The Omega De Ville Hour Vision Blue

The Omega De Ville Hour Vision family has a newly minted addition, the Hour Vision Blue, which certainly adds a bit of colour to the somewhat dour brown, silver and black dial offerings previously available. While some De Ville dials could be seen as conservative or unremarkable, the convergence of excellent 1950’s derivative design of the 41mm transparent case body, the outstanding beauty and engineering of the calibre 8500 series movement and sophisticated appointments on the dusty blue dial transform this latest iteration of the Hour Vision into something very special.

With trends dictating more black in today’s fashion than there ever was in Joseph Heller’s humour, this watch can be worn across the day and night without embarrassment. It also compliments the more ‘adventurous’ choices of fabric colour favoured in business wear, such as ash grey, charcoal and navy blue, and holds its own with the camel, beiges, khakis and greys worn casually on the weekend. We are truly so adventurous in our fashion choices these days – aren’t we?

Omega also took the opportunity to associate the release of the Hour Vision Blue with a worthy piece of philanthropism by committing to donate a minimum of a million dollars over four years to the international eye care organisation, ORBIS. This organisation of specialists and medicos operates in more than eighty less-developed countries, offering treatment for a range of poverty-related eye conditions that lead to blindness, and it also trains local doctors in oculoplastic surgery. Couldn’t think of a better cause, so more power to Omega’s elbow for its generosity.

But, did they have to bring Daniel Craig into this? I realise that it’s de rigueur for even minor Hollywood hacks to adopt a charity and be associated with ‘good works’ – it’s considered beneficial for career and celebrity maintenance - but, I find it a curious that Omega would link this woody little British actor with the steroidal scowl to the De Ville collection, particularly after having invested a mozza in Seamaster product association with the Bond character. Anyway, let’s forget the hype, give Omega ten heavenly credits for helping ORBIS, forget about Daniel Craig and focus on this excellent watch.

Technically, all the earlier praise of the Hour Vision can be heaped on the Blue. The calibre 8500 power plant features the three-level co-axial upgrade, allowing for autonomous adjustment of the hour hand, an especially nifty feature for those who travel across time zones. The movement is chronometer certified and the case is water resistant to a hundred metres.

The dusty blue dial is finished in the customary ‘sun-brushed’ manner, allowing the light to play beautifully on the four-rimmed raised platform, upon which sit 18 karat white gold facetted markers in the tapered and blunted Hour Vision style. The luminous hands continue the tapered design story with a longer centre sweep reaching out to the edge of the chapter ring. An understated date aperture finishes off this subtle and classic dial design.

The whole combination - stainless steel case, blue dial with white gold dial furniture and black leather strap - gives the Hour Vision collection the depth it needed, and, in the process, gave birth to a true classic.

Click on the  pictures for a magnified view 

Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra XXL

The Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra XXL is the perfect accessory for those whose tailoring bears the same label. Making no distinction between walls of muscle or tubs of lard, this AT just cries out to embellish a wrist that would match the circumference of Rush Limbaugh’s head! 

Omega literature declares that the XXL has a “bold” 49.2 mm case (‘Bold’ is the current horological euphemism for ‘ridiculous’ or ‘otherwise indescribable’). The case is a dead-ringer of the limited edition Railmaster colossus that shocked, or awed, depending on one’s outlook, the educated watch-buying public a few years ago, only this time it sports the AT livery.

That having been said, the Aqua Terra dial, combined with a sub-dial registering seconds, certainly offers a very clean design narrative and exceptional aesthetics, further flattered by brushed, polished and faceted hands with an attractive broad-arrow minute hand. The hands and the sharp arrowhead markers have super-Luminova inserts, which, to me, compromises the beauty of the dial and consigns the piece to a shadow-land of ambiguous identity. When, and where, would one wear this watch?

The power plant is interesting and has a lineage dating back to hunter-cased pocket watches of the nineteen-fifties, and, in fact, was designed for that purpose. The Omega chronometer certified calibre 2211A is sourced from an ETA calibre 6498 ebauche that was originally designed for pocket watches by the August Raymond SA company Unitas. This company was a casualty of what we now describe as the quartz and throwaway watch crisis of the late 1970s and when Ebauches S.A. absorbed Unitas, Valljoux and other manufacturers within ETA S.A and finally came under the umbrella of the Swatch Group, many of the original ebauche names and calibre numbers were retained. The tools and related equipment for the Unitas 6498 hunter pocket watch movement became the property of the Swatch Group.

So, the calibre 2211A has a glorious history and is of excellent and proven design. (For a nice little 'riff' on this calibre, click here) Even in its more basic ebauche form it is easy to regulate to chronometer specifications. The seventeen jewel hand-wind movement has deep grain snailing on nicely anglaged bridges (which is an interesting departure from the more common Geneva wave design) and functional finish is excellent. This movement is undoubtedly a classic, and while it provides power for many a brand name, including some Panerais, I would have liked to see this 36.6mm movement in a 41mm  or 42mm case.  

The size of the AT XXL reminds me of the way furniture design went during the Victorian era: from relatively interesting and sophisticated lines and embellishments in the early period to more fruit than on Carmen Miranda’s head in the late period. It seems that human nature dictates that a design trend must be blown out to the point of absurdity before a new counter-trend emerges, and maybe the 49.4mm XXL represents a turning point. But, it still leaves us with the question, who will wear a watch of this size? Japanese sumo wrestlers, steroid-addled body builders, poor little men with a size complex, the criminally obese, for sure, but who else with an ounce of urbanity would touch it?