From childhood dreams of space exploration, to collaborating with Omega on the #speedytuesday limited edition Speedmaster, we caught up with Robert-Jan Broer (@rjbroer) about growing-up in Holland and founding Fratello watches. 

 

So how did you get into watch collecting? 

Well my first experience of watches would have been as a kid the ‘80s. I was born in ’77 so I grew up around all those early digital watches.

 

Oh…

[Laughs] My first watch was not interesting at all, it was just a simple black Casio that I got when I was on my summer holiday in the UK with my parents. I probably got it at Dixons or something like that. [laughs]

 

[Laughs] Where else…

So, I wore that to school, thinking it was very cool. The next thing I got was a Swatch, around ’89. They weren’t really the hot thing yet among kids, everyone just wanted the calculator watch.

 

So they could cheat on tests? 

[Laughs] Exactly. I’m not sure where those people that cheated ended-up, but I think my Swatch is what you could call my first ‘proper’ watch. It was in my late teens that I developed a real interest in watches, but there was no spare money for me to spend on them at that time.

 

Right…

It wasn’t until I was 21, after graduating from college, that I got my first mechanical watch. An Omega Constellation. My mum gifted it to me and I was familiar with the brand by that point, so I was naturally thrilled. My parents and grandparents all wore Omega too, I think even my great-grandfather actually.

 Robert-Jan Broer Interview at A Collected Man London 1 

Wow, was your great-grandfather around long enough for you to be familiar with it?

No, he passed away before I was born, but my grandfather had the same model. My grandfather and grand