For most horological aficionados, visiting their favorite manufacture is a necessary pilgrimage along the path. I ve had the privilege to visit a few in my time, however living halfway around the world makes this a bit more of an expedition than is convenient. However, on my last assignment to Switzerland, I happened to have a free day, and the folks at Jaeger-LeCoultre were extremely accommodating…Enjoy the photo essay – it s more of a story of how a watch is made, and a slight deviation from normal programming here at Fratellowatches, but I think you ll find it interesting all the same.Images shot with an Olympus OM-D and Panasonic 20/1.7 and 45/2.8 macro lenses. Each image can...

Speedmaster Professional Pre MoonIt is Speedy Tuesday today, which means it is our recurring topic: Speedy Tuesday! Every week we pick a Speedmaster and put it in the spotlight here at Fratellowatches. This week, we have the follow-up model of the Speedmaster we covered here two weeks ago (click here).Our reader, who would like to stay anonymous, has this wonderful Speedmaster Professional Pre Moon ref.145.012 model that he purchased from the son of the original owner. The Speedmaster Professional Pre Moon watch was originally purchased on October 9th, 1969. Just a couple of months after the Moon landing. This Speedmaster Professional Pre Moon watch is complete with all documentation (and re...

If you are in London between the 3rd of July and the 2nd of October, make sure to pay 170 New Bond Street in London a visit. Haute Horlogerie boutique Marcus is celebrating three important things, his late father s arrival in England in 1932, his 70th birthday and the 10th anniversary of his magnificent shop in London.On the picture above, you see owner Marcus Margulies wearing his AP RO, as also featured in the book about 40 years of Royal Oak.The Marcus watch store in London only hosts very interesting and often unique timepieces, including those of Alain Silberstein, Audemars Piguet (they always have +150 models in store), Greubel Forsey, Ikepod, MCT, Richard Mille and Urwerk to name a fe...

Earlier this week, I was invited for a media lunch with Hublot s new CEO, Mr. Ricardo Guadalupe, and their Asia-Pacific Regional Director, Ms. Miwa Sakai, who happened to be visiting Kuala Lumpur on an Asian tour.All images may be clicked on for larger versions.In addition to enjoying an excellent steak, I also had the chance to play with and photograph the new pieces introduced at Basel earlier in the year.I ve personally found a lot of the brand s pieces rather lukewarm in the past – it wasn t the aesthetics that didn t do it for me, but rather the lack of anything serious under the hood. However, with the recent Masterpieces, the Unico in-house chronograph caliber, and the new colle...

Omega Speedmaster 125It s Speedy Tuesday! This week s Speedmaster for our Speedy Tuesday is a bit of a strange duck in the bite, but has quite an interesting story to it. In 1973, Omega celebrated their 125th anniversary by introducing a limited edition Speedmaster 125 for this occasion. The Speedmaster 125 was the first automatic chronograph watch that was chronometer certified. The Lemania based caliber 1041 movement has only been used in this Speedmaster 125 watch and was based on the more common caliber 1040 movement.Enough for the tech-talk. As you can see on Omega s ‘Extract of the Archives document pictured above, Omega limited the production of this Speedmaster 125 to 2000 pie...

Despite being completely unpronounceable, this watch is just plain outright cool. The brainchild of Max Bsser (MB&F) and Felix Baumgartner (URWERK), it is the first watch to use an eccentric planetary transmission system for the timekeeping mechanism – i.e. the same geometry as the Wankel engine.Curiously, there s only one ratio of inner to outer satellite that actually permits the three distinct chambers to be formed; any other ratio doesn t seal at all. The minutes are read off the red tips of the upper ‘rotor , with the hours on the level below. There is no seconds indication, but there is a power reserve indicator on the back of the watch. All of the indications are lumi...

For IWC, 2009 is the year of the Aquatimer relaunch. IWC s first Aquatimer saw daylight in 1967 and I doubt that one of these first models ever saw some water, because they didn t look very water resistant. However, looks might be deceiving because IWC claimed it to be water resistant to 200 meters. Anyway, between 1967 and now, IWC has had several sports watches (GST, Ocean, Aquatimer) suitable for use below the surface.The new line of Aquatimers have been presented at SIHH 2009 and a number of jewelers organized introduction events for their customers (click here for the Ace Jewelers presentation earlier this year). One of my personal favorites this year, is the IWC Aquatimer Chronograph E...

