Fratello On Air: Is In-House In The Outhouse?
Welcome to another episode of Fratello On Air! This week, we discuss the increasing number of claims about movement production and wonder whether it all truly matters. “In-house,” “in-house-designed,” and “third-party” are only some explanations we hear about movements and their origin. It’s gotten a bit nutty! For our listeners, there’s horology content interspersed initially, but fast-forward to 23 minutes for uninterrupted watch talk.
Do you remember when life was simple and watch movements were either in-house or off-the-shelf? It was never the case, but we didn’t care so much — or we weren’t told to care. These days, we have a veritable buffet of descriptions for how a caliber ended up in a watch case. It’s all too much now, and in the end, does anyone give a rip? We’re not so sure.
Handgelenkskontrolle
This week, we kick off our episode on “in-house” and other movement descriptions with a load of banter. Balazs recounts his time at a Turkish airport. Mike mentions a friend who purchased a gray-market Rolex Submariner Date in London and how demand is alive and well. Then, both hosts failed in their quest to purchase the recent Travis Scott Nike shoes (Mike was trying for Balazs). Finally, Mike has had it with snarky, know-it-all commenters who want gold stars. For the Handgelenkskontrolle, Mike is wearing his Rolex Datejust Oysterquartz ref. 17000. Balazs is wearing the cool new Nivada Grenchen Chronoking Mecaquartz Interchangeable Bezel. Stay tuned for an upcoming review here on Fratello!
In-house, designed by, made by… whatever!
Recently, Mike reviewed the new Norqain Independence Skeleton Chrono models. There was nothing wrong with the watches, but the movements were peculiar with in-house design and production at AMT. It got us thinking: do people truly care about in-house, in-house-designed, or off-the-shelf movements? We discuss the topic. You’ll hear about mighty Rolex and the brand’s purchase of Aegler, its longtime exclusive movement manufacturer. We mention Oris and question whether the brand’s in-house strategy has been helpful to sales.
We hope you enjoy today’s episode, and thank you for listening! If you have ideas for future shows, please let us know.
