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Beautiful Perrelet Turbine model, to commemorate this year of the dragon. Perrelet has been doing well with their Turbine line of watches, and has released a very cool Limited edition featuring a Dragon carved from hand-colored Polynesian Mother-of-Pearl and then encrusted onto a solid white mother-of-pearl dial. The images of the dragon is obscured by the turbine, but when the turbine is spinning, the dragon is visible in its entirity.

The watch measures 44mm in diameter and 13mm in thickness. And features a black DLC coated steel case with sapphire crystals. Movement is the Perrelet exclusive P-331 Double Rotor movement. An incredible watch. I would love to see the dragon without the rotor obscuring, but could not find any photos!

From:The Breitling Watch Blog

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I’ve tried to upload this vid several times… gonna give it ONE more shot.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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Announced as a “The Breitling seal of confidence”, Breitling has announced that they will be introducing a 5 Year warranty exclusive to their Manufacture Movements, which at this time include the 01, 04 and 05 movements.

This is a very impressive move by Breitling to provide such a long warranty. Given that they are in fact only providing it on their own manufacture movements says a lot about their confidence and pride in their own work. I’m curious when this new warranty will kick in and whether or not it will be retroactive to B01′s purchased before the announcement. At any rate, a nice move from Breitling.

From:The Breitling Watch Blog

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May 16, 2011 Dr. Steven Greer talks about the 10 year anniversary of the Disclosure Project and more with Peter Gooch. www.disclosureproject.org http blogs.abc.net.au Dr. Steven Greer is the Founder and Director of the Disclosure Project. A lifetime member of Alpha Omega Alpha, the nation’s most prestigious medical honor society, Dr. Greer is an emergency physician and former chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Caldwell Memorial Hospital in North Carolina. In addition to heading the Disclosure Project, he has also been supervising a world-wide search for alternative energy sources, specifically those known as zero-point or over-unity devices with the plan to identify and develop systems which will eliminate the need for fossil fuels. Dr. Greer released his 3rd book in 2006 — Hidden Truth – Forbidden Knowledge — in which he relates his own personal experiences with Extraterrestrial peoples and the unfolding of cosmic awareness since his childhood – from his sighting of a UFO at an early age, to his amazing near-death experience at age 17, to his unraveling of the secret cabal running the illegal transnational energy and UFO related projects, to his meetings with a CIA Director, US Senators, heads of state and royalty. On May 9, 2001, as Director of The Disclosure Project, Dr. Greer presided over The Disclosure Project Press Conference from the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Over 20 military, government, intelligence, and corporate witnesses …
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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UEFA celebrate the “one year to go” mark, way up in the mountains with a most unusual football match.

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Congratulations to Tim and Bart Grönefeld for winning the TimeZone 2011 Watch of the Year competition.

10 days ago we asked you to give your votes on TimeZone for your favorite watch on their short list of six timepieces (click here). We love the One Hertz from the minute we saw it during BaselWorld 2011 and reported repeatedly about it. Today, William Massena of TimeZone announced the watch from Oldenzaal as the winner!

The most recent review of the One Hertz by Gronefeld on Fratellowatches can be found here. We did a write-up on the inner workings of this dead beat seconds watch in the past as well, click here.

From:FratelloWatches RSS

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Well, we can’t say we saw this one coming.  The guys over at Timezone have just announced that the Gronefeld One Hertz has been named the Timezone Watch of the Year, upsetting such logical favorites as the Patek Philippe 5270 Perpetual Calendar Chronograph, The Jaeger-LeCoultre Grand Reverso Tribute to 1931, and the Vacheron Constantin Patrimony World Timer. 

This is an important win for independent watchmakers everywhere, and what is so impressive is that we have to assume that the vast majority of the 29% of the TZ population that voted for the One Hertz has never even seen one!

Still, congratulations to Tim and Bart Grönefeld, two of the most talented watchmakers (and nicest guys) we know in the industry today.  Visit their official website here for more info and read our posts on Grönefeld from months past.

Here is a video of the Timezone award winning watch as explained by Tim and Bart Grönefeld themselves:

From:HODINKEE

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Angelo Bonati, CEO of Panerai

Officine Panerai is making plans to increase production and open new boutiques for its luxury watches by the end of March 2013, in addition to those that the company already has around the world.

The Florentine company plans to open 15 boutiques, adding to the 33 that are currently opened, in hopes to move towards the world of retail.

