Latest watch news · Page 4

For stuntman Tom Place, watches aren’t simply accessories. They’re tools with a purpose. They also serve as reminders of the people, stories, and qualities that have shaped his life and career. Those qualities of perseverance and passion are at the heart of Hamilton’s America 250 celebration, and you’ll have a chance to experience them firsthand […]

Nothing beats the bold and brash hand-painted liveries of motorsports in the 1960s and 1970s, especially compared to the overstimulating and overcorporatized wraps of today’s racecars. No, liveries of old were meant to invoke speed and evoke a sense of romance and adventure—and yes, also to occasionally advertise a sponsor.  In celebration of those iconic liveries of the golden years of motorsport, British watchmaker Farer has unveiled a new trilogy of colorful chronographs. Each of the new models takes on a colorway seen on racetracks of yesteryear, while maintaining the motorsport-inspired design of their chronograph lineup. The new Racing Chronographs measure in at a slim 38.5mm in diameter and 13.4mm in thickness, making the stainless steel case comfortable on the wrist for long sessions behind the wheel. Each model features three subdials at 3, 6, and 9 o’clock, with hours, minutes, small seconds, and 30-minute and 12-hour counters. A bidirectional bezel with a ceramic insert wears a 12-hour scale and along with the hands and indexes, is filled with Super-LumiNova for legibility and visibility.  Inside, and visible through a flat sapphire crystal exhibition caseback, is a Sellita SW510M b Elaboré grade movement. Decorations include skeleton framework, perlage finishing, blued screws, and a custom engraved bridge with the Farer monogram just below center. A 63-hour power reserve ensures that setting the watch down between race days won’t be an issue. I’ve ...

German watchmaker Hanhart presents the new Thermosphere Limited Edition, a model created in partnership with the Baden-Württemberg State Firefighters Association. Based on the robust Aquasphere diving watch, the Thermosphere adapts the concept to an entirely different environment, replacing underwater timing with a system inspired by breathing apparatus monitors used in firefighting operations. Limited to 112 […]

We are once again looking to expand our team: Fratello’s reach continues to expand, and we’re growing our content creation capabilities to match the demands of an increasingly engaged global audience. If this sounds exciting to you, and you would like to join our growing team as a photographer on a three-day-per-week basis, read on […] Visit Fratello Is Hiring: Staff Photographer In Our HQ In The Hague, Part Time to read the full article.

The affordable Timex T80 Resin gets a translucent makeover in clear and green. Same Indiglo digital classic, now lighter on the wrist.

In just a few years, J.N. Shapiro, initially a niche American independent focused on exceptional guilloché dials, has become one of the most ambitious names in contemporary American watchmaking.  Founder Josh Shapiro’s Resurgence project demonstrated that high-end mechanical horology can once again be produced in the United States, and the Infinity Series has allowed him […]

California-based independent watchmaker J.N. Shapiro has unveiled the Infinity Series Radiant chronograph, the brand’s first complicated model available to the general public. Like the special order series released last year, the Radiant is built around a well-known La Joux-Perret monopusher calibre, but this time the watch features a tantalum case and choice of two dial configurations. Initial thoughts The Infinity Series is how it all started for J.N. Shapiro, and while the southern California-based watchmaker subsequently introduced the Resurgence — taking ‘made in America’ to the extreme — the Infinity Series makes use of third-party movements to make the brand’s inventive hand-turned guilloche dials more accessible. The Radiant chronograph takes after the 14-piece limited edition unveiled last year for the Boston-based ‘Escapement’ collector group. The Radiant is functionally identical, using the same La Joux-Perret cal. 5000 monopusher chronograph movement. But while the Escapement chronograph featured a movement that had been customised for fellow Alternative Horological Alliance (AHA) member Ming, the Radiant gets its own anthracite-coated livery complete with the brand’s ‘infinity weave’ logo. The movement itself has its own interesting backstory, but the handmade dials and weighty tantalum case do more to help justify the pricing of US$35,900. By the standards of mass market watchmaking this is a steep ask for a straightforward complication,...

It’s easy to think of J.N. Shapiro as a brand largely focused on a style of watchmaking from an earlier generation. But that’s a trap. While the design language is rooted in classicism and J.N. Shapiro prides itself on the highest level execution of traditional guilloche, the brand has also been open to experimenting with materials in a way that many other contemporary indies have embraced to great success in recent years. Their new watch, the Radiant, enters the Infinity Series with a host of exotic materials at its core, and the watch serves as a reminder that while J.N. Shapiro is capable of doing things in an old school way, and might lean into that at times, the brand is not opposed to taking a modern perspective on some of these old fashioned ideas.  J.N. Shapiro’s Southern California manufacture sits at the heart of the American aerospace industry, and that connection serves as a loose inspiration for the Radiant, a new monopusher chronograph that is a bit of a sequel to their first chrono, released just last year in a very small run for Escapement, a Boston area collector’s group. Watches that are linked to aerospace are nothing new, but usually watches in this genre are conceived as fit for an astronaut, or something along those lines (there’s been a glut of space-travel oriented watches just this year, from IWC, Bremont, and others). J.N. Shapiro takes a different approach, focusing on materials that are closely tied to the industry and have unique app...

