It is time for Watchpic of the Week again! So I am biased (it is my blog anyway)… This week it is a Panerai PAM0027 by GDees.

Besides I like this watch a lot, it is a great picture in my opinion. Even though there is focus on the old photograph of the Officina Panerai store in the background, the picture is very sharp. The reflection makes it look ‘real’. Gerard once told me he rather has photos of watches with reflections, than photos who don’t have reflections at all. The photos that belong to the last category are in factory catalogues most of the time, which often do not give the watch the credits it deserves. A watch will always have reflections (except for PVD watches maybe) when you see it in the flesh or when you are wearing it, so why hide?

You can find more pictures of GDees here.

Besides having upgraded the forum software to some new improved version, Ernie also decided to open a Panerai forum at WatchUseek. The forum is moderated by Elizabeth Cacatian from Canada.

Matt Markis was one of the first on the forum to show some Panerai! (PAM86 to be exact)

Good luck with the forum!

Bought himself a Speedmaster Reduced, which looks similair to its bigger brother, the Speedmaster Professional. However, this one is a bit smaller and has an automatic movement. For all those lazy people out there

John wrote a few lines on his new watch at his watch blog, here.

Congrats John and welcome to the club.

This morning I received an email from Johan, who is still watchless, but is sure that this might change some day.

Anyway, he mailed me that he had seen a post on the forum of Tweakers.net, a Dutch site for computer techies, about a guy who had a question about wristwatches. The posting is freely translated from Dutch to English:

“I have a new watch, not a digital Casio for a change, but one with hands. Chronograph (Danish Design). Superb looks but here is what I don’t understand:

If I want to change the day of the month (it is now ‘23′), it flips till it says ‘31′. I can’t set a month. How does the watch know that it has to go to ‘30′ or ‘31′? This month (may) it can be flipped till the 31st, but next month (june) has only 30 days. Does this thing still flips till the 31st?”

According to the profile of this poster, he was born in 1981. So that shouldn’t be it. What is?

WatchUseek uses new forum software since a week or so. Looks great, but I still have to find my way in navigating it I guess. The former software was quite ‘flat’, which lacked flexibility, but was just simple and easy to use and it was almost impossible to lose overview.

Anyway, I finally had some time on my hands to fiddle around with it a bit and to participate in some discussions and threads again (since I am co-moderating the Omega forum together with Jean-Marie).

A few times per week there is something called a ‘roll call’ at the Public Forum, I don’t think it is useful to participate every time but today I joined. Click here to join as well.

Today I still wore the watch that joined me to China, my Rolex Sea-Dweller. Below you see it in action on the Great Wall

I know there are some Seiko fans reading this blog. I almost can’t imagine this website isn’t in their favorites yet, but just to be sure:

Seiko Divers Reference site

We missed week 20 because of my absence, but I hope the Watch picture of this week (21) makes it up a bit.

Regular visitor and Blancpain fan Martijn de Niet submitted a picture of this beautiful Blancpain Villeret with FP cal. 71 movement.

Do you have a picture you want to submit for WatchPic of the Week? Send it to fratellowatches@gmail.com.

I just got in this email from a friend of mine, Johan. He visitted the cinema last week and they showed a trailer of the upcoming (at least here in The Netherlands it is upcoming) movie War of the Worlds. He noticed that an Omega was being used in the movie and send me this screenshot (don’t know how he got it):

Seems like a caliber 321 Seamaster chronograph to me.

RJ

As much as they have watches here (fake and real), a little is the number of internet cafes in Beijing.

To stay on the watch topic. It seems that Omega is the watch brand in Beijing instead of what I though, Rolex. In the main shopping centre (I will come up with the difficult name later on (Note: Wangfujing is the name of the street)), there are a lot of watch stores, including an Omega store. The personel didn’t speak Englisg, so I just looked around. They seem to have the hots for the Constellation in particular. That’s also a model which can be found (fake) at a lot of wrists here.

Vacheron & Constantin is marketing their watches here big time as well. They seem to have a large deal in the TimeCity store I visited in Beijing. I have to get used to some Chinese habits though, as I was checking out some Vacheron models, the sales lady behind the counter spitted a few times in a bucket next to her. Seems to be normal here. Having curled hair is also a weird thing here it seems, people can’t stop staring at my hair

Anyway, back to the hotel. Time for dinner. I will do a larger report on watches in Beijing when I am back. Brands like Titoni seem to do quite well here, Rolex look-a-like watches for just a fraction of the price. Fakes can be bought everywhere, but I haven’t seen very well crafted fakes yet. And the one thing that amazes me most… I haven’t seen a Seiko yet.

All the best and till soon!!

I will be out till the 22nd of May to Beijing/China for a short break. I will try to post something while I am there, but I can’t promise anything.

