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Compared to last week, week 8 was relatively easy on the news. But still, there was enough to fill this TWIW episode, lets dive into it.IWC Portugieser Hand-Wound MonopusherIWC Schaffhausen has unveiled the Portugieser Hand-Wound Monopusher Laureus Sport for Good?Edition. With this limited model, the Swiss watch manufacturer continues its?support of social sports projects run by its partner. IWC?has been a partner of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation since 2005.?The Portugieser Hand-Wound Monopusher bears reference 515301 and is IWCs?14th Laureus special edition watch. Youll find our review of one of the earlier editions, the Da Vinci Chronograph Laureus,?here.This special edition watch [...]
Heres our selection of pre-owned picks for the 2nd week of 2020. Last week we had a watch planned that was sold just before we published, so were making up for that.Every week we pick a few pre-owned watches from the largest market place for wristwatches in the world, Chrono24. Watches that we love ourselves, or think they will be interesting to you. So to be clear, we picked the watches, Chrono24 only sent us the images without their watermark and in a proper resolution.Pre-Owned Picks Of Week 2Last week I wrote about this Rolex GMT-Master II 16710, but it sold before we published this article. To make up for this, Ive picked two GMT-Master watches this week: Two different references, a GMT [...]
After all the Rolex violence last two weeks of Pre-Owned Picks, we will go a bit into another direction with watches from Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe in the selection of this week.Not picking the obvious pre-owned Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo and Patek Philippe Nautilus (Jumbo), but something a bit more under the radar with this 26300ST Royal Oak chronograph and a Calatrava 5096J. But, we also did a few picks that are more wallet-friendly (and yes, this is also relative) for you. In any case, all are watches that I admire. Two of them (actually three) used to be in my collection but had to make room for something else. In close collaboration with the worlds leading watch market pla [...]
A trip around the world which started on August the 5th in Goodwood, UK, would end at the same airfield exactly 4 months later. With their goal in sight, the two pilots and their Silver Spitfire, however, first touched down in The Netherlands to pay homage to the country the Spitfire dwelled in most of its life.We witnessed the IWC Silver Spitfire Longest Flight Amsterdam Stopover event at Lelystad Airport on December 4th, 2019. gallery-1 {margin: auto;} gallery-1 .gallery-item {float: left;margin-top: 10px;text-align: center;width: 50%;} gallery-1 img {border: 2px solid cfcfcf;} gallery-1 .gallery-caption {margin-left: 0;}/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */Steve Boultbee [...]
In this weekly Pre-Owned Picks series, a Fratello editor will select some watches from the pre-owned market and explain why it is an exciting offer (or watch).The pre-owned watch market is very significant. People who dont want to pay the full price for a watch, seek for a discontinued model or collect (vintage) watches rely on the offers in the pre-owned watch market. Unlike car manufacturers, watch manufacturers neglected the pre-owned watch market for a long time. Incredible, as it is an important and profitable part of the car industry. Some watch manufacturers also slowly trying to get a grip on the pre-owned business by introducing their Certified Pre-Owned program. However, brands (f. [...]
Weve been here for 15 years, and covering many vintage watches in all those years. However, since 2014, we have our TBT feature with a dedicated focus on vintage watches.Based on the most popular articles in our tbt category, we present to you the top 10 vintage watches overview here on Fratello. As you will see, it is mainly Seiko and Rolex dominating this overview. Why is there no Omega? Well simple, we try to allocate all of the (vintage) Speedmaster content to our Speedy Tuesday section (and only publish on Tuesday about them). If you want to have an overview of the best read Speedmaster articles, or Top 10 Speedy Tuesday articles, click here.Top 10 Vintage WatchesWe have covered dozen [...]
Our friends over at Hodinkee have something cool to offer today: an?IWC Pilot's Watch Mark XVIII Edition HODINKEE. A limited edition timepiece that IWC did together with the team at Hodinkee, based on the famous Pilots watches from 1948 and onwards. Inspired by the old, but definitely using some pretty cool innovation: a case made of Ceratanium, an alloy that is as light as titanium and as scratch-resistant as ceramic.IWC Pilot's Watch Mark XVIII Edition HODINKEELimited to 500 pieces only, this IWC Mark XVIII Edition Hodinkee will tick a lot of boxes for collectors of cool watches. What about a 39mm case (not too big, not too small), a dial without a date aperture and the aforementioned Cera [...]
