I remember being very enthusiastic about the re-invented Milgauss watches in 2007. I am a regular visitor of several forums, and most active on the Dutch forum, as writing/reading posts in your mother language still works best. It occured to me that only few forum visitors/members have a Milgauss in their collection (or as their only watch). When I just visited the sales corner of ‘das R-L-X forum, I noticed quite a few for sale, including those with the green saphire crystal called Milgauss GV.Although the odds were different one year ago, the Milgauss doesn t seem to be an immediate hit as I expected it would be. The period where prices were over the list price is long gone alr...

My fellow Omega addict Mauriche, mailed me a photo of his wonderful Omega Marine Chronometer. This is not the average clunky 1970s Omega watch, this one is quite special actually. The Omega Marine Chronometer features a 2.4Mhz quartz movement that is graded as a ‘Marine Chronometer . There are similar Omega Megaquartz 2400 watches from that era, but these lack the ‘Marine Chronometer wording on the bezel of the watch. The Omega Megaquartz 2400 was introduced in 1973 in both gold and steel versions (reference BA/ST 396.0806) and in 1974, Omega introduced the ‘Marine Chronometer model in steel (ST 398.0836) with caliber 1511 and in 1975 (ST 398.0832) with caliber 1516. The ...

The Atmos clock by Jaeger LeCoultre always has intrigued me. I really love the later models with a moonphase and in rhodium plated steel.These clocks do not need a power plug or a winding key. Atmos clocks get their energy from temperature changes in the environment. The following explanation is grabbed from the Atmos wikipage, as I couldn t say it better (in English at least):Its power source is a hermetically sealed capsule containing a mixture of gas and liquid ethyl chloride, which expands into an expansion chamber as the temperature rises, compressing a spiral spring; with a fall in temperature the gas condenses and the spring slackens. This motion constantly winds the mainspring. A var...

As promised (to Martijn, see the comments of the GP post below), I hereby post a few pictures of a watch that I bought a few months ago, from a fellow Dutch collector. It is a Titus Geneve chronograph from the 1940s (ca.1946-1948) with a Landeron 48 handwound movement. It is a 38mm watch, which was quite big for those days, in a 18ct red gold case. The case is very light and has a metal ‘ring inside, to make the thin 18kt red gold case a bit of solid. I was told that these watches were quite populair for US ex-soldiers from WWII to bring home, because these were one of the few gold watches allowed for them to import. I am not sure, but I think there were some kind of restrictions for ...

Today, Roger Ruegger pointed out to me that The Crossing is being presented by IWC on their website. The Crossing has been played in front of 1700 guests during a gala night organised by IWC at the SIHH watch fair earlier this year.The text below is a short summary of the official press release by IWC:IWC presents the short film of a multimedia performance by the Sydney Theatre Company, interpreting the story of how the watch manufacturer was founded and starring Cate Blanchett and Joseph Fiennes. The watch manufacturer IWC Schaffhausen is celebrating the online premiere of ????Minutes of a Separation????, with the lead roles played by Oscar winner Cate Blanchett and Hollywood actor Jo...

About seven years ago, in 2001, I had this Bulova Accutron Spaceview wrist watch. I wrote a review on that watch and posted it here.I bought it off eBay and wore it for about a year or so before I traded it again. I remember that I was too afraid of damaging the movement, which would result in having a useless watch in my drawer. Repairing an Bulova Accutron is expensive and time consuming. Good spare parts are hard to find. However, there is hope. The Watch and Clock Forum created an Accutron forum. Perhaps I should have kept it and wait until there was this Accutron community ?? The nicest Accutron Spaceview I ve ever seen is a triangular cased 14ct white gold version on a leather strap. B...

