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Hotelier Sandro Fratini owns one of the world’s largest timepiece collections<\/p>\n
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Antonella and Sandro Fratini have made a distinct mark on the hospitality industry through their highly original luxury residences and hotels. Located in Rome, Venice, and Florence and operating under the family-owned WTB<\/a> (Why The Best Hotels) brand, each bespoke property reflects timeless \u201cMade in Italy\u201d elegance.<\/p>\n Sandro Fratini: A Watch Lover at Heart<\/p>\n However, Florentine entrepreneur Sandro Fratini is better known in the horology<\/a> world as one of the most prominent collectors of precious timepieces. His interest in watches and watch-making dates back more than six decades. <\/p>\n At the age of eight, he received a steel-plated Longines for his first communion and was intrigued by the workings of its small, intricate mechanisms. The young man used his first savings to purchase watches, and his father and grandmother encouraged his passion, helping him acquire more significant pieces. <\/p>\n By the time he was twenty, he had acquired watches from Patek Philippe<\/a>, Rolex, Cartier and Vacheron Constantin.<\/p>\n But his impressive assemblage of watches began in earnest years later. Fratini\u2019s father was the founder of the pioneering Italian denim brand Rifle in Tuscany. When Sandro and his cousins became co-owners of the family business, it afforded the collector the opportunity to travel the world and amass more than 2,000 vintage and rare collectible timepieces. <\/p>\n Estimated to be worth one billion euros today, the collection is considered one of the most notable of its kind: Fratini doesn\u2019t wear these precious pieces or sell them. <\/p>\n Six hundred pieces from this extraordinary private collection are featured in an oversized coffee table book, My Time – Blu blu l\u2019amore \u00e8 blu, published by Christie\u2019s auction house.<\/p>\n Creating A Marriage of Horology and Hospitality<\/p>\n Hoteliers Antonella and Sandro Fratini<\/p>\n Courtesy the Fratinis<\/p>\n Together, Fratini and Antonella created the unique concept of design-forward L\u2019Orologio hotels that couple the worlds of horology and hospitality. Hotel L\u2019Orologio Florence opened in 2009, followed by Hotel L\u2019Orologio Venice in 2014, and then Hotel L\u2019Orologio Rome in 2022. All three sister properties are located in Italian art cities.<\/p>\n L’Orologio Florence<\/a> occupies a corner of Piazza Santa Maria Novella. Deluxe rooms frame views over the Duomo and Florence’s historic streets, while a top-floor suite opens onto a private terrace overlooking the Duomo. <\/p>\n Deluxe Rooms at Hotel L’Orologiio Florence offer views of historic Florentine streets <\/p>\n WTB Hotels<\/p>\n Hotel L’Orologio Venice<\/a> overlooks the Grand Canal near the famed Rialto Bridge, in the heart of Venice’s historic center. It has a scenic terrace on the fourth floor.<\/p>\n A junior suite at Hotel L’Orologio Venice <\/p>\n WTB Hotels\/Andrea Getuli <\/p>\n Hotel L\u2019Orologio Rome<\/a> is set in a restored Neo-Renaissance building near Largo di Torre Argentina<\/a> on Corso Vittorio Emanuele in the historic center of the city. It\u2019s only a short walk from the Pantheon.<\/p>\n Street-level entrance to Hotel L’Orologio Rome opens into an elegant, watchmaking-inspired interior <\/p>\n WTB Hotels<\/p>\n At the time of the Christie\u2019s book launch, Fratini noted that the hotels were designed to extend his deep passion for horology to his guests, inviting them into his world.<\/p>\n Hotels With Timeless Elegance<\/p>\n Sandro\u2019s wife, Antonella, is personally responsible for the interior design and guest experience. Also well-traveled, she began her immersion in the world of hospitality beside an aunt who owned a hotel in the spa town of Montecatini Terme. <\/p>\n Her goal was to design \u201ccasa hotels,\u201d boutique properties that were intimate and homelike. To that end, she sourced all the furnishings from Florentine craftsmen rather than large companies.<\/p>\n Every L\u2019Orologio property is different in design and decor, but all three are inspired by watches. Rather than solely using them as a theme or decorative element, the hotel designs are influenced by materials, architectural details, colors, and other references to actual timepieces in Sandro Fratini\u2019s collection.<\/p>\n Each hotel floor is dedicated to a brand; each room to a specific timepiece. The rooms display photos and artwork representative of watches, and even the door handles are shaped like watch hands. The faucet handles are crafted to represent the winding crown of a watch.<\/p>\n The expanding WTB collection also includes four other boutique and design hotels in Florence: Hotel Santa Maria Novella, Garibaldi Blu Hotel, Hotel Balestri and Hotel Rossi. Unlike many other branded properties, each hotel has a distinct personality that reflects Antonella\u2019s keen sense of beauty, elegance and style.<\/p>\n For the growing number of tourists exploring or returning to some of Italy\u2019s most popular destinations, this unusual collection of boutique luxury hotels provides a memorable warm and welcoming retreat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hotelier Sandro Fratini owns one of the world’s largest timepiece collections getty Antonella and Sandro Fratini have made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[25595,208,25596,941,5,25597],"class_list":["post-38652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-antonella-fratini","tag-florence","tag-hotel-lorologio-venice","tag-italian","tag-italy","tag-thenbsp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}