The bread and butter of IWC are their pilot's watches. The Swiss manufacturer has been offering aviation timepieces for a very long time. There are only a handful of big names in the industry with this type of pedigree. Surely IWC is one of them. Their line-up is versatile spanning from dress watches like the Portofino collection to diver's watches such as the Aquatimer and many more models. Yet the backbone of IWC are still the timepieces that take inspiration from aviation. This year the Schaffhausen-based brand goes all in on this theme. Their 2019 novelty list includes reinterpretations of familiar watches as well as some new models. The list is huge, and we will not be able to cover eac [...]
Greetings and my apologies for the late publishing of This Week in Watches. I've essentially been on the road since last week's article, but I've kept an eye on events. Let's get to it heres your dose of TWIWHodinkees 10th Anniversary (image credit: hodinkee.com)Hodinkee 10We'd be remiss if we failed to congratulate the fine folks over at Hodinkee on their 10th anniversary. The brand's impact, via the leadership of Ben Clymer, on the watch hobby as we know it can't be underestimated. They continue to evolve, by trying different things, while employing some great writers many of whom are friends of ours. Personally speaking, I remember Hodinkee from the get-go and it was a real game change [...]
The 130 years old retailer from?Lucerne in Switzerland collaborated with 11 different watch manufacturers to come up with their special Bucherer Blue Editions watches. This IWC Portugieser Chronograph Classic Bucherer Blue Editions in red gold is their 18th watch in this collaboration series. Previously, we reported about the Tudor that Bucherer did for this Blue Editions series, you can read it here. That watch is now well sought after by fans of the brand. Will the same thing happen to this IWC Blue Edition? Lets zoom in a bit.IWC Portugieser Chronograph Classic Bucherer Blue EditionsWith a limited run of just 88 pieces, this IWC Portugieser Chronograph Classic Bucherer Blue Editions (it s [...]
We selected three interesting watches from recent Catawiki auctions: an IWC Mark XII, a Longines Legend Diver and a Rolex GMT-Master II.As always, let me start by saying that before you bid on a watch, you should have done your homework. Especially when it concerns vintage watches. Some brands can help you identifying them, but most of the time it might take some more effort. From this weeks brands for example, Longines is known to have a great museum and archive that can help you to authenticate a watch. IWC has a small museum in Schaffhausen and should be able to give you some help as well. With Rolex, it will be difficult to get some official help from their offices in Geneva, but there i [...]
In front of us is the 11th Laureus IWC special edition in the famous blue color: the IWC Da Vinci Chronograph?Edition Laureus Sport for Good Foundation.?Lets have a look.Laureus Sport for GoodThe Laureus Sport for Good (here after: Laureus) is a charitable organization that was founded by Richemont and Daimler in 2000. The goal of Laureus is to use sports to make the world a better place, without voilence, discrimination and disadvantage. Supporting over 100 programmes in approximately 40 countries, Laureus tries to make a social change. ?Since 2005, IWC has been a partner of Laureus. Every year they create a Laureus limited edition watch, of which part of the proceeds goes to support the sp [...]
IWC has a long history regarding pilots watches. Their iconic Mark 11 dates back to 1948 and thats why IWC thought it is time to resurrect it in the current Mark XVIII. Meet the Tribute to Mark XI version. Limited to only 1948 pieces, so you have to be quick.The original IWC Mark 11 was in production from 1948 till the early 1980s, before being replaced with the Mark XII. The IWC Mark 11 was fitted with a IWC Caliber 89 movement, hand-wound and ticking at 18.000vph. A movement they used in various other watches as well. After that, IWC used Jaeger-LeCoultre movements and ETA movements for their Mark-series Pilot watches. This new IWC Mark XVIII Tribute to Mark XI has the self-winding?35111-c [...]
