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Rob Lüpkes mailed me the following link today. It is a nice read-up on one of my favorites.. a Royal Oak. Audemars Piguet seems to have introduced a bigger version of their ‘regular’ Royal Oak… Eric wrote a small review on this watch, click here to check it out!
Although I doubt that there was someone there from Luxembourg at the meeting, it was a great event!! Organized by Maurits and Mr. Orange (Ilya) in Antwerp. The meeting took place at brasserie Appelmans which is located in the center of Antwerp.
Mr. Orange kicked off with a nice welcome and handed over the imaginary microphone to Hans Dekkers, distributor of Panerai in the Benelux.
Hans Dekkers receiving the special Paneristi gift from Mr.Orange & Maurits.
Hans showed several new watches and told us what to expect from Panerai this year (soon). All (+/-) 25 attendees received the 2005 catalogue, a Panerai cap and a leaflet from the adventure of Mike Horn & Panerai (Arktos). After some drinks, chats and glances at a Panerai DVD presentation, we went to Slaets to see some more Panerais. We got a warm welcome by them, including a bag with some goodies and a glass of champagne.
A few Paneristi (including yours truly) at Slaets.
After this short ‘break’ we returned to brasserie Appelmans for a great diner! At the end of the diner everyone received a Paneristi poster signed by every attendee.
I learned a lot from fellow Paneristi on historic models and had some great discussions on Panerai watches and the way they are heading now. One thing I noticed was that most guys didn’t care much for the new variations by Panerai. I have said it before on the blog, but I will do it again… I really think watch manufacturers should be cautious producing all kinds of variants on watches. When people buy a limited edition model Arktos for example and after a while start producing (common series) Arktos GMT models, what’s the added value of owning the limited edition in the first place, and second… people will get tired of too much models looking very similair. Personally, I think Panerai should keep it down to just a few models and variations. Before I will rant too long and refer too much to the good ol’ Rolex way of producing variations :-), I will get back to the meeting. Another thing I noticed, is that there is only small interest in the movement itself. Although Panerai comes out with their own inhouse movement, and have used JaegerLeCoultre, Rolex and Zenith movements in the past¤t, I could only discover a few talks about movements. It just has to be mechanical and finished nicely I guess. To be honest, that’s all I am looking for in Panerai watches as well. The case design, dial, straps, buckles, crown mechanism triggers is more interesting to me as well on Panerai.
All together, a great and well organized event and I hope I will bring a new/other Panerai with me next time. I have some new and better ideas on my next Panerai, thanks to Jon, Maurits and a few others.
All photos used in this post by P@trick@Belgium.
121Time is known for their customizable watches which you can create on their website.
Daniel Morf (co-Founder of 121Time) emailed me that their watches are now available with an automatic (based on the ETA 2824-2) movement as well.
Below you see the Grand Central automatic model. Click here for the official press release (Microsoft Word document).
Jorge Merino at TimeZone wrote a message in the Girrard-Perregaux forum about their latest watch, exclusively for the BMW crew. I wonder when the first crew member puts his/her watch on eBay.
Although I love BMW cars and have respect for Larry Ellison (Oracle CEO), I rather don’t see their logos on a watch like this.
According to Jorge, the watch has the following specifications:
The case, in stainless steel, measures 40mm x 13mm. It has a sapphire crystal with AR coating and the back is secured by 6 screws. It is water resistant to 300 meters. Movement is the automatic GP caliber 033RO with 26 jewels and a power reserve of 46 hours.
I really, and I mean really, like this watch. About 5000 euro gives you probably a watch you won’t see people wearing in the super market and (maybe) more important, even not at parties and other social events 
This watch reminds me somehow about a frog and not about a swordfish, but I guess that name is sounds a bit cooler.
Am I the only one who likes this watch? Comments?
Andrew Babanin wrote a great essay on the Rolex caliber 3135 at TimeZone. He starts his review with the following short, simple but yet so caracteristic introduction,
” Rolex is a manufacture with old traditions and one hundred years of history. Rolex is always considered a luxury watch, giving assurance to its owner.
I would like to review a quite common model Rolex Submariner (Ref. 16610). The case and the bracelet are made of stainless steel. It is a COSC certified automatic chronometer with central seconds and date indicator. There’s a special Triplock screwed down crown with increased water protection. “
And what follows is everything beyond short and simple.. a superb review on the caliber 3135 movement in understandable text with some fabulous explanatory photos. I wonder if this review will become as well-known as the one done by Walt Odets.
