Arnold & Son was one of the biggest surprised for me at this year s Baselworld. The timepieces showcased to us by one of their master watchmakers were both from Arnold & Son s Instrument and Royal collection. Let us start by showing you the Arnold & Son HM Perpetual Moon timepieces from the Royal collection. In this article, we feature both the blue guilloche dial version in red gold as well as the silver guilloche dial in stainless steel. That s right, this watch will also be available in stainless steel. Last but not least, there is a red gold version of the HM Perpetual Moon timepiece with a beautiful cream coloured dial with a translucent blue lacquered guilloche Moon disc.Pe...
There is no need to introduce WatchUseek to you, the biggest on-line watch community on this planet. In the past, a number of limited or special edition watches have been created for WatchUseek. However, last weekend I came across this WatchUseek Edition Rattrapante by watch manufacturer TNT. As you can see, a very interesting ‘bullhead design with a rattrapante complication inside.Torsten Nagengast TimepiecesTNT is operated by Torsten Nagengast, a German watch manufacturer that has over 20 years of experience in the field of watch projects. Especially for WatchUseek readers, he designed this bullhead rattrapante watch. Torsten was able to source a number of rattrapante movements, bas...
Omega Speedmaster Plaisted Polar Expedition 1968!A sextant and a Speedmaster was all they had to calculate their exact position. Four brave men who had travelled for 44 days to conquer 1320 kilometres across the Polar cap reached their destination: the exact geographic North Pole at 90 degrees latitude North.The mission was led by American explorer Ralph S. Plaisted. The other men in his team were Gerald Pitzl (navigator), Walter Pederson (the mechanical engineer) and Jean-Luc Bombardier (scout and technician). All four men were wearing an Omega Speedmaster Professional reference 145.012. The same reference that was used during the Apollo 11 mission approximately a year later.During this mis...
Buzz Aldrin s Speedmaster!Once in a while we have guest contributors for the Speedy Tuesday topic. Today s it is Boris of the Watches and Art blog and contributor to WatchTime.net. Just recently, he also contributed to Speedy Tuesday with his wonderful Omega Speedmaster ref. 2998-61. Today, Boris contributes with a story on his Omega Speedmaster Professional 145.012, supposedly the same reference that Buzz Aldrin had in space. Although it has never been confirmed and we ve seen other references for Adrin s watch as well.Note – In the meanwhile we know that Aldrin and Armstrong wore 105.012 references and Collins wore a 145.012 during the Apollo 11 mission. This has been confirmed to us...
Remember Ikepod watches? Watches with a futuristic design that were out-of-the-ordinary. A number of their watches were designed by Marc Newson (who later also designed an Atmos clock for Jaeger-LeCoultre).My favourite model was definitely the Ikepod Hemipode Cunningham Chronograph, but to this day.. I am not even sure if this company still exists. In any case, the original founder of that company was Oliver Ike. He started Ikepod in 1996 and quickly moved on to be a consultant to other watch brands. However, he found it challenging to work on other brand s master pieces while he still had his own master piece in mind.A. Manzoni & FilsOliver Ike and Swiss watchmakers A.Manzoni & Fils...
Every month my company Chronolytics sends out a newsletter to the watch industry, watch enthusiasts and press with some facts & figures on watch consumers and their ‘behavior . Today s newsletter is about the awareness of German watch brands by consumers from the USA. Based on IP-address and cookies, Chronolytics is able to track the on-line behavior of millions of watch enthusiasts on the largest watch market platform in the world. I thought it would be interesting to show how German watch brands are doing in the USA, as some of them are clearly trying (and with quite some positive results) to get a piece of the US market for (luxury) watches.This article is an excerpt of the orig...
Omega?Speedmaster Pro 145.022This week s Speedmaster is something that came out of a dusty cabin in Finland. Aki from Finland received this Omega Speedmaster Professional reference 145.022 from his dad, after it had been collecting dust for years. Although the papers and original invoice have been lost, the watch still has the original red box from 1982.Speedmaster Pro 145.022The Omega Speedmaster Professional 145.022 was introduced in 1968, the first watch to have the Lemania based caliber 861 movement. In comparison to the previous Speedmaster Pro 145.012 model, the most obvious changes are the dial, chronograph second hand and bracelet. Under the hood, Omega stopped using the column wheel...
