Watches Blog Wrist Watch Reviews

In our Sunday Morning Showdown, two of our writers go head-to-head in an epic showdown for the ages. Strong opinions and hysterical hyperbole are welcome (so feel free to join in with the fun in the comments section below). And dont forget to let us know which watches youd like to see torn to shreds/effusively exalted next week. Well try and feature as many of our readers choices as we can. With summer on the way, we get into the spirit by pitting two aquatic luxury sports chronographs against one another. The Patek Philippe Aquanaut Chronograph 5968A takes on the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver Chronograph 26703ST.Todays Sunday Morning Showdown is all about two classical brands shu [...]

Frequent readers know that, here at Fratello, we love things related to space travel. Probably ignited by the Omega Speedmaster Professional, a.k.a. the Moonwatch, however meanwhile extended to general astronautics. Of interest are space crafts like rockets, space shuttles, manned satellites, and more.The entrance of the exhibition at the Champs Elysees side of the Grand PalaisLa Lune Exhibition in ParisOur interest goes to flown objects, watches at best, but even pieces of protective foil will do. Then there are?space-related?items, like astronaut-used pens, cameras, and even space-related toys and comics. As examples, I want to mention LEGO models of the Saturn V rocket and lunar lander, a [...]

Zenith has been showing a lot of love for its DEFY family over the last month or so. Weve seen some colorful new additions, all designed to show off a different side of the advanced chronographs character. Now the Swiss brand has released a new iteration of the DEFYs identity. Today we welcome the Zenith DEFY Extreme to the family!Zenith likes to be creative with the DEFY collection; just look at the DEFY 21 Felipe Pantone or the DEFY 21 Ultrablue. The Extreme name does give a pretty good indication of what the new watches entail. I saw the name before I saw the photos, and I immediately thought it would be a rugged upgrade. I was correct Think of the robust armor upgrade of the Royal Oak Ch [...]

Auctions are an interesting platform to see the appetite for certain watches, or in this case, Speedmasters. We recently touched on the topic of auctions and their absurdity, but that's of course not always the case. Regardless of some of the amazing results, auctions give an indication of the popularity or unpopularity of a certain watch or reference.Antiquorum's Important Modern Vintage Timepieces Monaco auction will take place today, January 18th, 2022, at 4:00 PM local time. Nine lots out of the 178 are Omega Speedmasters. Let's have a closer look at three of the Omega Speedmasters that are on the auction block today.Speedmaster BA145.022-69 Apollo XIIve covered this watch here often, a [...]

Yesterday evening, I received an email from Daniel of the LondonWatchCompany.com, a specialist in selling Rolexes (vintage new). Since I am on the look-out for a 1977 (my year of birth) Submariner ref.1680, I found this site to be quite interesting. In the links section, I found a website called DoubleRedSeadweller.com. This site also sounded very interesting, since I only knew about www.redwatches.com formerly known as www.redsubmariner.com. This site has been renamed after a dispute between Rolex claiming the name Submariner and the owner of the website.Anyway, the website describes the Double Red Sea-Dweller (here) and has a lot of information about COMEX models as well. For those who do [...]

Welcome, one and all, to the first round proper of March Mania 2021, here on Fratello. Are you a watch maniac like we are? If so, youre sure to love our month-long feature. 96 watches reviewed last year line up for a battle royale (no Happy Meals here) like nothing thats gone before. We need your votes. We want your comments. Help us decide the champion and share in its glory Let the games commenceIn this first round proper, your task is a bit different from your task in the preliminaries. Below you will find the eight remaining timepieces of each of our Fratello competitors in four head-to-head contests of two timepieces. The seedings in the preliminaries dictate the match-ups. So its numbe [...]

