doesn t seem to make too much noise about their 100 year anniversary, but Guido and Franca Mondani do! Yet another great book from the famous publisher Mondani is this 100 Years of -book, written by himself and his wife.This book covers the -story (about founder Hans Wilsdorf and the Heiniger-family who are running the organization since 1963) from 1908 till now, including the introduction of the Deep Sea-Dweller during the Basel fair of 2008. The book covers all important watches of the last century by publishing great detailed photographs of these watches, where Mondani also favors collectors by putting much effort in capturing details of bezels, bracelets, boxes and papers. All texts...

Sometimes, a watch has more than one face or ‘look . It is all in the eye of the beholder ofcourse, but the photos below support this comment really well ??If you look at your watch from different angles or when being in different locations, it can become a watch with a totally different look. The first photo below show the Ingenieur being this raw, rugged tool watch and the second photo shows this fine shiny sophisticated timepiece that refers to the first GG designs from the mid-1970s. To me, these photos demonstrate that this watch is suited for casual as well as more formal occasions. A Sea-Dweller (or Milgauss? :)) and Yacht-Master in one so to speak. The photos have been taken b...

Last week we (my gf and I) returned from my vacation in the United States. Going from GMT-7 to GMT+2 (daylight saving time included) resulted in that I still am a bit off-beat. During my holiday, the GMT-Master proved itself to be very useful when making phonecalls to The Netherlands. is also the brand that I spotted the most in the US, both in shops and in the wild ?? Especially in the watch shops in Las Vegas, they had large collections of them. One of the stores that impressed me the most was the Tourneau store in Ceasars Palace. Besides having enourmeous displays full of , they also had Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, IWC, Jaeger LeCoultre, Jaquet Droz, Cartier, Omega, Tag Heuer an...

Today, I noticed an Omega LED wrist watch on someone s wrist in an interior store. Now, if I would be in a watch shop or perhaps in a bar or something, I probably asked him more about this watch. Is he a collector? Is this his only watch? How did het get it? What about the history of this watch? Is he aware that he wears something ‘special ? Does he have box, papers and the original receipt? You know the drill, these questions need to be answered if you encounter someone with a nice watch.Now, back at home, I still don t know anything about this man and his watch. I think I will manage to sleep well, but it would have been nice to interact with someone who has a nice time piece. At lea...

Just when watches with a >40mm case diameter are considered to be normal sized, I took my vintage Date-Just ref.1601 with me for a meeting last Friday with a small number of watch enthusiasts. Although I consider 36mm the bare minimum of millimeters for my wrist size, the watch stayed on all weekend and Monday during my work day. The other people who were present on the meeting also had fairly modest sized wrist watches strapped around their wrists. Among them a vintage Glash?e?otte (G.U.B) from the 1960s, a Cartier Tortue Mono Poussoir, a vintage Day-Date (ref.1803), a Girard Perregaux Richeville, a Patek Philippe Nautilus (5711/1A), a Breguet Type XX and my vintage Date-Just and modern Y...

A watch company that uses the same e-strategy as Dell computers and Amazon.com? 121TIME.com is the first Swiss Made quality watchmaking company that use this direct sales and customization model. Each watch can be personalized with an engraving of text or a logo in the case back of the watch. Before that, you have to make a choice which type (or as 121TIME put it: theme) of wrist watch you like to have, which kind of bezel, dial and hands you want your watch to have, which type of movement you want to have and of course, which type of bracelet. Either stainless steel, rubber, carbon or a number of leather options. However, you can also start from scratch and start by selecting a quartz, quar...

Last year, I have been posting a lot on watches. A brand you can t ignore in my opinion. However, this year I promised myself to have a good look around for other interesting watches and brands. Earlier this year, I bought myself an IWC Ingenieur and a vintage Titus chronograph in 18kt rose gold (very very thin ;)) and now I am investigating other watches for a possible future purchase. I had my share of impulse purchases in the past, and most of them ended-up on the various sales corners again.A while ago, I read an article about the Girard-Perregaux (GP hereafter) Laureato. GP is a brand that you won t see much, perhaps because their name isn t as known as the , Patek, IWC or Audemars of ...

On the 11th, 12th and 13th of July 2008, the vintage sports car event ‘Le Mans Classic is to be held. Richard Mille is the main sponsor of the event and is also the official time keeper.Especially for the Le Mans Classic 2008 event, RM created a Flyback Chronograph as pictured below. This is the RM 011 Flyback Chronograph watch, that should breathe the same atmosphere and style as the event itself. The green and white checkered logo at 12 o clock marks this watch as being a special Le Mans Classic watch!The RM 011 features a skeletonized automatic, winding movement with adjustable rotor geometry with flyback chronograph in hours, minutes and seconds, 60-minute countdown timer, 12 hour...