The Speedmaster long before it became know as the MoonwatchIt is Speedy Tuesday! Today we have a guest contributor that writes about his much beloved Omega Speedmaster. Our friend from WatchesandArt in Germany has sent us his story on his love for Speedmasters and queste for the right one (CK2998-61).Over the years, I have had different Omega Speedmasters from different periods of time. I started with the famous Moonwatch, an unworn example in 1998 which I kept for over a decade before letting it go. In the meantime, many other Speedies from different periods of time arrived on my wrist, references such as the reference 145.022 from 1969, 145.012 from 1967 and 145.003 from 1965. None of them...
Speedmaster Pro Ref. 145.012-67Today we feature one of the most popular vintage Speedmaster watches with a caliber 321 movement: The Speedmaster Pro reference 145.012. We have featured this specific reference number many times before here, as it was one of the watches that was worn by an Apollo 11 crew member in 1969. Also, as it is one of the most common caliber 321 Speedmaster models, it means you are able to source one without too many problems (and money).Speedmaster Professional 145.012We did a comparison between this Speedmaster Prfofessional 145.012 model and a modern Speedmaster Professional 3570.50 in the past (click here for that story), to show you the changes Omega applied to the...
UTS Mnchen was founded in 1999 by a German engineer by the name of Nicolaus Spinner. He decided to create watch cases with the highest precision for diving purposes. The watch cases are being designed and manufactured in-house in the workshop in Holzkirchen, a small village below Munich in Germany. Our photographer Bert Buijsrogge was able to get his hands on a UTS Diver 3000, a watch that has been created by Spinner in Germany approximately 8 years ago and still going strong in the UTS Mnchen collection.We have a 2008 model that was made available through a local watch dealer here in The Netherlands, Local-Time. Normally focused on watches, but the owner of Local-Time thought that this U...
Trip To New York!It s Speedy Tuesday! I remember that a few years ago, I wasn t too fond of all the limited edition Speedmaster Professional models that were being introduced. However, over time that changed a bit – although I still do not get all of them – and I am now looking forward to Baselworld each year to see if there is a mission patch model or limited edition in the new collection. One of the biggest regrets I had when it comes to watches, is that I did not buy the Omega Speedmaster Professional ‘Snoopy when it came out in 2004.I ve come so close to pull the trigger on a Snoopy Speedmaster a few times, but it was either too expensive in my opinion (which I regrett...
We love BMW but we ve to admit that we aren t that familiar with BALL watches. Since a while, BMW has a partnership with this watchmaker from the USA who has its roots in the world of rail roads. Timekeeping was very important in those early rail road years, to prevent terrible accidents from happening (again).Our friend Christopher Beccan from Bexsonn (watches x whisky) wrote an excellent article on BALL for BMW and put the spotlight on two different models: GMT and Classic. Our preference? The GMT. Why? It s purity and clear ‘engineered inspiration. The case and bracelet reminds us a bit of the discontinued IWC GST.We do feel that this watch has some shortcomings as well. The GMT ha...
Omega Speedmaster Mark IIIt s Speedy Tuesday! Once in a while we ask someone to contribute to Speedy Tuesday. Today I am honored that my long time friend Ruckdee was willing to do a write-up on how he got his Omega Speedmaster Professional Mark II. It isn t a story about the watch, but a story about things that matter in life and sure, the watch plays an important role here.My Speedmaster Professional Mark II – by RuckdeeSeeing RJs recent call for a Speedmaster Mark II, I feel I should contribute with a small story of my own.?It may be more about the journey than the watch itself, so please bear with me. If you are a son and you are not speaking to your father or mother, I highly recom...
