Watches Blog Wrist Watch Reviews

Its fair to say the Hamilton Intra-Matic gets a lot of airtime on Fratello, but with good reason. Since its (re)release, it has been one of the most praised watches in its segment. Earlier today, we broke the release of the Intra-Matic Chronograph with a green dial. It was an olivine stunner that wowed the team, but what I have for you this evening might top even that Proving that less is sometimes more is the newly-released Hamilton Intra-Matic H chronograph.Upon first glance, you might not be able to tell exactly whats new about the H variant of Hamiltons now-famous Intra-Matic, but the differences are quite significant. Majorly, this watch is hand-wound. And while that is certainly the bi [...]

Within our team, the Hamilton Intra-Matic Chronograph is a popular beast. I know for a fact that a couple of the Fratelli will be racing out to buy this new green version that, on balance, is one of the best value propositions in the industry today.High praise? Indeed it is. But is it justified? We've all known for a long time that when it comes to branding, genuine heritage, and bang-for-buck, it is really difficult to get past the entry-level Swatch Group brands. When Hayek went on his industry-wide sweep up in the early eighties, he corralled several established powerhouses that had, thanks to the quartz crisis, fallen on hard times. Names like Longines, Certina, and Tissot joined the por [...]

Welcome, one and all, to the preliminary round 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 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 round, your task is simple: vote for your favorite watch. Below you will find a selection of 12 timepieces that we covered here on Fratello throughout 2020. Why not refresh your memory by clicking the links and reading those eruditely penned odes to wrist-wear? Once youve made your selection, vote using the poll [...]

Today is, of course, the last day of February, the day before the madness begins As Rob highlighted, we love a good competition. Thus last week we wondered how cool it would be to celebrate our championship with a bang, and here we are. Do you fancy the brand-new Hamilton Intra-Matic Auto Chrono? Check out what you have to do to win this watch!Play the game!To win the Hamilton Intra-Matic Auto Chrono, all you have to do is:Subscribe to our NewsletterFollow Fratello Watches on InstagramSubscribe to our YouTube channelTake part in MarchManiaSounds easy, right? It is. As soon as the March Mania tournament kicks off tomorrow, go ahead and dive right into the comments section. Well be looking ou [...]

It is becoming more and more difficult to find a mechanical divers watch under 1,000, especially from the big brands. The watch landscape changed tremendously over the past 10 C15 years, and prices have increased quite a bit.Is it still possible to find a proper mechanical dive watch with this budget? In this top 7 mechanical dive watches under 1,000, you will find my favorites.Top 7 Mechanical Divers Under 1,000I am not a diver by any means. I only go for the occasional swim during my holidays. The real divers in our team are Gerard, Bert, and Andreas. They have their PADI qualifications and know a thing or two about what it takes to dive with a watch. And while I do like the looks of divin [...]

The Hamilton Ventura is one of those watches that pretty much every watch enthusiast knows. The Ventura takes all the classic conventions of what a watch should look like and throws them straight out of the window. The most famous wearer of the Ventura was without a doubt, Elvis Presley. Back in 2015, Hamilton launched the Ventura Elvis80 collection on what was to be Elviss 80th birth year. Almost six years after that, the latest additions to the collection are the Hamilton Ventura Elvis80 Skeleton watches. Are these two watches still the classic that Elvis wore? Lets find out!Its remarkable how I managed not to review or even wear a Hamilton Ventura before. As someone that is predominantly [...]

In this article, I select the extra-terrestrial movies from the 2010s that feature great watches. As you'll see from the list, Im not just showcasing the space-faring Omega Speedmaster here (although it does feature). What's obvious in the last decade is the investment from Hamilton in cinematic product placement. But in no way do the watches feel shoe-horned into the narrative. Some of the watches even play an integral role in the storylines.I miss going to the cinema. I went from attending at least one showing a week in 2019, to about four in the entirety of 2020. The lack of blockbuster releases has been a shock to my regular downtime routine. And nothing beats a big-screen sci-fi romp or [...]