“We are changing our distribution, reducing wholesale and increasing the retail because we are confident retail will be a part of our future,” Angelo Bonati, CEO of Panerai, said to Dow Jones Newswires during an interview at the Salon International De La Haute Horlogerie show in Geneva, Switzerland.

Bonati also said that the company earns a higher profit selling through its own branded boutiques, but rejected to reveal the balance between retail and wholesale revenue.

“The new boutiques will improve our sales for sure, but they will also improve our image. Image is more important than sales, especially at the beginning because image produces sales,” he said.

Four of the new boutiques will launch in Asia in the the cities of Bangkok, Hong Kong, Macau and Shanghai. Four more will open in the Middle East and three will be set up in North America. Panerai will also open one in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Locations have yet to be decided for the remainder of the boutiques.

“If you don’t have your own retail in Asia you are nothing,” said Bonati.

Panerai is also planning to increase production and efficiency by building a factory in Neuchatel, Switzerland in March.

Upon opening, the new factory will likely replace an existing one in the city. Panerai currently employs 130 people in production, but will recruit extra workers for the new factory, increasing the number of employees to 300.

Bonati added that 2011 has been one of the most successful years, in terms of sales, for Panerai and that the company will likely grow in 2012.

Currently, Panerai has boutiques all over the world, including the cities of New York, Madrid, Dubai, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Moscow and Paris. With four lines of timepieces – Historic, Contemporary, Specialties and Special Editions – each boutique acts as a meeting place for the luxury brand’s customers, collectors and fans. Typically, Panerai produces fewer watches than the market demands and many are categorized as “limited” or “special edition.” Retailers are usually put on a waiting list to receive popular models, as they receive few limited edition timepieces per year.

From:Luxury Watches That Impress Review Blog

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TimeZone’s 2011 Watch of the Year competition has started and there are six candidates you can choose from when voting. Go to the TimeZone website and leave your vote for your favorite watch manufacturer. Make sure you are a registered user of TimeZone and read the voting policy before doing so.

The candidates of the 2011 edition of TimeZone’s Watch of the Year are:

A. Lange & Sohne’s Richard Lange Tourbillon Pour le Mérite. Limited to 100 pieces only in platinum (model shown here in 18 carat red gold) and the fourth piece from this Glashuette manufacture with the Pour le Mérite distinction. The tourbillon with a patented stop-seconds mechanism and the fusée-and-chain transmission have been developed and implemented in this Richard Lange timepiece to improve rate stability and the accuracy of the movement. We’ve done a few A. Lange & Sohne articles at Fratellowatches in the past year, the most viewed one being Ming Thein’s Datograph Diary.

Baume & Mercier’s Hampton Automatic Chronograph. We’ve a lot of respect for the brand that was able to re-do their entire image and branding in such a short time. Completely in the style of the Hampton’s, where the rich and famous hang out in the weekends, Baume & Mercier is a brand again that is back on the horological map. Not only by collectors, but also by the people that only buy one good watch in their entire life. To celebrate a special occasion like graduation, promotion, marriage or just because they make beautiful chronographs. This Hampton Automatic Chronograph with its rectangular case (measuring 34 x 47 mm) is in our opinion competing in this 2011 Watch of the Year with the other rectangular watch, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Rerverso. A manufacture hand wound caliber with a power reserve of 65 hours keep this watch alive.

Gronefeld’s One Hertz. We’ve written a lot about this Dutch brand here, and about the One Hertz in particular (click here). The complication of this beautiful watch is the independent dead seconds hand (secondes mortes). Gronefeld’s in-house developed movement is wonderfully crafted and uses a terrific easy to operate time-setting and winding system. Just by pushing the crown you’ll operate the watch, the small indicator in the dial demonstrates whether it is in winding or setting mode. The One Hertz is unique in the sense that the dead seconds are being powered by a secondary gear train that is completely independent from the hour and minute indications gear train. Available in gold and stainless steel.

Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Grande Reverso Ultra Thin “Tribute to 1931”. 2011 was the 80th anniversary of the Reverso and JLC celebrated that with this Tribute to 1931. The ultra-thin rectangular timepiece has become the SIHH 2011 favorite of many collectors and watch aficionados out there. Understandable, since this watch is such an icon of time. Everybody knows the Reverso, even when there is not much interest in watches at all. We’ve covered Jaeger-LeCoultre quite a lot last year and have shown our love for this classic brand over and over again, based on the positive reactions on these articles and the views it generated, we think this watch could be the winner of the competition. This manual wind (caliber 822) time piece is available in gold and stainless steel.

