From left to right: Thomas, Nacho, Lex, Jorg, Daan, Timo, Andreas, Robert-Jan, Sofia
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. 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. Thanks to this success story, Fratello joined the Chrono24 group of companies in 2018 to expand its exceptional growth trajectory.
From 2011 onwards, Fratello was joined by photographer Bert Buijsrogge. He took care of most of the watch photography on Fratello which has set us apart from the majority of the competition for many years.
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.
Our team in Milan at the end of a #SpeedyTuesday event.
#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 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).
The year 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. In 2022 and 2023, we did even more special collaboration watches with brands (Oris, Nomos, Louis Moinet, Aquastar, Nivada Grenchen, etc.). You can find a full rundown in our shop. 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 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.