You guys seem to enjoy our Top 10 articles, so we thought it would be interesting to do another one. This time we would focus on watches below the 2k mark. But heres the twist: instead of just listing ten watches that I love, I decided to open this up to the team. Our editors got one choice and one choice only. Lets see what theyd spend their 2,000 onI asked nine of our editors to send me their favorite picks under 2k. Its a pretty exciting list that reflects the versatility we have at Fratello. Youll see each editors selection with a quote from the person explaining why they went with it. Additionally, Ive included the price and a few thoughts about the watch from me. As always, wed love to [...]

We love to be surprised by little details in the design of a watch. We look for novel ideas that make a watch special to us. As such, were often drawn toward things that qualify as slightly moreunusual, shall we say.Some watch collectors like to focus on one style of watch and one style alone. Sometimes that could be a category of watches (like dive watches); sometimes it could be variations of one particular model (like Speedmasters, for example). I, however, buy all my watches to wear. Consequently, I prefer variety rather than collecting within a particular niche. It gives me much more versatility so I can match my watch to my mood, the occasion, or perhaps to what Im wearing.Looking for [...]

Ho, ho, ho, what a year its been for Hamilton Overall, the Swatch Group has had a surprisingly impressive 2020. Despite challenges that no one saw coming and several circumstances beyond anyones control, SG brands have been turning out the goods on a regular basis. Hamilton has had a particularly strong 12 months, as you can see from the festive selection belowFratello is a broad church. We like all kinds of watches. We enjoy covering extremely high-end horology just as much as we love covering new and exciting microbrands. But above all, we like well-made, reasonably priced steel sports watches. There is room for an all-gold piece in anyones collection, of course, but, if youre anything lik [...]

A few days ago, we heard from Fratellos sparkling-eyed sweetheart, Balazs. In his very popular article, he referred to me as the annoying little Brit, which, thanks to the arrival of my new, black British passport is now officially true. I am annoying. I am quite little. And, alongside my Irish nationality by birth, I can now start singing God Save the Queen should the fancy ever take me. I earned this nickname by insisting he write a run-down of his Top 10 Badass watches. He complained before ably turning in a masterpiece. Pleasingly, the comments were engaged and plentiful. One of them asked me to chime in with my Top 10, and so here we areWhere to start? Mostly, we talk about watches that [...]

Welcome back to our Watch On Your Wrist? Instagram extravaganza for the last time in 2020 We will soon find out who will be the lucky winner of this years contest!In case we need to bring you up to speed, this is what happened so far:Every week, we selected four images. You could vote in the article for your favorite image. The winner moved on to the semi-final round (held every fifth week between the previous four weekly winners). The winner of each semi-final went straight into the final.The previous Semi-Finals were one, two, three, four, and five.Over the course of the contest, we have collected over 80 images from Instagram from different users. We checked who tagged our account or used [...]

As a follow-up to our recent guide to mid-range Seiko dive watches, were back with another helpful article. This time, though, were looking at diving tools from the Swatch Group below 1,500.A quick look at the Swatch Group shows a staggering 18 different brands in the portfolio. From Swatch itself up to Breguet, this massive company offers something for every budget. The heart of the lineup, though, brings some serious value to prospective buyers with a lot of pricing overlap. This is especially true when it comes to mechanical divers below 1,500. We often talk Seiko when it comes to great value in this sporty sector, but dont count out the Swiss. Swatch Group has upped its game over the pas [...]

If you are on the lookout for an affordable field watch, the chances are pretty solid that Hamiltons name will be at the top of your shortlist. With a pretty extensive range of Khaki Field watches available for under 1,000, the brand has a lot to offer. The latest addition to the Khaki Field King line-up is a stealthy full black version. I went hands-on to determine if this black version offers a new perspective on the familiar Khaki Field King.I like black. If you know me a little bit, you know thats my go-to color with pretty much everything. I have explained this before in articles. Its not a conscious effort. Whenever presented with a choice, I gravitate naturally towards anything black. [...]