Welcome to The Fast The Fratelli. The goal? To find the best Racing Chronograph of the past ten years. The rules? Each editor selects two watches that must be able to track elapsed time for at least one minute. The watch choices also must feature a tachymeter scale, and the movement needs to be mechanical. And most of all, each watch must be thoroughly awesome. But well leave that up to the Fratelli to decide.First up is my super high-end chronograph pick, the Richard Mille RM 50-03 Manual Winding Tourbillon Split-Seconds Chronograph Ultra-Light McLaren F1. Unpacking that lengthy title is a task in itself, which I plan to tackle in reverse. However, for brevity, I will henceforth refer to i [...]

Its Bvlgari time. As you can see, the most visible LVMH player on Fratello has just dropped a rash of new releases. And, boy, are we excited Ive already covered the new Octo Finissimo reference 103464 (our lead article for January 25th, 2021, in case youve yet to check it out), but this column is concerned with the latest complicated addition to the Finissimo range. The Bvlgari Octo Finissimo S Chronograph GMT reference 103467 is a vibrant and vexingly complex addition to an already stellar range.You know we (Fratello) love the Bvlgari Octo Finissimo range. We wholly believe in the concept and genuinely love the products. Thats a good basis for excitement whenever anything new hits the catal [...]

Welcome back to Wrist Game or Crying Shame where you choose stop, start, or reset. This week we travel back to 1997 to look at a TAG Heuer Monaco CS2110. But firstJust when I think I know my constituency, you guys throw me for a serious loop. Such was the case with last weeks Omega De Ville Power Reserve with the epic Brick bracelet. In a nod to the Commodores, lets just say you saw this watch as a Brick House, because you let it all hang out in a 70% Nice Price win. Seriously, just when I began losing faith in humanity, you restored it by voting for tasteful exuberance. Moving on todays TAG Heuer Monaco CS2110 sports a flashy bracelet, but thats not the real significance.Back to 1997 with [...]

Its 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 176.0012 from Jun Caja [...]

In the statistics of this website, I can see how people came to this weblog. I can even see the words they used in Yahoo Search, Google or other searchengines. Most of the time, the search string is quite clear and logical. Rolex prices or Panerai straps for example. However, today I saw this one:rolex explorer opinion girlNow I am curious about the question of the Googler. Was it a girl who was looking for Rolex Explorer opinions (for girls), or was it a guy who was curious about the opinions girls have on this watch?In either case, I will try to answer this one for the unknown visitor on this site who searched on this string.Scenario 1. You are a girl and want to know how people think abou [...]

Since 2018 (!), Omega has been introducing special watches to commemorate the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. I secured my favorite from the five Speedmaster Tokyo 2020 watches, and afterward, they also introduced a beautiful Seamaster Diver 300M, Aqua Terra, and Planet Ocean that commemorates the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Now, however, it is time to bring the big guns. Meet the 18ct gold Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra Tokyo 2020.Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 sound a bit weird in 2021, but no further explanation is needed I am sure. I am looking forward to the start of the Games in these special times. Together with my daughter, I am a fan of field hockey, and since our orange teams are performing incredib [...]

If a job is worth doing, then its worth doing properly. At least, thats how the saying goes. It seems that Bvlgari has heeded these words of wisdom, and, at Geneva Watch Days 2021, it has made the most of the occasion by launching five new watches. Thats a lot of fresh horological goodness right there, so lets take a brief look at each of these new models in the Bvlgari Geneva Watch Days Roundup 2021!Bvlgari Octo Roma WorldtimerThe Fratello team has traveled over to Geneva from our various home bases across Europe, so it feels appropriate to start with a travel watch. Its nice that, after 18 months, we are finally seeing parts of the world open up again. I recently wrote about some of my fav [...]

When Omega showed me the 39.7mm Speedmaster Calibre 321 reference 311.30.40.30.01.001, I wasnt left with much to think about. I knew I needed it. And so it happened that a year ago, I received the message that mine was ready. I picked up the Speedmaster Calibre 321, had it resized for my wrist and started wearing it. One year on, its time to assess whether what was certainly one of my easiest buying decisions was also one of my bestIve done a video about this watch and written a hands-on review, but I thought it would be interesting to have a proper look back at my ownership of this watch. Am I still as enthusiastic as I was a year ago? Do I still think it would have been nicer to have an al [...]

