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...
Tribute to Ferrari and Haute HorlogerieToday we ve visited a number of brands, but one of the most impressive pieces was definitely the Hublot Masterpiece MP-05 LaFerrari. This watch is not only a tribute to the manufacturer of super cars from Maranello, it is also a watch that proves the watchmaking skills from Hublot. A power reserve of no less than 50 days due to its 11 barrels in the movement and a vertical tourbillon.The caliber HUB9005.H1.6 movement consists of 637 parts of which 108 are used for jewels. The large movement measures 45.8mm x 39.5mm. Hublot is producing this Masterpiece MP-05 LaFerrari in a series of 50 numbered pieces. Each with a price tag of 300,000 Swiss Francs (incl...
It is Speedy Tuesday! Just a few months ago, Bert Buijsrogge and I visited the OMEGA museum in Biel, Switzerland. With the focus on Speedy Tuesday, Bert took some photos of the Speedmasters (and Flightmasters), Apollo suit and NASA equipment (including the Moon buggy prototype). If you remember correctly, we already did a report on the OMEGA museum a while ago (click here), but lacking the photographic skills of Bert of course.Except for the beautiful vintage Speedmaster Professional from Bert above, on the NASA console (used for the Apollo space programme), we don t have any descriptions for the rest of the 77 photos. Just sit back and enjoy. If you have any specific questions regarding a p...
Remember these 1970s/1980s alarm clocks with flaps? The same system is used by flight terminals to display the arrivals and departures. Even some train stations use them. Jacob & Co decided to use this flaps system in their latest, the Epic SF24.If you are a Jet-Setter, a business traveller or a watch enthusiast, get ready for the last horological creation of Jacob & Co. This time, Jacob & Co decided to put the globetrotters in the spot light with their Epic SF24 timepiece.Jacob & Co will unveil the timepiece during the Baselworld 2013 exhibition, but we already give something away by showing you the 3 different versions of the Epic SF24. Computer generated images of course, ...
The Girard-Perregaux CollectionRemember our trip to Girard-Perregaux earlier this year? ?No? You can find it by clicking here!?Bert and I headed to Girard-Perregaux, not only to see the workshops and meet the people behind this great brand from La Chaux-de-Fonds, but also to have a look at their impressive collection of watches.Not only did we get a sneak preview of the Girard-Perregaux Constant Escapement (No pictures please!), we also got to see some of their wonderful timepieces that we would like to get our hands on in the future for a review. What to think of the new Traveller Collection? Or the Hawk Chronograph? In the meanwhile, we made sure to capture some of these pieces, including ...
It s Speedy Tuesday! We have another vintage model for you in store today, literally. This OMEGA Speedmaster Professional 145.012 dates back to 1967 and has the famous column wheel chronograph caliber 321 movement. Actually, it is the very same watch that NASA astronaut Michael Collins was wearing during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. You can read more about that here.In the meanwhile, we ve covered so many of these 145.012 and 105.012 reference numbers that we actually lost track. It seems to be one of the most wanted and most affordable vintage Speedmaster models out there. However – big however -, they are becoming more difficult to find in a nice and original condition.This particu...
It s Speedy Tuesday! Today we have a rare breed Speedmaster from one of our readers from the Philippines. Jun Cajayon is also member and moderator of the PhilippineWatchClub forums. Jun has been a long time fan of the Speedmaster Mark series after he tried a Mark II for the first time a few years ago.As you know, the Mark series were introduced in 1969 with the ref.145.014 Speedmaster Mark II. A more modern case (for that time), but with the same hand wound movement caliber 861 as in the Moonwatch. These Mark series were in production parallel to the Speedmaster Professional ‘Moonwatch (145.022).One of the strangest Speedmaster watches from the ‘Mark -era is definitely this 176....