Hey folks, welcome back to Wrist Game or Crying Shame where today weve got a humdinger of a specimen with the Hamilton Khaki Aviation Aluminum. But firstLast week, I classed it up around here with a Jaeger-LeCoultre Perpetual Calendar and you folks responded in a big way. This stunner brought home a massive 89% Wrist Game win. If you were getting warmed up for more complications, then todays Hamilton Khaki Aviation Aluminum just might come off as a cold shower. Im sorry about that, but I really like this watch.Its hard to believe that the Hamilton Khaki Aviation Aluminum debuted all the way back in 2014 at Baselworld. But is it so hard to believe? I ask that simply because Im not so sure any [...]

As watch enthusiasts, we love any reason to covet and add extra value to our pursuit of new additions to our collections. One such tenuous reason used to explain to our spouses and significant others why we really MUST HAVE just-one-more-watch is using connections to movies.I'm sure that we've all used the line, but this is the exact same model worn by Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now It's a timeless classic No? Just me? OK. Without further ado, here we go my top 5 movie watches:Seiko H558-5000As worn by Arnold Schwarzeneggar in Predator and CommandoYou can spot Arnie wearing his Seiko H558-5000 Quartz Diver, hunting bad guys in Commando, and stomping aliens in Predator. With Arnie being the i [...]

Hamilton is having a good year. A spate of affordable and versatile releases was perhaps crowned earlier this summer by the Hamilton Khaki Aviation Converter collection. It was popular among the Fratello team when it was announced. As such, Im taking another look at it today as it is now available to buy (after a long wait).Rather than burying the lede for the sake of suspense, I will do something rather unusual for Fratello and mention the price in the first paragraph. Thats not because the cost of these watches is the?only reason to buy them, but rather because it makes assessing the quality of the design elements (and their execution) all the more interesting. The automatic version of Ham [...]

As a watch enthusiast, watches have always been my weakness. Indeed, my Omega collection could map the story of my adult life. Well, you're probably wondering if Omega was, in fact, the choice of my adolescence. Well, yes and no. I wore Baby-G to my primary and secondary school. As a student, I couldn't afford a crazily expensive timepiece so I happily made do with my first Constellation that I got when I was a kid. At that time, despite my love for Constellation, I wasn't even thinking that watches could actually become a thing for me. As you can imagine, there was not a single article to be found on The Top X Womens Watches under 1,000. Also the discussions on women's watches were really o [...]

Hamilton further expands its collection with a new jazzy case to showcase the H-10-S movement. The Jazzmaster occupies the dressy-casual void that seems distant from the Khaki Field and Scuba watches. With a variety of dial hues and case shades, the Jazzmaster is sure to complement a plethora of styles.Jazz may not be an obvious inspiration for a wristwatch, yet it is not uncommon. Just this year, I went hands-on with the Oris James Morrison. While the Hamilton may be less overt in displaying the source of inspiration the Oris has a trumpet symbol on the back the roots remain. Hamilton has a longstanding association with the arts, mostly in Cinema. But watches like the Ventura are well-remem [...]

As a watch reviewer, it is quite common to find yourself experiencing Deja Vu. We cover thousands of watches throughout our careers. Most of these write-ups will be standalone pieces, focused on new releases or classic throwbacks that deserve attention. But every so often, you run into a watch that just wont leave you alone. Luckily, for me at least, the Hamilton Field Khaki Murph is one of those pieces Ive had the opportunity to cover on several occasions.The watch first appeared in Christopher Nolans 2014 sci-fi epic as a central character. Gifted by Coop to his daughter Murph, this particular Field Khaki was used by a future version of Coop to communicate with his daughter. Thankfully, th [...]