Reaching a global audience of millions, Fratello helps to grow the watch community by making them feel the pulse of the world watches on their preferred channel of choice. Since being founded in 2004, we offer high-quality watch content that is authentic, unique, and interesting — with a personal touch.
With a deep knowledge of watches, Robert-Jan Broer decided to start an educational and entertaining platform by the name of Fratello Watches. Fratello is Italian for “brother” which directly translates to his last name “Broer”. Broer can be quite hard to pronounce for non-Dutch speakers. Fratello, however, just rolls off the tongue! It is memorable and easy to say. Over time it has become more than a name. It is a symbol of our community — a brother(and sister)hood, of sorts.
Over the years, Fratello has amassed a team of skilled editors and professional photographers. They all share one thing: a passion for watches! On this page, you will be able to virtually meet all of them and connect directly to them.
From left to right: Thomas, Nacho, Lex, Jorg, Daan, Timo, Andreas, Robert-Jan, Sofia
#SpeedyTuesday
In 2012, our feature Speedy Tuesday (covering the Speedmaster watch every Tuesday) came to life and resulted in a community of its own. The #SpeedyTuesday movement has since spawned a print magazine and two OMEGA Speedmaster Professional “Speedy Tuesday” limited edition watches. It was the first time OMEGA cooperated with an online publication to design a specific watch for the Speedmaster community. It was also the brand’s first online sale in 2017 and all 2,012 watches were spoken for in 4.5 hours. In 2018, we launched the second edition. Meeting with similar success, all 2,012 pieces were reserved under 2 hours.
Fratello founder Robert-Jan Broer in Hong Kong during one of the #SpeedyTuesday events
In 2014, Ebner Publishing acquired Fratello. During the Ebner era, we overhauled the website. Our mode of presentation may have changed, but our passion for watches remained. As such, in 2018, we bought Fratello back with the backing of investors. Fratello is now able to go on new digital adventures and our e-com platform is one of them. In 2020, we took on our biggest commercial project yet, partnering with Oris to create a limited run of 300 Fratello × Oris Big Crown Pointer Date Bronze (with a sumptuous Oxblood dial).
2021 saw the partnership portfolio expand even further with successful collaborations with Minase (a special Divido limited to 10 pieces) and Czapek (50 pieces of an Antarctique with a totally unique dial setup) kicking off the year. It’s exciting to work with brands and finally, after many combined years in the industry (or “culture” as UNESCO’s ruling now allows us to say), but content continues to be our core concern. We love to write and talk about watches all day long and that’s never going to change.
The Fratello team in Milan at the end of a #SpeedyTuesday event. From left to right: Timo, Robert-Jan, Lex, Sinara, Matthijs, Sofia, Bert
The Fratelli
We try to cover as many brands as possible. It is important to us that we provide our readership — the Fratelli — with as broad an overview of what’s out there as we can. We also organize watch events for our readers together with brands and boutiques, from small exclusive events with 10–15 people to larger events with over one hundred attendees.
Just like our content, our worldwide reach is serious and ever-growing. Become a member to get the most out of the site. And don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter! It will keep you abreast of all internal and external developments, and exciting new releases.
You can also visit us (on appointment only) in our office to talk about watches, ideas, etc. We are located in the former Caballero cigarette factory in The Hague, so if you fancy stopping by for a chat, drop us a line. We’d love to welcome you to the ever-growing family that is Fratellowatches.com.