Patek Philippe’s Perpetual Calendar Chronograph Reference 5270. This particular chronograph has been in our Top 5 of Basel 2011 time pieces (click here). From the moment we saw it during our appointment with Patek Philippe in BaselWorld, we were impressed with it. This entirely in-house designed and crafted chronograph caliber does not only feature a chronograph, it is also a – as the name implied already – a perpetual calendar showing the day and month in two apertures at 12 o’clock. At 6 o’clock, the dial shows the date and moon phase. Of course, this PP has the PP Seal engraved in the movement and consists of over 450 parts in total (182 only for the perpetual calendar). With its diameter of 41mm, it is very wearable.

Vacheron Constantin’s Patrimony Traditionnelle World Time. We’ve done an article in the past about our top 3 of World Timers, and this Vacheron Constantin wasn’t in there. This was of course, before this timepiece had been introduced in 2011. This World Time watch enables simultaneous reading of all 37 world time zones, using three different dials. 1. A sapphire dial with inked and engraved 24-hour indications and central graded day/night indication; 2. A metal dial with map and transferred city names; 3. A metal minute-circle ring and gold applied indexes. By picking a reference location and turning it toward a black triangle at 6 o’clock, the requested time zone can be read by the hour hand or by the 24-hour indicator while the other 36 time zones can be read simultaneously, as well. All settings are created by using the crown. Vacheron Constatin filed a patent for this caliber 2460WT movement.

Here at Fratellowatches we’ve shown a lot of love for some of the brands in this list during the last year. Since we’ve gotten our hands on the Gronefeld One Hertz (Ming Thein did an excellent review, click here), handled it during introduction in BaselWorld 2011 and fiddled around with it during our photo shoot for AskMen at the Gronefeld manufacture in The Netherlands (click here), we are very enthusiastic about this watch and Gronefeld in general. We are pretty sure that we can see a lot more interesting horological stuff coming up from the Dutch bros. The One Hertz is a timepiece that should and would make a perfect ‘TimeZone Watch of the Year 2011′ watch.

Whatever watch you’ll pick as a winner, make sure to do this before noon (GMT) on the 27th of February 2012. Vote by only stating the name of the company, not the watch model. Click here to enter the voting of 2011 TimeZone’s Watch of the Year!

From:FratelloWatches RSS

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Last month, in the birthplace of watchmaking, Geneva played host to the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), a prestigious show convention for the latest in luxury watches. The private event is by invitation only and consists of 18 exhibitions, 12,500 guests from around the world, and over a thousand journalists.

The event took place from January 16 to 20 and allowed the guests to view the new collections by big-name luxury watchmakers. To name a few, Vacheron Constantin, Van Cleef & Arpels, Pierre Arpels, and Cartier all introduced new models at the exhibition.

SIHH 2012

Though only a twenty year old annual tradition, the convention’s philosophy on their website proudly states, “The complete quality of the products on show and a policy of selective distribution are the driving forces of Fine Watchmaking and the SIHH, as brilliantly illustrated by the Show’s progressive and controlled expansion.”

Beginning in 1992 with only five brands exhibiting their work (Baume & Mercier, Cartier, Piaget, Gérald Genta, Franck Müller), the SIHH mostly focused on forums and round table discussions about watch manufacturing and economy. Now, however, it has become much more. In a world where nothing is perfect, the SIHH has allowed for once a year the watch enthusiasts of the world to come together to observe something that is. Those invited to the show all have something in common in that they hold “an unerring belief in the beauty and perfection of the object.”

Encouraging the timeless appeal that watches create, a special additional exhibition was also created to honor vintage clocks dating from as early as the Renaissance to the early 1900s.

Reaching out to the general public (those of us not invited), the men’s interest website Askmen.com recently featured a few watch experts picking out their favorite’s from the show, such as the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver, the Jaeger-Lecoultre Deep Sea Vintage Chronograph, and the Montblanc Timewriter line.

Other journalists and reviewers for the event noted that as luxury watch products tend to take roughly three years to plan and produce, this year’s SIHH was really debuting the big ideas of 2009. Since the worldwide economy was strained at the time, the watches that resulted focused less on novelty and wow-factor, and instead emphasized practical advancements and what generally worked in the past.

The main Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie website’s homepage is already set to start counting down the days until next year’s exhibition (344 days).

From:Luxury Watches That Impress Review Blog

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