As most of you probably are member of LinkedIn, please join the ‘Passion for Watches -group! If you are not a member of LinkedIn, consider signing up.. it s a great (free of charge) platform to stay in touch with business partners, former colleagues, to search for people (either recruitment or subject experts) and for business opportunities.Anyway, let s get together in the ‘Passion for Watches -group and see what other watch enthusiasts are doing. Perhaps you have more in common than your passion for watches!Click the LinkedIn logo above or the URL below to join the Passion For Watches-group!https://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/56533/4DEF84174391...

Master watchmaker Franz Wolff (Lottermann & S?e??hne) created the Crazy Planet. With ????Crazy Planet???? – developed and produced entirely in house – Blancier is once again introducing a watch of unparalleled world class.The most important wheels of the Crazy Planet are laid out in a planet orbit formation. In normal mechanical watches, all wheels are invisible, hidden under the watch face. Blancier has made wheels visible by displaying the workings on top of the watch face. This Tourbillon-like design, in which wheels have actually been incorporated into the hands, makes Crazy Planet not only technically impressive but also aesthetically attractive....

Here is a short review of my Ingenieur ref.3227 after exactly 3 months of ownership.I don t think it s necessary to give background information on this watch, as I have done this in the past (here and here) and you can read all about the vintage Ingenieurs (including the 1976s SL) on this page by Larry Seiden, Marco Schoenenberger and David ter Molen.Although this purchase might seemed as an impulse three months ago, I always had a weak spot for the IWC Ingenieur. The packaging and the manuals that come with this watch are very nice. The black box with its leather interior keeps the watch in place perfectly. However, who is going to use it anyway once you put the watch around your wrist? The...

Well, so far I haven t been the biggest poster on Fratello. Being busy with a lot of other stuff I found it hard to come up with a nice subject for a new post..But now I found a interesting watch.. The Ingenieur Climate Action. Let s start with a pic (posted on ThePurists):Mm.. I actually kinda like the looks. It reminds me a bit of the white Millgauss-funk.But something isn t quite right here. Climate Action? Ok, a valid reason for a nice limited edition. With proceeds partially going to the Climate Action Fund, this is a really nice idea I guess. But it is somewhat weird when you ve got a model in the same range in cooperation with Mercedes AMG in my opinion. Keep in mind AMG is famous fo...

As Evert wrote in the last blog, seems to be stealing the Basel show. According to TimeZone member Imrankhan, who visited the Basel 2008 show, the booth was flooded with impressive watches! He wrote an excellent report on Basel (including a lot of images) in the Basel Forum over at TimeZone.Besides all the heavy weight of , also Omega had something to show. A nice looking white dial Speedmaster Professional wrist watch. Dedicated to the 1970 project called ‘ALASKA . This project was initiated to develop an outer case for the Omega Speedmaster Professional to handle the extreme temperatures on the dark side of the Moon. A press release on this watch can be found here, posted by Jorge ...

I just finalized a write-up for Watch Freaks, a blog hosted by Alon Ben-Joseph. It is about web 2.0 and horology and how this combines. Or should combine in my opinion ??Click here to read the article ‘what did web 2.0 did for horology? An example of what it didn t do for Ebel....

The design of the Submariner 114060, is unmistakably , despite the size and use of modern materials such as ceramics. Compare the modern 114060 to the 1953 Submariner 6204 and you will immediately notice that these watches share the same DNA.Owning and wearing a Submariner is one thing, but to dive into the history of this watch is quite a task. To make it somewhat easier for you, we hereby show you the history of the Submariner in a nutshell, including a table with most important references since 1953 till the current line-up of Submariner watches.Diving Into SubmarinerThe Submariner is a watch with an interesting story. Introduced over 60 years ago, the current Submariner model (updat...

To set the time correctly on your mechanical wrist watch, you definately need at least one quartz controlled wrist watch. Even better, you need a watch that keeps perfect track of time. You need a radio controlled wrist watch! In 1990, Junghans introduced the first radio controlled wrist watch, the Mega 1. An integrated antenna in the strap receives a long-wave radio signal every morning broadcasted on 77.5 KHz from Frankfurt. This broadcast carries time information from Germany s national atomic clocks at Braunschweig. These radio transmissions automatically set the watch correctly.Currently, Junghans still carries one radio controlled watch in their ‘Avantgarde collection. The Mega ...