Vintage SpeedmasterIt s Speedy Tuesday! When you buy a vintage Speedmaster watch, one of the thoughts that might occur is that you wonder what kind of life the watch had before you bought it. Who bought it in the first place? Why did this person picked this watch? Where has the watch been? This of course, goes for the watches that doesn t come with ‘provenance or are not inherited. Although even then it is still interesting to ponder about these things.Today s Speedmaster in our weekly Speedy Tuesday topic is one that has seen things that we can only dream about. Watch enthusiast Guido Maniscalco bought this vintage?Speedmaster Professional 105.012 from the widow of an inspector at Va...

We say Cartier and you will probably say Tank. The Tank is a watch that has been in Cartier s collection since 1919 and designed by Louis Cartier (hence the LC). The prototype was already built in 1917, but the model was marketed two years later.Pictured below is a LC Tank that dates back to 1998, in platinum and with a very flat F. Piguet movement? (Cartier s 021MC caliber). This watch measures 33.5 x 25.5mm.Photo by Geo, www.troisanneaux.comInspired by the armored Renault tank (1917), the Cartier Tank watch was given to General John Pershing, who served in Europe during the first World War. If you take a close look at the Tank watch, it looks like the horizontal section of an armored tank....

Just a few moments ago, Kuyl Watches has been introduced to a number of watch journalists, enthusiasts, bloggers and friends in The Hague.Owner Jan Jaap Kuyl welcomed the attendees at the opening reception in the Watch-Site boutique (official dealer) and presented his first collection of timepieces.Timepieces by Kuyl Watches are modern looking with a classic twist. The hands, hour markers and leather strap make it a classic timepiece, but the large case is up-to-date and very wearable for young people.Most impressive is the case, designed by Jan Jaap Kuyl and manufactured in Germany with the greatest care and precision. The Swiss movement is a Sellita SW200 (basically the same as ETA s 2824-...

Rafael Nadal, who won Roland Garros for the 7th time last Monday, reported his Richard Mille RM027 Tourbillon stolen from his hotel in Paris. This $374.000 USD tourbillon time piece was lend to him by sponsor Richard Mille. Unfortunately for Rafael Nadal (and Richard Mille), it wasn t the first time that he lost one of his precious RM pieces. It happed before in 2010 with his $500K USD Richard Mille.French news paper ‘Le Parisien reported that the police traced the swiping card from hotel room and ended up arresting a bar tender from the hotel. The bar tender confessed the theft and led the police to the watch on Tuesday night. The bar tender hid the watch near a Metro rail track wher...

Omega Speedmaster Professional MIROne of Fratello s regular readers submitted his Omega Speedmaster Professional MIR edition for our Speedy Tuesday! Only 28 pieces have been made in stainless steel and 7 in gold. This limited edition Speedmaster Professional commemorates the second American-Russian space link-up (the first was the Apollo-Soyuz, which also had its special Speedies to commemorate).The stainless steel version comes with two references, one for the 18 examples with a steel bracelet (ST 345.0022.105) and one for the 10 examples with a leather strap (ST 145.0022.105). The steel version has the Lemania based handwound caliber 861 movement and the gold version has the luxury finishe...

This year is the 40th anniversary of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and it is being celebrated by a number of very cool exhibitions throughout the whole year. After the exhibitions in New York and Milan, it was now time for an exciting event in Paris, France. Audemars Piguet hosted the exhibition in the center of Paris, near the Eiffel tower, in Palais de Tokyo.Fratellowatches was invited by Audemars Piguet Switzerland for the opening reception on Tuesday the 5th of June and the next morning on the 6th of June for press-only. At 13:00h on the 6th of June, the exhibition opened for the public. On Tuesday evening, the exhibition was opened by Tim Sayler (Chief Marketing Officer) and Octavio Gar...

