Watches Blog Wrist Watch Reviews

Master watchmaker Franz Wolff (Lottermann S? ??hne) created the Crazy Planet. With ?e??? ?Crazy Planet?e??? 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. [...]

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 oclock 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 totalize [...]

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 ?? [...]

Well, so far I havent 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. Lets 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 isnt 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 youve got a model in the same range in cooperation with Mercedes AMG in my opinion. Keep in mind AMG is famous for the [...]

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 didnt do for Ebel. [...]

The design of the Submariner 114060, is unmistakably Rolex, despite the size and use of modern materials such as ceramics. Compare the modern 114060 to the 1953 Rolex Submariner 6204 and you will immediately notice that these watches share the same DNA.Owning and wearing a Rolex 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 Rolex SubmarinerThe Rolex Submariner is a watch with an interesting story. Introduced over 60 years ago, the current [...]

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 Germanys 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 1000 watch [...]

I promised to get back on my new watch ?? At first, I was looking at Rolex watches again, but couldnt make up my mind. Although I like the new GMT-Master IIc and the Milgauss, it wouldnt 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 isnt my brand. Omega and Rolex [...]

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 languages and over 220 pag [...]

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! [...]

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 Dimitris, cl [...]

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 Rolex, 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 Ha [...]

Squiggly got my attention before, but Ive 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 to do with [...]

Not too long ago, I noticed Cult Watches, the worlds 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 Rolex, 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 got home, I [...]

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 ?e??? ?Generations?e??? 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: ?e??? ?Patek Phili [...]

NicoH, posted a picture of his new watch strap on TimeZone. Nothing special you think.Looks even a bit old, you might think. You are right. It is about 50 years old. This strap has been made out of leather from a Mercedes Benz 300 SLR dated 1956. It gets even better. The car belongs to Jean Todt, who is the executive director of Scuderia Ferrari, the Ferrari companys Formula One constructor.His car needed a new leather interior and a strap maker could lay his hands on the original leather interior and decided to make some straps out of it. 40 straps have been made, individually numbered and stamped.Click here to read the full story, including more pictures. [...]

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 Rolex 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 [...]

Kiber launched their new watch line, Gran Specchio, which means big mirror. This obviously has something to do with the mirrored edge combined with carbon look silver dial. These watches come in a luxury wooden box, an extra leather handmade Kiber Race band and a spring bar tool. All pushers and crowns have a screw attachment ?e???? 2 the watch is 5ATM water resistant ?e???? 2 and the stainless 48mm case has a sapphire front glass and a see through glass on the back. The chronograph has an automatic mechanical movement, based on the famous Valjoux (ETA) caliber 7750. The non-chronograph has an automatic mechanical movement based on the ETA 2824-2 caliber. The chronograph is available for Eur [...]

Since a few days, the new Rolex Milgauss has been hitting stores (authorised dealers as well as they grey market dealers) and visitor page on TimeZone is probably one of the first to show his!This ref.116400 Rolex features an inhouse automatic movement (caliber 3131) and measures 40mm in diameter. As big as the current sportsmodels (Submariner, Sea-Dweller, GMT, Explorer II????etc). Page also photographed his Milgauss next to the Daytona (ref.116520 or 16520).Click here for the post on the Modern Rolex forum over at TimeZone, it includes some larger pictures with more detail of the watch.Both photos taken by Page and published on TimeZone.A quick search on the new Milgauss on Chrono24.com sh [...]