Till next week! In the meanwhile, make sure to visit all sites in the right pane of this site

Ken mailed me that he had written a review on his Panerai 127 ‘1950′ watch. With no special thoughts in my head I clicked on the link in the message and I was struck when I saw the first few pictures appearing on my screen….

Photo by Ken

Click here for the review

Ken also mailed me this link to a great Panerai wallpaper he made. Just right click on the picture and click ‘Save as’ or ‘Use as wallpaper’ (messages/options can differ from system to system).

By the way, Panereh.com is just a click away and worth checking out. Also for the non-Canadians!

A new category on Fratellowatches.com! A lot of non watch related blogs have some sort of picture day. Where they put the best/nicest or just all pictures on line on a certain subject. Why not for watches? Most watch fanatics can’t get enough of them!

This week, number 19 of 2005 according to this website, I kick off with this great photograph of a Rolex Submariner ref.5514, Comex edition. This photo was made by Paul Boutros and posted in this thread at WatchRap.com.

Enjoy!

Photo by Paul Boutros.

If you have a watchphoto to submit, please mail it to: fratellowatches@gmail.com and state the name of the photographer and specs of the watch.

Since there are quite some Seiko addicts on line, this essay byJack Freedman might be interesting for them/you.

I do not belong in that category, but Seiko makes interesting watches which are worth considering or to at least give it some thoughts. This article on the works of the Kinetic and ‘Sping Drive Kinetic’ might get you interested in Seiko watches… just to name a few advantages over typical automatic winding watch movements (from the article):

- The Seiko Spring Drive offers 72 hours of power reserve, whereas most watches offer about 40 hours.
- Seiko Spring Drive winds 30% faster than a conventional movement.
- Spring Drive movements are accurate to about 1 second per day.
- No more jerky “ticking” motion - the second hand flows smoothly around the dial.

Photo by Jack Freedman

Note! Jack Freedman pointed out to me that he posted some additional information to this article here. It contains additional information by Seiko.

Ferretti Francesco, an avid Panerai collector and seller, does some showing off on his vintage watches at Paneristi.com.

Click here for the full thread

Italians can be considered kings of style. In cars, clothing, watches and probably more. Besides Panerai and Anonimo from Florence, there is also a brand from Rome. Carlo Ferrara. Their watches are priced between 3600 euro and 15000 euro (for the gold & diamond collection). The Carlo Ferraro Regolatore watches come in various shapes and styles. The movement is a CF100, based on the famous ETA 2892-A2 movement.

Click here for their website.

This afternoon, I was in Gerard’s watch shop browsing through some watch magazines, and I really was amazed when I saw this Bell & Ross advertisement. I love their watches (in general), and I think when you do a search on Bell & Ross on Fratello, you should be able to find some articles. I love their Vintage 126 model and their Space models, which are more or less based on Sinn watches.

Anyway, Bell & Ross released this new model. Inspired by aviation instruments, and it shows ofcourse.

I am not a big fan of aviation instruments, so this watch goes beyond imagination of how it would look on my wrist. I can praise Bell & Ross for their designs and originality, but I wonder how much they are going to sell of these…

For the watch lovers, a dedicated Hublot forum at Time Zone.

The forum has been opened by Mike Margolis (long time TimeZoner) and Jean-Claude Biver, CEO of Hublot and former CEO of Blancpain.

You can read an interview with Jean-Claude Biver here.

Wristwatchreview recently posted this collection on their blog. It is marvelous. Even more, it comes very close to the collection I am trying to build up…

Instead of the PAM27C I have a white dialled 113 which I really like to expand with a PAM27 (don’t care about the character that comes behind it). My Date-Just should get a bigger brother in the future, a white or yellow gold Day-Date with a fluted bezel. Anyway, I still have some time to save up and work towards such a collection….

This guy however (another collection), seems to be almost done collecting watches. Great stuff.

Some of you watch collectors probably know or have seen the brand ‘Pierce’ in the search for a vintage chronograph. If not, no worry, below you’ll see a picture of a vintage chronograph by Pierce.

What most of you avid watch collectors probably didn’t know, is that Pierce is back in business. They have their whole collection online at http://www.pierce1883.com.

Click here for more information on Pierce 1883.

That’s right, Patek Philippe ref. 3842. Frank A. writes on the TimeZone Public Forum he is the lucky owner of this rose gold watch.

He wrote:

Hi all. I have always admired Patek watches, and I have been keeping my eyes open for something a little unusual from PP. Well, I found this one and absolutely loved it. The thing is, I am not even bracelet guy as I prefer my watches, especially my dress watches, to be on straps.

For someone who isn’t much of a bracelet guy, this is a lot of bracelet… although I would love to try this one on my wrist some time, I would find a suitable croco leather strap for it.

Photo by Frank A.

Click here for the original post.