I promised to get back on my new watch ?? At first, I was looking at watches again, but couldn t make up my mind. Although I like the new GMT-Master IIc and the Milgauss, it wouldn t add much variation to my current collection. Then I was looking at the Royal Oak Jumbo, but I am not ready yet to spend over 8K Euro on one wrist watch.However, as I have written before, I am a huge fan of the 1970s design of Gerald Genta. He designed the Nautilus, Overseas, Royak Oak and… the Ingenieur. The original ref.1832 Ingenieur SL is highly sought-after I believe, and the prices paid for those are unbelievable. So I decided to settle for a brand new one! To be honest, IWC isn t my brand. Omega and...

Yesterday, I received the book ‘Vintage Panerai , written by Ralf Ehlers and Volker Wiegmann. Vintage Panerai describes the history of some historic Panerais, including information on their original German and Italian owners. The book contains a lot of detailed information on the swimmers equipment, assignments and background of the owners. Including lots of pictures. Ralf Ehlers and Volger Wiegmann did a pretty good job on this original concept! If you are into Panerai watches and interested in more than ‘just the watches… you probably are going to like this!You can order your copy via https://www.vintage-panerai.de/.It is a small sized book (21x21cm), written in three la...

As the name predicts, this watch is waterresistant till 1000 meters below the surface. It is the chronograph version of the U-series by Sinn. Made out of u-boat (submariner) steel. The S version, has a black coating added to the u-boat steel.This watch has a mechanical automatic chronograph movement, Sinn caliber SZ 02 (basis caliber 7750 by ETA/Valjoux). The watch has a diameter of 44mm and has a 18mm thick case. It weighs 135 grams. A large and heavy watch for the professionl diver! The watch comes with either a rubber strap or a stainless steel bracelet. The full list with specifications is available at the Sinn website, click here.At WatchUseek a ‘wrist test has been posted by ...

Like last year, a word of thank you to my sponsors Steiner in Maastricht, Henrik at SubGMT, Squiggly and Blancier watches. For 2008, 121Time will be added as well.Next, thanks to all contributors (special thank you to Gerard Nijenbrinks for posting some messages while I was away) and all people who used to comment button ?? Also, to all people who mailed me with hints or suggestions for new topics. I hope to keep up the frequency of posts (at least once a week) like the last few months or even better ;).2007 has been a bit in the light of , since that brand got my interest more and more, but I will try to cover a broader range of watches in 2008.Thanks, visitors of this Fratello blog! Have a...

This year, 2007, is the 25th anniversary of the current Omega Constellation model. It all started in 1952 of course, but in 1982 Omega had enough of all those different 1970s Constellations and introduced this ‘Manhattan model to get the Constellation back on the map again. After 25 years, a lot changed, but the original ‘Manhattan design is still recognizable!1982 – Emoticons and Compact Discs?The classic Omega Constellation pie-pan models from the 1950s and early 1960s are covered by numerous articles in books, magazines and on the internet. The current Constellation though, gets less attention, except for the Asian countries, where this model seems to be very popular. ...

Watch fanatics will instantly recognize this slogan. Perhaps, even their significant others will do too. Patek Philippe, considered to be the best watch brand, uses this slogan since 1996. Besides this campaign, Patek Philippe also has separate one for women which started in 1999 for their 24 collection and was refined in 2006.As more than ten years after it was first presented, the ????Generations???? campaign enjoys continued and unprecedented success. Only a few theme campaigns of such longevity exist. According to Tim Delaney, the Chairman of Leagas Delaney and the creative mind behind the campaign, this timelessness originates primarily from its central message: ????Patek Phili...