Its not everyday that you get to drive an AMG but with the launch of the new IWC Ingenieur Chronograph Sport Edition for the 50th anniversary of AMG we received an invite that brought back memories of our AMG on Ice experience earlier this year. Only this time we went to the AMG headquarter in Affalterbach, near Stuttgart in Germany. With a tight schedule in multiple countries we travelled there by car instead of the usual plane.So after picking up our rental we went towards Germany where we arrived after a few hours. Time to change the Mercedes 180 for an AMG GT s and the AMG E?63 s. As soon as we sat down behind the wheel we wait for the magic words ESP off, but that is not going to happen [...]
In the 1990s, when my interest for mechanical watches sparked, one of the most complicated watches Id ever seen was the IWC Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar. I was fascinated by the fact that a mechanical timepiece could be programmed to have a calendar that wont need any corrections until a certain year. The Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar was introduced in 1985 and now, IWC decided it was time for a new and improved version. Lets have a look.IWC Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar ChronographThose old round IWC Da Vinci models (reference 3750) were clearly the inspiration for this new IWC Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar Chronograph reference? IW392101 and IW392103. What can I say? I never cared for the in-betw [...]
Sacha Davidoff Reports On The November 2016 Watch AuctionsAntiquorum is still the only major auction house which exclusively focuses on timepieces. Antiquorum Geneva Hong Kong belong to FIDES, a private equity firm based in Zurich, and are separate from Antiquorum New York, which is no longer in the same group.With Julien Schaerer, the managing director and watch Expert based in Geneva, at the helm, we see his personal passion for vintage, especially his appreciation of niche brands, in the selection of watches. We also have observed that the team is working towards improvement of its position among watch auction houses as we remember they were at the top for many years. Etienne Lemenager, [...]
Last week, we were invited to join IWC on this beautiful location at Kasteel de Hooge Vuursche to have a look at the new IWC Ingenieur Chronograph collection. Although we already saw them earlier this year in Z1rich during the Passione Caracciola (report can be found here), we wanted to have a closer look.Goodbye GentaFrom what we understood during the presentation, IWC is moving away from the famous G|rald Genta design for their Ingenieur collection. Instead, they want to come with an Ingenieur collection that is based on their 1955 Ingenieur reference 666 model. The IWC Ingenieur Chronograph collection they presented to us are the first step in that direction. Not entirely true, as they di [...]
During the SIHH 2016 in January, IWC showed us a range of new Pilot models or upgrades of existing models. One of the models that received a lot of attention was the IWC Pilots Watch Timezoner Chronograph 3950.Although I love the clean designed IWC Mark XVIII, Mark VIII Le Petite Prince edition, Big Pilot and the new BP Heritage watch in 48mm, I have to make an exception for the new IWC Pilots Watch Timezoner Chronograph 3950 as well.At first sight, Ive found this watch to be relatively cluttered when it comes to the design. It also reminded me a bit of the Breitling Aviastar (I covered that one here). ?But when I gave it a closer look, the watch definitely has these IWC design features and [...]
Amsterdam?IWC CocktailIWC recently opened their boutique in one of the most famous shopping streets in The Netherlands. We are talking about the PC Hooftstraat in Amsterdam of course. On the 20th of June, IWC is organizing a cocktail to show the new Aquatimer collection. This collection has been presented during the SIHH 2014 in Geneva.? IWC Museum Curator David Seyffer will be there to present the new Aquatimer models. Also, he will bring?some of the museum pieces from Schaffhausen to show to you Fratello Watches is pleased to give away 3 personal ?invitations to our readers from the Benelux?to join this unique event in Amsterdam. Like we did last year, to the IWC event at the race track in [...]
IWC Ingenieur EventRemember our give-away of tickets to the AMG and IWC event at the Zandvoort Racing Track in The Netherlands? The conditions to participate were quite strict, you needed to have an IWC Ingenieur already AND live in The Netherlands, Belgium or Luxemburg. We had to disappoint quite a few people who mailed us from Denmark, UK, Franc and even Italy. In the end, we had two people who met all requirements!We have a Winner!However, one of them needed to cancel the evening before due to an important business meeting. So, in the end, we only brought Maarten van Munster to the race track. Instead the other winner, there was suddenly some extra room for our photographer Bert Buijsrogg [...]