What We Know Time flies, and it’s been almost 10 months since J.N. Shapiro launched the brand’s first complication, a limited-run monopusher chronograph for a private group of collectors in the Boston area. It featured a salmon-and-black dial and a stainless-steel case, limited to 14 pieces. Now the concept is back, with the same movement, but with some arguable upgrades in how the entire watch is treated. The brand has tapped tantalum and zirconium as major parts of the watch's construction, materials used extensively in aerospace engineering for their special properties. "Our workshop is located in one of the largest aerospace manufacturing hubs in the world," says Shapiro in their press release. "Companies like SpaceX, Boeing, Northrop, and JPL are all nearby. This watch is a nod to that environment, using space-age metals and meteorite to reflect where we come from and what inspires us." The watch comes in two dial variants, both cased in 38mm-by-9.6mm (8.2mm without crystal) tantalum cases. The dark grey material, famously hard to machine, is incredibly heavy, giving the watch a lot of gravitas on the wrist. Photo courtesy J.N. Shapiro. The first dial, which is the most direct homage to the Californian tie with aerospace, features a Meteorite with a blued zirconium chapter ring and blued hands. The chapter ring is engraved with hour markers and Arabic numerals at 3, 6, and 9, plus a minute track, but no specific chronograph scale. The subsidiary dial counter has a...

In the ideal world of watch collecting, every collector should have a platinum piece. One of such piece is ideally a Parmigiani Fleurier Toric.

It’s no secret that I have a soft spot for the Omega Speedmaster, and over the years, I’ve collected several of them. But beyond the watches, I also find myself collecting Moonwatch-related items, such as old catalogs, pins, pens, boxes, and books. To date, the best book on the topic is Moonwatch Only. From the […] Visit Moonwatch Dials: The Most Expensive Book I’ve Ever Bought to read the full article.

Farer's new Racing Chronograph collection injects bold, vibrant colours into the vintage-inspired tricompax chronograph scene

Just a couple of weeks ago, we were recording an episode of Fratello On Air when Balazs brought up the new Timex Atelier collection. Frankly, I had no idea what he was talking about, which is odd because I check out the brand’s website every so often. Lo and behold, when I did hit the […] Visit Watch Out, World: The New Timex Atelier Chronographs Are Really Good to read the full article.

We tested 17 quartz watches that make the movement feel like a strength, including solar field watches, serious divers, high-accuracy pieces, and weird digital icons.

What We Know Vacheron just brought back its incredibly unique Traditionelle Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar, and it's a welcome sight for dedicated collectors of the brand, along with general enthusiasts of unexpected yet innovative takes on complicated watchmaking. If you're not familiar with the original Traditionelle Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar, launched back in 2019, the watch offered an incredibly novel solution to a problem often found within perpetual calendar watches. Let's be honest, though the entire appeal and genius of the perpetual calendar is for someone wearing one watch all day, every day, for the whole year, watches like these are most often owned by those with a large collection to begin with. A weekend for a perpetual calendar in a watch box or drawer would mean that the complication would need to be set again after winding, and so Vacheron introduced this perpetual calendar with a whopping 65-day power reserve. To achieve this, rather than putting in an unfeasibly large mainspring in the barrel, the Traditionelle Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar lives up to its name by offering a new system that allows for switching between two beat rates for the watch—a contemporary high-beat 5Hz frequency with a 4-day power reserve for normal timekeeping during wear, but a much slower 1.2Hz mode with that prolonged power reserve for the "Standby" phase. The Caliber 3610QP comprises two separate gear trains for the two regulating systems, with a series of differentials tha...

First launched in 2019, the Vacheron Constantin Traditionelle Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar remains one of the most fascinating watches in its category. Thanks to a movement with a secondary, low-power mode, the Twin Beat has an extended power reserve measured in months – all contained in a reasonably sized, 41 mm case. The original version of the Twin Beat was complex and finicky. Now Vacheron Constantin (VC) has refined and upgraded the movement, resulting in a second generation model with an extra five days of power reserve in Standby mode – which means the watch will run for 70 days. Initial thoughts I described the original Twin Beat as a “genuinely interesting, albeit pricey, watch”. Even though several years have passed, the Twin Beat remains genuinely interesting. It is a novel concept executed in a sophisticated manner. In contrast to majority of ultra-long power reserve watches, the Twin Beat is ordinarily sized. I am certainly glad VC has revived the concept and made it better. The original probably had a few kinks in the movement that made production difficult so the first generation never really made it to market in significant numbers. The kinks have been resolved with the new version, which is probably also more robust from a usability point of view. The same holds true today of the price, though given the overall price index of the market, the new Twin Beat is arguably less expensive in relative terms. The first generation model Two running modes On ...

Since its launch in 2021, the Seastar 2000 Professional has occupied an interesting spot in Tissot’s catalogue. For around EUR 1,000, it delivers a specification sheet that normally comes with more expensive dive watches: a helium escape valve, a ceramic insert bezel, 600m water-resistance, ISO 6425 certification, and a robust Swiss movement. In short, this […]