Click here for the essay by Andrew Babanin
Photo taken by Andrew Babanin. The caliber 3135 movement with the rotor removed for better view
I guess I’ll be wearing my 3135 watch (Sea-Dweller) tomorrow!
Horloges is a Dutch glossy magazine on … watches. I have been a reader of it since day one, and in one of the first editions my website (then still very active) www.omega-addict.com got mentioned. As well as Ernie’s WatchUSeek website and some others. Anyway, the magazine started out with not very spectacular articles about watches and watch brands (but hey, one tries to read everything about his/her passion, right?) and grew out to a magazine with quite a number of in-depth articles on watches, brands and used techniques. Once a year they organize a ‘Horloges Gala’ to choose a few ‘watch of the year’ watches in several price ranges. One of the few things I really dislike about the magazine (but this is the case with 00/24 magazine as well, another Dutch magazine with a very similair concept) is the ever ongoing interviews and pictures with famous Dutch people (from television or sports, see picture below for example) who seem to have a dozen of expensive watches.
Anyway, Horloges magazine is celebrating its 5th year with an anniversary edition (with a matching silver color). I don’t have a picture of it yet, but that might change soon. I bought it last saturday, and when I got home and unwrapped the plastic I was immediately dissapointed. The extra thick edition wasn’t filled with extra hot news and articles… it seems to be some sort of recap of several articles and editions from the past 5 years. So thanks Horloge Magazine, I have bought a summary of the magazines which already are properly sorted and lined up in my bookshelf. Just what I needed.
Oh well, I will keep on buying these magazines anyway… Congratulations with this mileage and I hope to see another 5 added (at least)…
I thought it might be interesting to post the watch brands that were entered at search engines and lead to this website. FratelloWatches is here for almost a year now, so a lot of brands have been mentioned here. Ofcourse it is not very objective, but it gives an idea about (current) populair brands.
The statistics are not only fed by Google by the way and the keywords entered which does not contain a brand name, are left out.
1. Omega
2. Rolex
3. Panerai
4. Sinn
5. IWC
6. Patek Philippe
7. Breitling
8. Louis Bolle (sad but true)
9. Van Der Gang
10. Seiko
11. Parmigiani
12. (Tag) Heuer
13. Tissot
14. Ole Mathiesen
15. Cartier
16. MarcelloC
17. Vacheron & Constantin
18. Uboat (another case of the comment at nr.8)
19. BRM
20. Paul Picot
The list can go on.. but 20 should be enough. For the record, Omega was entered at the searchengines over three times as much as Rolex. Speedmaster and Seamaster are on par. Sinn and IWC are very close, which shows that it is a bit objective, since IWC is not mentioned very much here on Fratellowatches (mainly because I dislike the brand). One could also conclude that IWC is a very much entered keyword at searchengines. So much, that people even find Fratellowatches the place to click between all those hits (756.000 at Google). Submariner is higher in ranking than Daytona. The EZM1 seems to be more populair than the 142.
Currently I get about 350-400 hits a day and climbing.. I wonder if the list still looks the same in June 2006.
RT (Roger) at Paneristi posted a message on their board that this book is coming out in November.
Roger posted the following:
From the Inside Flap
Panerai’s watchmaking tradition spans 150 years from its foundation in Florence in the 1860s. As supplier to the Royal Italian Navy, Panerai perfected the world’s first underwater timepieces in the 1930s, which were both waterproof and luminescent. Panerai timepieces represent both glamor and technical brilliance. Until the 1970s, these beautifully designed watches were known only to the connoisseur; today they are collected by “Paneristi” throughout the world. Courageous adventurer Mike Horn wore a Panerai Arktos designed for him while making a solo circumnavigation of the Arctic Circle between 2002 and 2004. Panerai: The History presents the watchmaker’s remarkable technical and aesthetic achievements in original photography. An extensively researched catalog of the watches and other pieces in the firm’s collections and archives provides a unique resource for collectors and watch specialists.
About the Author
Stephan Ciejka has worked as a photographer and journalist since the 1970s. A specialist of military history and collector of vintage watches, he is the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of La Revue des Montres, Europe’s leading fine watches magazine.
Product details:
Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Flammarion (November 1, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN: 2080305018
About a year ago, I had this Dubey & Schaldenbrand Aerodyn Date. I traded (I think) a Breitling Navitimer for this Dubey, but both watches didn’t get much wear. The Aerodyn looks great, hence the nice picture by WatchJunkie at Timezone. However, this was one of the watches I really like(d), but never seem to get any wrist time, as us WUS people like to refer to. A shame really, because I can’t come up with a reason why this watch stayed in its box while I had it. Maybe it is the shape, or maybe the high polished casing… although these are the things I liked about it in the first place.