Omega Museum in BienneIt s Speedy Tuesday! Although we welcome any type of Speedmaster for this topic, today we have something really rare. No other than the OMEGA Museum in Bienne contributed this Speedmaster for this Speedy Tuesday. This Speedmaster ACP was in their museum archives and we had the opportunity to shoot some photos of it.Speedmaster ACP – Automovil Club PeruanoThe OMEGA Speedmaster ACP is a reference 105.012 Speedy that was delivered to the Automovil Club Peruano. A common misunderstanding is that ACP stands for Association of Chief of Police on these watches.The strange thing is, that the Speedmaster ref.105.012 goes back to 1963, together with the 105.003. The 105.003...
Omega Speedmaster CK2998-5Speedy Tuesday is here! Last week we already had a Speedmaster pre-Professional CK2998, but that doesn t hold us back to present another wonderful Speedmaster CK2998. This time, it is an untouched Omega Speedmaster CK2998-5, where the dash 5 stands for one of the last versions of this CK2998. To our best knowledge, the -62 is the last CK2998 (after -5 came -6, -61 and -61).The owner of this watch is a chronograph nut, and as he said, one has to decide fast if you see one, as these Speedmaster CK2998 watches tend to sell very fast. Especially when they are as good as this one here. We fully agree with him, as it becomes quite difficult to find a decent Speedmaster wi...
It s Speedy Tuesday! We came across this very rare OMEGA Speedmaster CK2998-3 last week on the interwebs. A normal ref. CK2998 Speedmaster is already becoming rare, but how about this FAP version. FAP stands for Fuerza Aerea del Peru which means that this Speedmaster has been issued to the Air Force of Peru.The OMEGA Speedmaster CK2998 is the successor of the very first Speedmaster, the ref. CK2915. In 1959, OMEGA introduced the CK2998 which has the same case, but with a different bezel, dauphin hands instead of the broad arrow hands and O-ring gaskets on the pushers. The Speedmaster CK2998 was in production between 1959 and 1963 and was actually the watch that was worn by Wally Schirra duri...
Roger Dubuis was the brand at SIHH with the booth that was the talk of the town. Not because of their watches in the first place, but because of the incredible large gold eagle and the live American eagle they had on their booth. Roger Dubuis definitely knows how to draw attention.But what about their watches? You ve probably seen the Roger Dubuis Excalibur Automatic Limited Edition (ref. RDDBEX0398) where the dial is a round table with 12 knights as hour markers. What about their other SIHH 2013 novelties?We zoom in on the Roger Dubuis Excalibur Quatuor (reference RDDBEX0367) that was presented to us during the SIHH 2013 exhibition in January.In all honesty, I have seen the huge Roger Dubui...
Speedy Tuesday is here! One of the Speedmasters that I didn t discuss on Speedy Tuesday before is the Broad Arrow Automatic. OMEGA introduced this Speedmaster Broad Arrow in 2001, based on the Speedmaster Professional case dimensions, but with an automatic movement.This automatic movement has been topic of several ‘heated discussions in those early years. What was the case? The Frederic Piguet based caliber 3303 movement had some issues with the chronograph function. A number of cases are known where the chrono hands didn t reset properly to zero or just stopped functioning. The late Chuck Maddox was on top of it with his OMEGA caliber 33xx failure blog posts.It seems that after a fix...
Omega Speedmaster SchumacherIt s Speedy Tuesday! This week s topic is the yellow Speedmaster ‘Schumacher . Omega introduced the Speedmaster ‘Schumacher ? in 1996 and was in production till 1999.As you might know, the Speedmaster was originally introduced as a watch for race car drivers. Or wannabe race car drivers. The very first Speedmaster advertisements were also referring to this, as can be seen below:The Speedmaster Schumacher (case number ST175.0032 or ref.3810.12.40) was – of course – being introduced by their (then) ambassador, Michael Schumacher. His brother – and also F1 car racer – Ralf Schumacher was also an Omega ambassador at that time. Later...