Once in a while we are being confronted with the scum of the Earth who steal other people s stuff. In the worst case scenario, with violence. On the 5th of July one of our friends was robbed during a watch trade in Amsterdam. It concerns the following watch:Patek Philippe Nautilus reference 5726/1ASerial number: 5686847 / 4587076Reference number: 5726 / 1A – 010Dial number: H900.936.THNT1If you come across this watch or know more about it, please contact the Watches and Art blog. A $5000 reward is there for the one who is able to get this watch back to its rightful owner.Photo shown above is not the actual watch but a similar watch. Please refer to the link above to see pictures of the...
Mille Miglia 2013Chopard has been partner of this famous (and beautiful) Italian rally since 1988. Every year, Chopard introduces a sporty Mille Miglia limited edition to commemorate the rally. This year, Chopard showed us the Mille Miglia 2013 timepieces when we were in Basel visiting the biggest watch exhibition in the world.Chopard is not only a family-owned business by the Scheufele family, they also share another passion: the Mille Miglia. This passion for the Mille Miglia is shared by Chopards Co-President Karl-Friedrich Scheufele and his father, Karl Scheufele III, Honorary President of Chopard. Karl-Friedrich Scheufele s wife sometimes accompanies him as well as a co-driver.The Mille...
Omega Speedmaster LegendIt s Speedy Tuesday! As you probably know, when the Speedmaster was being introduced in 1957 there were no signs of a role in the space program yet. The Speedmaster was essentially meant for sports people and race car drivers. Once in a while, Omega still grabs back to the heritage of car racing and introduces a Speedmaster that has a link with racing.Michael Schumacher was ambassador for Omega for a long time before hopping over to Audemars Piguet. However, when he won the world title in F1 racing for the 6th time (2003), Omega decided to introduce a Speedmaster broad arrow model to commemorate this accomplishment by the German F1 pilot. The Speedmaster Legend was bo...
Last week we introduced you to the U-Boat U-51 Chimera Bronze edition, if you haven t read it yet, go there first as it has a small introduction on the brand as well.We decided to do a U-Boat review once every week in July and we picked this U-Boat U-42 B&B reference 6947 as our second watch to review.The case parts of this 53mm large U-42 (which refers to the founding year of the company by Italo Fontana s (CEO) grandfather and certainly not to the size of the watch) have been made out of titanium with a black coating. However, the size of 53mm doesn t appear to be extra-ordinary, just plain large.However, if you ever seen one of the Fratello guys, you know we re no slim and short guys....
Chris Beccan of Bexsonn, a blog based in The United Kingdom about watches and whisky just performed a review on the Hanhart Pioneer MonoScope timepiece. A mono-pusher chronograph from a Swiss-German watch company or better yet, a chronograph company. This +130 year old company which has firm roots in pilot chronographs, being one of the first manufacturers that used a column wheel chronograph movement for pilot s watches.The review on Bexsonn gives some company background first, including some trivial information about their historical chronograph movements and why Hanhart uses the red pushers on their chronographs. Besides sharing his opinion about the Pioneer Monoscope, Chris also shows hi...
From now on, Fratellowatches will feature an Insider s Story once in a while, where a collector or subject matter expert will tell you about a special watch, technical concepts or specific movements. This first Insider s Story is written by Tim Siragusa from Australia. He shares his expertise on the Girard-Perregaux Gyromatic Chronometer?HF (High Frequency) caliber 32A. His never-ending enthusiasm for this chronometer rated caliber 32A movement has led him to write a story on this item.Click the link below and enjoy!Insider s Story on the Girard-Perregaux Gyromatic Chronometer HF by Tim Siragusa...
Speedmaster 57 Re-editionsIt s Speedy Tuesday! We probably don t have to tell you that very first Speedmaster has been introduced in 1957. This highly-sought after model has become very expensive over the years (if you can find one in original condition at all). Over the years, Omega introduced several models that were heavily influenced by this very first reference CK2915 Speedmaster from 1957. The first that we know of was the Speedmaster 57 replica that they introduced in 1997. This watch was also part of the famous Omega Speedmaster Missions suitcases. This year, Omega introduced the new Speedmaster 57 Co-Axial Chronograph Calibre 9300 and 9301 models.During Baselworld, Omega showed u...