Ah well.. at least I tried.
Picture by WatchJunkie
Yesterday I was visitting Gerard’s watch store and while I was there drinking some coffee, I browsed the latest Antiquorum catalogue for the upcoming auction of the 15th of June.
Just now I noticed a post by Felipe on WatchRap.com which describes (in pictures and text) some of the highlights of that auction. Felipe visitted the auction preview in New York in person with some watch friends and took a lot of pictures.
This Patek ref.2499 for example, estimated between 200.000 and 250.000 USD:
Picture by Felipe.
I just found out today (I haven’t been online much besides checking my work email) that Chronocentric’s founder Derek Ziglar passed away recently. When I just started out with my Omega-Addict site I mailed a bit with Derek and after that we exchanged links and once in a while I posted in his Seamaster forum.
Chuck Maddox posted the URLs of the posting on the Chronocentric Omega and OTD Forum, where you can leave your thoughts or condolences. Click here for Chuck’s blog post.
Bas van Dorp mailed me his thoughts on Bulova Accutron watches…
Although I wear mechanical watches exclusively, I still think tuning fork
watches are very cool. Without doubt, the nicest ones are the Bulova
Accutrons. They were the first watches equipped with something that was not
completely mechanical. Other companies created tuning fork watches as well,
but the technology was completely wiped out with the introduction of quartz
watches in the 1970’s.
A good site is The Accutron Watch Page:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~fotoplot/acc.htm
If you’re a geek, this is your watch. Your friends will welcome you as their
new overlord. In contrast to most geek gadgets, I don’t think Accutrons are
female repellants. Retro designs are rather hip now, so chicks probably think
you have next year’s Diesel watch or something:
Unfortunately, they are not as reliable as mechanical watches. Having it fixed
can be difficuilt. Furthermore, the Accutron watch page contains information
on what battery to get, how to modify an Accutron to run on “modern” batteries
etc. Hmm, I think I will stay with mechanical for every day use…
TokyoFlash.com comes up with this one:
“Stranger than your mother-in-law, the all new Radio Active watch just hit the stores in Japan, featuring an all new unique way to display the time. Looks hard at first but trust me after about one day, you can tell the time almost as fast as a regular watch. “
Well, I don’t know about the last sentence.. but if you want to ‘different’ on watch meetings, try this one on.
Fabian Krone, CEO of A. Lange & Söhne, tells you what to get for that bit of spare money. Mike Disher @ TimeZone.com interviews Fabian Krone at the SIHH 2005 and reports it here.
Photo courtesy of A. Lange & Söhne
- “What is a Swiss secret?”
- Information about the inside of a Rolex is ofcourse. Duh.
- “Hey there are not that many secrets left when you sell a million watches a year with only a 5% modificaton in model type every 10 years…..”
Someone at Watchrap.com asks about Panerai and if this is a passing fad and how Panerai relates to IWC, Rolex and Breitling and gets this massive reply.
I received some great Italian straps for Panerai watches to put them up for sale. You can order them by sending me an email. Payment by Paypal of bankwire (which is expensive if you are outside of Europa).
Oh yeah, they come with a Pre Vendome style buckle attached.
Bas van Dorp emailed me the following story:
Some months ago, I went snowboarding for a week with some friends. As every
year, I just wear my Omega Speedmaster Pro during snowboarding. I figured that
a Speedmaster Pro should be able to deal with this quite easily.
However, after a few days on the slopes, I noticed a rattling sound coming
from my watch. It sounded as if something had come loose. Ooops! The watch
was was still running, but I had these visions of what could happen when a
part would get stuck in the escapement or somewhere in the geartrain. I
gathered all my courage and I decided it was the best thing to to open the
watch immediately.
I didn’t have a caseback tool at hand, and the pliers on my Leatherman where
the next best thing. I do not recommend this to anyone, if you slip you will
damage the caseback really bad, but a broken movement is even worse so I did
it anyway. Now that was a tough job, after 5 years the O-ring became so
sticky that the back seemed glued on. I then used a razor blade to flip of the
antimagnetic shield.
There was not one, but two loose screws in the watch! Incidentally, the watch
had just stopped running because one of the screws lay on the hairspring. The
sweat poored from my forehead but turning the watch upside down made the
screws fall out, and the watch started running again. Phew!
The screws were too small for me to put them back, so I put them away safely
and closed the watch again. The watch didn’t seem to miss the screws, it’s a
good thing Lemania over engineered the movement Back home, I had a
watchmaker put the screws back and my Speedmaster is happy ever since.
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