One of our readers contributes a tribute to the late (and legendary) Chuck Maddox. Some of the Speedmaster enthusiasts that have been around a bit longer already, have probably encountered Chuck Maddox on one of the forums or via his own website. In 2004, RJ published a multi-part interview with Chuck Maddox here on Fratello Watches. Later on, it has been republished in one complete article for your convenience. While it is already 14 years old, some of the topics discussed are still valid. You can find the complete interview with Chuck Maddox here. If you are not familiar with Chuck Maddox, who sadly passed away in 2008, he was one of the first Speedmaster (and chronographs in general) coll...

Tennis star Maria Sharapova just turned 21 years old on the 23rd of April. TAG Heuer organized a big birthday party for their ambassador of sports watches. The press release states that TAG Heuer was honored to do so. Yeah ??I understand the whole ambassador concept, it seems to attract potential buyers. But why giving a birthday party AND brag about it in press releases? Anyway, it does produces some nice pictures ??...

Most of you will know the IWC Mark series, however, Jaeger-LeCoultre has produced a similar watch in the past. The British Military of Defense (MoD) issued watches to navigators in the RAF and later on, also in the Australian RAAF. These watches have been produced by both Jaeger-LeCoultra and IWC. And as you can see below, they appear to be very similar.With some help of Dale, I stumbled across a site called MarkEleven.com, that give a lot of background on the Jaeger-LeCoultre Mark 11 and tries to track them. A very interesting site, and project!...

I rarely cover quartz watches, because they are seldomly regarded as ‘interested amongst us watch fanatics ?? However, besides quartz ladies watches and the OysterQuartz models, quartz watches with special features/functionality like the Breitling Aerospace or Omega Speedmaster X-33 can also be quite interesting. If you travel a lot, or have to do a lot of stopwatch/countdown timing, a digital watch like the Aerospace, X-33 or B1 might be the right pick for you. User TimetoLive over at TimeZone posted a few pictures of his B1 in the Breitling forum.Because these quartz watches are not as sought after as the mechnical watches of the mentioned brands, you can get these type of watches...

Squiggly got my attention before, but I ve recently noticed (I am not that much of a Swatch collector) that they have a Swatch Forum besides their Squiggly Swatch Store. The forum is visited by Swatch enthusiasts from all over the world and besides the ‘generic Swatch talk, there is a lot of interest in identifying all kinds of Swatch models.What I also noticed about Swatches is, althought that they are plastic, battery operated, quartz driven and (normally spoken) disposable watches, most people seem to like them (or the brand). Even the sophisticated mechanical watch collectors seem to have respect for the brand that invented this Swiss made watch in 1982. Perhaps it has something t...

Not too long ago, I noticed ‘Cult Watches, the world s enduring classics in a window of a book store in The Hague. It is a book by Michael Balfour, whom I think is also responsible for more horological titles.I flipped through the pages and looking at the pictures and stories of all-time classics (Speedmaster, Submariner, Navitimer, Nautilus, Royal Oak, Tank and so on..) I was immediately interested. However, asking 50 euros (almost 75 USD at this moment) was a turn-off. It is no reference like the Pattrizi books or Mondani books on , or the Saga book on Omega by Marco Richon. This ‘Cult Watches book is a nice-to-read book and I am not paying 50 euros for those ??Anyway, when I...

Did you buy a wrist watch without papers? Do have have watch papers from a former collectors piece and have no need for them anymore? WatchPapers.com can help you out in both situations. For example, your vintage Royal Oak Jumbo bought without papers at a watch fair.. Just enter your watch brand and serialnumber, and WatchPapers.com will check their database for the original matching papers. If you still own the papers of your long sold Sea-Dweller ref.1665 and have no use for them anymore, you can make some money by putting them into the WatchPapers.com database and wait until the current owner of the watch enters the serialnumber of this watch. Matching original papers to a vintage , IWC...

Yesterday I received a velcro strap, made by Carl over at gasgasbones.com. This strap looks really great on my vintage Speedmaster and gives the watch its authentic ‘astronaut look! Today I wore the watch on the velcro strap while co-driving a classic Austin Healey 3000 from 1963. Both the driver and myself were wearing Speedmaster caliber 321 s.This strap is the ‘V1 model from his website, with the NASA product number label and custom made length to fit my wrist perfectly....

Just recently, someone over at the Dutch Forum mentioned the Bubble Back Club. A site dedicated to these (small) vintage beauties for collectors and enthusiasts who are a bit tired of the ever ongoing vintage sports discussions. Or just for the collector who wants to try something different for a change ??The owner of the site also has watches for sale. Bubble Backs and other es. Click here to go to the Bubble Back Club website....

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...

A bit cryptic perhaps, but that s what Audemars Piguet does…???? The company has taken action against all the plastic ‘fashion copies of their watches. The plastic imitations (mostly , to be honest I haven t seen an AP copy yet) are very populair here in Europe. Besides the violation of their copyright on design, I wouldn t bother too much about these cheap ‘see-through plastic copies. It doesn t reflect the real thing and it also doesn t try to be the real thing. A different view than the imitations made in the Asian regions, which can be sold as an authentic watch (including box and papers!).I wouldn t spend too much money on lawyers and investigators if I were AP ??Cli...

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...