People love to see Top x lists, so we gathered the Top 10 best read articles in 2012 here on Fratellowatches. We also would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your interest in Fratellowatches in 2012. We had more visits than ever before! We hope to take you aboard for 2013 as well and surprise you with some cool and interesting upcoming features!Number 1: Review of the Omega Speedmaster Caliber 9300This watch was introduced in 2011 and we received one from Omega to try & test it later that year. It was and still is one of my most favorite modern timepieces. If I had one modern watch to pick in the 5000 – 6000 Euro price range, this would be it.Click here for the articleN...
Omega Speedmaster Mark IIIHappy New Year everyone and Happy Speedy Tuesday! We started Speedy Tuesday somewhere half-way 2012 and it has become the most popular topic here on Fratellowatches. We are very thankful for your enthusiasm and submissions! This year, we will continue our Speedy Tuesdays and will have some great Omega Speedmaster related give-aways as a sign of our appreciation to you, our readers!In one of our recent Speedy Tuesday topics we asked our readers about the Speedmaster Mark III. One of our readers, Santosh, submitted a couple of photos of his much beloved Speedmaster Mark III with black dial.The Speedmaster Mark III (1971) was the successor of the Speedmaster Profession...
Omega Speedmaster 2915It is Speedy Tuesday today and I realized that we lacked putting the spot light on the very first Speedmaster model. This first Omega Speedmaster 2915, officially reference?CK2915, was designed by Claude Baillod when he was working in the team of Head of Creation Pierre Moinat.The high contrast dial was inspired by Italian race cars of that time, also explaining the very first advertisements of the Omega Speedmaster 2915, showing two sports car enthusiasts and their Speedmaster. As you can see, this Speedmaster is – of course – close family to the current Speedmaster models, but has some differences. The bezel is stainless steel instead of the black aluminum...
2011 was the year of the Seamaster Planet Ocean, but 2012 was definitely a year packed with some cool Speedmaster news. Already in 2011, someone from the Omega staff briefly mentioned that a new Flightmaster alike timepiece was in development, but with a quartz movement. As it didn t seem appropriate to ask any further about it during the introduction event of the new Planet Ocean, I didn t even try to find out more.However, it kept me busy for quite some time as the Flightmaster (1969 till somewhere in the 1970s) had an odd shaped case that was very typical for that time period. Would it do well in 2012? It was clear to me that this would probably be the successor of the short-time produced...
Jaeger-LeCoultre is one of the brands that has the most mechanical movements to pick from, all in-house developed and crafted. They can proudly say that they first design a watch and then create the movement for this particular design, instead of the other way round that we often see so much. Large watch cases with only a small mechanical movement inside is not something you will encounter from this brand from the Vallee de Joux in Switzerland.I was delighted when I received an invitation for their Master Class watchmaking course in Amsterdam, guided by one of their highly skilled watchmakers. Earlier this year, during their event at the 24 hours of the Nrburgring, I already received a shor...
Michael Schumacher, who won the F1 World Championship 7 times, was already an ambassador for Audemars Piguet since November 2010. Today, almost two years later and in the 40th anniversary year of the Royal Oak, Audemars Piguet announces that Michael Schumacher gets his own Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph collection, linked to his name.Together with Octavio Garcia (who we ve interviewed in Paris, click here to read it), Michael Schumacher was closely involved in the design process of his Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph.There are quite some interesting details about this watch that makes it Michael Schumacher s personal watch. Besides the obvious 7 stars (for each World Championship) on the tach...
Pierre Jaquet-Droz mechanical work focused on two main themes: automatons and birds. If the androids presented during the Automates & Merveilles exhibition are the most popular, the majority of those built by Jaquet-Droz during this period were automatons staging superb birds, sometimes adorned with real feathers and often whistling.So, birds were Pierre Jaquet-Droz s automaton demonstration key thread in the courts of European kings. These watches or these automatons staging birds were also the main product Jaquet-Droz exported towards China, already. He was a precursor in many regards, technical, commercial and marketing. Today, the brand Jaquet-Droz presents a key watch in its new hi...