Omega Speedmaster Pro ‘Moonwatch This is our second Speedy Tuesday on Fratello Watches and this week s pick is the Omega Speedmaster Professional with reference number 105.012 and caliber 321 movement. Every Omega Speedmaster enthusiast knows that this is the same model that went to the Moon on the wrist of Neil Armstrong (we covered it here).Besides the pictured Omega Speedmaster ref. 105.012, astronaut Collins was wearing a similar model, the Speedmaster ref.145.012. Buzz Aldrin supposedly wore the 105.003 (pre-Professional), but this watch got stolen afterwards.Speedmaster fan Jmsrolls (John) shot a picture of his ref.105.012 Speedy on a 1969 copy of National Geographics magazine, c...

We proud to be the first to announce that there will be another Dutch player on the market of luxury watches. In a few weeks from now, the brand will introduce itself here in The Netherlands. Location yet to be revealed.What we can say (by having seen and tried the watches in the flesh):Superb design and finish;Affordable;Mechanical;Can be customized.In about two weeks for now, we will be able to give more information about this new Dutch brand, specifications, photos and pricing. We are very excited about it and we re pretty sure that this watch is going to be a huge success.More information soon!...

Perhaps the mother of all modern wrist watches, the Datejust. Although it has been succeeded by the Datejust II (which we described here as the new cool), the 36mm Datejust remains a classic timepiece. introduced the Datejust collection in 1946 and although those very first Datejust models are looking a bit different from the models we know from the 1960s-now, they are unmistakably ancestors of the current Datejust II.For today s standards, a classic Datejust might just be a bit boring. It is its history that makes it a cool watch though. It is probably the most recognized Swiss wrist watch, you ve seen them on the wrists of tourists, colleagues, movie stars, singers, politicians and sports...

Last weekend, the 24 hours of the Nrburgring were raced and Fratellowatches was there with Jaeger-LeCoultre and Aston Martin. Besides enjoying the race and the finish of the Aston Martin team, there was also some time and room to view the Jaeger-LeCoultre collection and follow a short master class in watchmaking.Before entering the Aston Martin terrace in the Dorint Hotel at Nrburgring with the most perfect view on the racing track, I followed the short master class on watchmaking given by one of Jaeger-LeCoultre s watchmakers from Le Sentier. They brought their work bench to the racing track and with the sound of super sports cars in the back ground, I tried disassembling and assembling t...

I though that our previous articles (part 1 and part 2) about the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 15202 (Jumbo) versus 15300 were quite explanatory, but it seems that I might be wrong about that. It also might have to do with the fact that AP recently introduced the new version of the 15202 (click here) with some minor changes in the design that revert to the original 5402 of the 1970s.Furthermore, a successor for the 15300 has been announced already as well, same goes for the Royal Oak Chronograph edition (26300 becomes 26320). In these cases, the case diameter grew from 39mm to 41mm and the wording on the dial has been blown up as well. Not sure whether this is something I like.Anyway, let s kee...

Dutch movie ‘Jackie , which is in the theaters as of today, is about two twin sisters who have been raised by their father, who receive a phone call one day from their – unknown – biological mother who lives in the US. The twin sisters, played by Carice (a.o. Valkyrie) and Jelka van Houten are sisters in real life as well. Both wear a Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Lady in this movie.Jaeger-LeCoultre have been favored in movies numerous times. What about Justin Timberlake wearing a Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control in Bad Teacher, or Pierce Brosnan wearing a Reverso Duoface in the Thomas Crown affair. In the original Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Steve McQueen appearantly wore a Jaeg...

This is what happens if you put 5 fans of Gerald Genta designs in one room. Yesterday, our very own watch photographer Bert invited us over to his crib for the perfect BBQ (no vegetables) and show all our Genta stuff while enjoying good food and drinks.As you can see, we brought the usual suspects. 2x Patek Philippe Nautilus 3700/1A, 2x Nautilus 5711/1A, 1x Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 5402ST, 1x Royal Oak 14802 and 2x a Royal Oak 15202ST. All considered to be the ‘Jumbo models as designed by Gerald Genta. On top of that, there were some deviations of the original models such as the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph 26300, the Royal Oak Lady and an IWC Ingenieur SL Automatic in gold....