The Omega Constellation Grand Luxe is something really special. Omega introduced the Constellation in 1952, being more or less the successor of the Centenary watch that Omega introduced in 1948 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Biel watch factory. Already being the flagship of the Omega manufacture [because of the fine finish and chronometer movements], the Constellation came in several grades in the 1950s.The ultimate edition was the Constellation Grand Luxe, even one step above the Constellation Deluxe, available in all gold or platinum and with the famous brick bracelet. For those of you not very?familiar?with the vintage Constellation series: the brick bracelet was reintroduced b [...]

This article is contributed by one of our loyal followers and readers, Boris Pjanic. He runs a watch business in Germany and has a blog on watches as well. While being a Rolex passionate, his second love is for Omega timepieces. This contribution covers a wonderful vintage Omega Seamaster 300. Not the Seamaster 300 that Omega based their 1957 reference CK2913 re-edition on this year (click for the article on the new Omega Seamaster 300 Master Co-Axial), but from the early 1960s.Most Omega collectors think of the Speedmaster first when asked which vintage Omega they would consider first. Nevertheless, the Seamaster 300 is definitely not a watch to ignore. While the Big Triangle seems to gathe [...]

Ever wondered why watch connoisseurs are praising Grand Seiko? Or perhaps you are already a Grand Seiko fan and want to learn more about this Japanese manufacture.Together with Grand Seiko, Fratello Watches organizes an exclusive reader's trip to Japan from September 23 to September 29. We visited (Grand) Seiko ourselves at the end of 2015, which not only opened our eyes to high-end watchmaking in Japan, but also remember it as one of the best experiences ever (and we've seen many manufactures). This led to the idea to do a very similar journey for our readers, together with Robert-Jan Broer of Fratello Watches and Grand Seiko.You will be able to see with your own eyes how precise and commit [...]

About two weeks ago, I spoke to Dimer (friend of the show and eCommerce Manager at AceJewelers) and he showed me his recently acquired IWC Ingenieur from their Vintage collection (as shown below). Since I have a weak spot for the Ingenieur series, I tried this Vintage Collection Ingenieur a couple of times already and am very enthusiastic about it. So it is bound to happen that there will be one in my collection at some point.Anyhows, Dimer told me that he did some research on the web about the true source of inspiration for this Vintage Collection Ingenieur. It seems like IWC is directing us towards the wrong watch in their media campaign. In their media campaign, IWC refers to their first [...]

If you are into collecting watches, it seems to be some kind of quest or grail to at some point get a watch from your year of birth. Just recently, I paid attention to some topics on TimeZone and the UK based TZ-UK watch portal about getting a watch from your birth year. It seems that Omega, Rolex and Breitling are very sought-after brands for the birth year purpose, as they are when it comes to watch collecting in general as well.Earlier this year, I had the same goal, getting a nice watch from my year of birth, 1977. Since Omega is the brand that started this watch madness for me, I was always on the lookout for a Speedmaster Professional ref.145.022 that dates back to 1977, but it seeme [...]

Omega Speedmaster Soyuz ApolloJuly is the month of Omegas Speedmaster watches. Not only the Moonlanding will be celebrated (on the 21th of July 2:56 GMT), also the last Apollo mission which dates back to July 1975 is celebrated. The ASTP (Apollo-Soyuz Test Project) consisted out of a number of joint scientific experiments, but was of course mainly meant to see whether combined (manned) missions between two super powers would be possible in the future. Mission ASTP started on the 15th of July and returned on the 24th of July 1975.Now, I think that my track record on blogging and writing about the Omega Speedmaster models is something I can be? a bit proud of, but I never took the time to do [...]