I will be highly opinionated today, and I am ready to take a few punches if you disagree with me. No matter how simple a Cartier design is, it’s heavy. Heavy for self-esteem, that is. There are exceptions, but generally speaking, I don’t see Cartier as a door-opening brand for watch collecting, whether modern or…

As the house brand for a Swiss manufacturing company that produces components for a variety of prestigious names within the industry, Formex benefits from direct access to materials and technologies that other watch brands would normally have to source, license, or otherwise pay to acquire. For the most part, Formex produces everything except the hands…

What We Know The last time we covered Aera – a microbrand focused on creating Swiss-made watches focused around one core silhouette – co-founders Jas Minhas and Olof Larsson revealed their most complicated watch to date in the C-1 Chronograph. Now, Aera dials everything back to reveal their simplest model yet in the field-watch-inspired M-1…

A foundational value at most elite watchmaking institutions in Switzerland is the freedom of not having to rush. Taking your time to do it right, do it well, and do it beautifully are what many enthusiasts value from top-tier production facilities. Factories that are in a rush, often make high volumes of lower-complexity goods for…

I don’t know for sure if dress watches are having a comeback. Maybe they’re already back. Maybe they never left. What I do know is that for its first 10 to 15 years, the microbrand segment was dominated by dive watches. Simply put, if you were a new brand during those years, you more likely…

The all-new Ressence Type 9 is a sleek creation in either warm gray or a fresh shade of aqua blue. Its pebble-like titanium case measures 39mm wide, making it the smallest Ressence timepiece ever. The watch is a slimmed-down and refined version of the Type 8 and shows only the hours and minutes. It’s not…

Hello, and welcome to Fratello Talks! Today, we are celebrating our 100th-episode milestone with a special Q&A. We asked you to send us your questions, and you delivered. We’ve gathered, sorted, and selected said questions over the past few weeks, and in today’s episode, Nacho, RJ, and Thomas come together to answer them. We cover…

Last month, in partnership with UBS, we hosted a get-together and series of talks in New York City called “House of Craft.” The event featured a who’s who of watch-world luminaries, including industry legend Jean-Claude Biver, actor Keegan Allen, chef Alton Brown, AP CEO of the Americas Ginny Wright, actor Daniel Dae Kim, journalist Jay…