omega Speedmaster watch.As an example, we show you the watch of Dutch TV host Robert Ten Brink. With TV shows like ‘All you need is love and ‘Love is in the air , Robert Ten Brink connects (or tries to) peopl...
When most people think of Cartier, the Fine Watchmaking collection might not be the first thing that come to mind. Their Santos and Tank models are more famous amongst the crowd. Due to our friend Geo (owner of the Troisanneaux website and moderator of the Cartier forum over at Revolution) I became a bit more knowledgeable about this collection myself.In short, the Fine Watchmaking collection is Cartier s showcase for their watchmaking skills. This collection was introduced in 2008 (as a successor to the Collection Privee Cartier Paris (CPCP) collection) and since then a lot of new in-house developed movements and complications have been presented to the watch loving crowd. The focus of the ...
Collectors of vintage watches will probably agree with me that it is all about the details. Although the most frequently asked question about collecting Omega Speedmasters are about the dial and hands, the bezel seems to get some attention as well. Through the years, the bezel of the Speedmaster (pre-)Professional changed quite a bit, which makes it difficult to give straight answers most of the time.For example, the above Speedmaster Professional ACP (which we discussed here) from approx. 1965 has a bezel that seems time correct, but you could also identify this as a bezel from the 1970s. But what gives it away? How to identify the correct bezel for a particular Speedmaster?How to identify ...
The first Cosmograph Daytona was introduced in 1963, which leads into this 50th anniversary of this highly sought-after chronograph. Both new and pre-loved. Although did not came up with the limited or special anniversary edition that many people expected, they did introduce – for the first time – a platinum version of their Cosmograph Daytona and have it reference number 116506. Cosmograph Daytona Ref. 116506When I first saw (and tried) the watch during the Baselworld exhibition, I was impressed by the rather high weight (286 grams) due to the use of platinum, but the colours (ice blue dial and brown ceramic bezel) didn t do it for me at this first encounter.The Daytona has ...
During the Summer, I had the honour to visit the Jaeger-LeCoultre manufacture in Le Sentier, Switzerland. I already knew – of course – that I was dealing with a true manufacture here, but during my visit I realized that I haven t seen anything like it before. I ve been to a high number of watch manufacturers past few years, but Jaeger-LeCoultre surprised me in the most positive sense of the word.I will do a report on the manufacture visit very soon, but first let me show you one of the watches that Jaeger-LeCoultre introduced earlier this year: The Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Calendar.Available in pink gold (reference 1552520) as well as in stainless steel (reference 1558420), a wond...
It s Speedy Tuesday! We are all familiar with the official ambassadors of the Omega brand. ?Big names like George Clooney, Nicole Kidman, Rory McIlroy, Buzz Aldrin, Eugene Cernan, Michael Phelps and a few more are wearing Omega watches as part of their image or job.Nothing strange here, as many watch brands work with official ambassadors to create awareness for both their profession or branch as well as their watches of choice.If you are like the Fratellowatches-team, you will probably like the non-official ambassadors a bit better. (Famous) People that have picked a certain watch for a reason other than sponsorship or ambassadorship. We really can enjoy seeing some actors, singers, car race...
It s Speedy Tuesday! A few months ago, I wrote about the differences between the Speedmaster Professional (regarded as the Moonwatch) and the Speedmaster Reduced. We now have a similar watch to the Reduced, a 39mm automatic Speedmaster watch, especially for the Japanese market. However, where the original Speedmaster Reduced was equipped with a piggy back movement Omega caliber 3320, this Japanese Speedmaster reference 3513.53.00 has an Omega caliber 1152 movement, based on the ETA/Valjoux 7750.Where the Omega caliber 3220 movement is a piggy back movement (Dubois-Depraz 2020 chronograph add-on module on top of the ETA base movement), the caliber 1152 or ETA/Valjoux 7750 in this Japanese mar...
The much talked about Only Watch 2013 show raised a mind blowing 5mio Euro for research on?Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Over 300 people (including bidders) witnessed the auction in person and numerous bidders on-line and by telephone. A number of watches did not fetch their estimate, but some of them compensated for that, in full. What about the Patek Philippe 5004T that was estimated between $400.000,- and $600.000,- but changed ownership for no less than??$ 2.950.000,-.We ve been running the Only Watch 2013 banner campagne for quite a while here (the pink one, remember?) and were quite keen on following the actual auction by the minute. Luckily, our friends of Watchonista and In2Watches he...
Remember our previous article on the Chopard L.U.C. Engine One by our contributor Angus Davies? Earlier this year, during BaselWorld, we got?acquainted with the Chopard L.U.C. Engine One H Tourbillon in titanium. Limited to 100 pieces only.L.U.C. Engine One H TourbillonThe L.U.C. collection of Chopard is – as you probably know already – their most prestigious selection of watches that are being manufactured in their Chopard facility in Fleurier, Switzerland.The Chopard L.U.C. Engine One H Tourbillon has more or less the same appearance as the previous discussed Engine One Tourbillon, but with a different shaped case. Clearly influenced by racing cars, the dial had a number of red...
Every Friday I write an article for the website of USA s best read watch magazine, WatchTime. Yesterday s article is about my personal Top 5 of rectangular watches.Rectangular watches do not seem to be my style. In all the years of watch collecting, I ve only had a few in my modest collection of watches and most of the time sold them quickly again. I also was able to borrow a few pieces, such as the Jaeger-LeCoultre Grande Reverso 1931 you can see above (and which we reviewed here) but perhaps too short to start a long lasting relationship with it.It is not that I dislike their looks, I actually love the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso collection for example. But somehow I can t get used to look at...
It s Speedy Tuesday!?A few weeks ago, our watch photographer did a photoshoot with a number of Omega Speedmaster watches. Ranging from vintage to new and including a few (rare) limited edition Speedies as well.Speedmaster Printing and TypographyIn this photo essay we selected the coolest Omega Speedmaster pictures and present them to you. With this photo essay we try to show you the details of the Speedmaster designs and wonderful different dials and styles they had over the decades.The Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch wording and logo is printed in white since 1968 and its typography changed a tiny bit since then. Long ‘r , a wide ‘S , large ‘OMEGA or a tad bit sm...
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...
It is that time of the year again! What are the finest timepieces of 2013? Our partner website in Poland, Chronos24.pl, organizes the Watch Of The Year election for the 4th time in a row.As a reader, you can vote for your favorite Watch of the Year 2013 timepiece. Chronos24.pl allows you to pick one watch from all the nominated timepieces. The nominated timepieces have been chosen by the Chronos24.pl team,?Dariusz Chlastawa (president of the Polish Watch and Clocks Collectors Club) and watch journalists Elizabeth Doerr, Kristian Haagen and Miguel Saebra.Click here to go the Watch of the Year 2013 page and vote for your favorite 2013 timepiece!...
