Omega Coaxial Technology

Omega's introduction of the Co-Axial escapement in 1999 signaled the beginning of a revolution in innovation of escapement technology. Since this bold move by Omega, other watch companies have garnered the courage and resources to attempt their own improvements on the traditional Swiss lever escapement with varying degrees of success.

With the introduction of the exclusive Co-Axial calibre 8500 series in 2007, Omega can rightly claim to have achieved an impressive union of escapement design and watchmaking excellence that delivers better chronometric performance than any other 'production' watch movement in the world.

The short video below follows the production process of the formidable calibre 8500 series movements.

Omega Aqua Terra Jewellery Collection

These days there's no such thing, strictly, as an evening watch. The standards of formality have relaxed so markedly that the definition of formal wear has become tortuously ambiguous over the last three decades. It’s almost at the point where you could roll up at Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester and bog into the tasting menu wearing little more than designer jeans and a Ploprof on your wrist!!

Wearing tool watches to black tie events and dress watches to work is commonplace…and in some ways more’s the pity. Men just don’t get as many opportunities anymore to climb into a penguin suit, don a precious metal watch, hang an elegant woman off their arm and mingle with polite society. Not that this new informality is particularly lamentable, but the joys of “dressing up” are few and far between these days.

To add to the ambiguity, watch companies have been transforming tool watches (watches designed and engineered to perform a particular function or in a designated environment) into dress watches and indeed dress watches into tool watches – witness the Omega Constellation Double-Eagle range (Talk about a design code identity crisis). And now the lines are to be blurred further with the release of the Aqua Terra jewellery range.

I’m a great fan of the Omega Aqua Terra collection, both from the aesthetic and horological viewpoint. Since I have waxed lyrically on the case lines and design elements of the AT previously, we will explore other features of this newly released series. To start with, Omega has taken a commonsense approach to case size. Discerning some movement in the market towards cases that do not rival the diameter of Dawn French’s backside, Omega has sized the case sensibly at 38.5mm. It’s hardly small by today's standards, but cleverly positioned in the dead middle of the size-fashion continuum.

The dial looks appealing with the Aqua-Terra’s signature teak design finished in black lacquer. The faceted arrow-head markers are dotted with eleven single cut diamonds and there is a brushed 18 Karat gold applied date window at 3 o'clock. The broad arrow minute hand, truncated Dauphine hour hand and arrowhead sweep draw deeply from Omega’s history and the overall effect of dial and hands is that of deliberately understated luxury.

The watch is presented on either a brushed 18 karat gold bracelet with Omega’s patented screw-and-pin system and a safety clasp or a black alligator leather strap with a fold-over clasp. A stainless steel version is also available.

The bezel is paved set with 52 full-cut diamonds and screams money or at least access to an excellent credit line. Overall, when comparing apples with apples, or jewellery watches with jewellery watches, the Aqua Terra has a timeless refinement about it and shapes up very well as an heirloom watch. Couple stylish design with the excellent calibre 8500 series under the dial and you have an aristocratic member of the montre bijoux class of watches.

The market niche for this collection? Women for sure, but I can also see half the Chinese Politburo salivating over these watches. A fair number of the more effete varieties of fashionisti would stab each other in the back for one and wealthy dudes with no sexual identity issues will wear them without self-consciousness. And if you add the usual suspects like gansta rappers, hip-hoppers, crack cocaine lords and Ryan Seacrest clones, there will be no shortages of takers.

Click on the pictures for magnified view

Omega Seamaster Ploprof 1200m White Dial - Another Great White?

The Omega "Great White" Seamaster GMT Chronometer Ref: 2538.20 was a popular model amongst dive watch aficionados, made more-so after Omega decided to discontinue the line. For those who suffered remorse over not acquiring a Great White while it was in production, the “Greater than Great White” version of the Ploprof 1200m should extinguish any such regrets……at more than double the investment!

Ploprof’s design code is undoubtedly the most distinctive of any dive watch on the market, and the polished, lacquered white dial with applied polished Omega symbol and logo will do much to establish it in the world of fad and fashion. The white Ploprof is still a serious bit of kit for the professional diver, however, its idiosyncratic lines, visual appeal and impressive dimensions of 55m x 48mm x 17.5mm have already ensured its migration to the emaciated wrists of androgynes who walk the catwalks of high fashion, as it has their more beefy brethren who insist time-telling accessories be at least the size of New Hampshire.

The watch, sporting a white bi-directional locking bezel with chrome-coated Arabic numerals, snow white dial with super-Lume polished indexes has an over-sized minute hand crafted from orange anodised aluminium and is coated with white Super-Lume for legibility, as are the varnished hour and seconds hands.

While the white dial softens some of its aggression, the raw, retro-industrial quality of the Ploprof case design means that the nearest to water many Ploprofs will ever get is a sudden downpour, and that’s fine. For the Ploprof “Greater than Great White” is an amazing piece of hardware that demands a wider audience.

For a review of the original re-released Ploprof, click here

Omega Speedmaster Professional Apollo-Soyuz “35th Anniversary”

Above: Deke Slayton and Aleksey Leonov meet in space. © NASA

On July 17, 1975, the unimaginable happened: two Cold War-rivals met in space. The timing was propitious as both super-powers were suffering the debilitating effects of their belligerency down on planet earth. It was a perfect distraction for Americans reeling from the US military defeat in Vietnam, the worsening US economy and the unceremonious dumping of arch-villain Richard Nixon as President. It also provided a useful diversion to the Soviets, suffering under the crushing Brezhnev regime and the privations of a bleak and oppressive one-party state.

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project saw astronauts Tom Stafford, Donald K. "Deke" Slayton and Vance Brand in an Apollo command and service module docking with a Soyuz capsule manned by Russian cosmonauts Aleksey Leonov and Valeriy Kubasov. This historic ‘coupling’ ushered in a new era of cooperative ventures between two countries that once were fierce rivals in the "space race." As Tom Stafford remarked, the Apollo-Soyuz mission "showed the whole world that if the Soviet Union and America could work together in space, they could work together on the Earth." And so, while the effluxion of time has muted the significance of this important event, it was a very big deal at the time. Big enough indeed for Omega to mark the occasion with a limited edition Speedmaster release at Basel 2010.

The OMEGA Apollo-Soyuz “35th Anniversary” Speedmaster Professional is like any other Professional with the exception of its unusual dial. In a limited edition release of 500 pieces, it is powered by the indestructible hand-wind calibre 1861, a direct descendant of the Moon Watch. (click here for an excellent review of the 1861 by Jack Forster)

The dial was produced from a meteorite (Omega has not revealed where or when the object was found) that hurtled through the earth’s atmosphere and survived high-speed impact with the terrestrial surface. The meteorite’s unusual structure is the result of its very high temperature when it enters the Earth’s atmosphere, followed by a period of cooling. The dial is a single piece cut from the meteorite; accordingly, because no two pieces of the meteorite are exactly alike, each watch in this limited edition is absolutely unique.

The black colour of the meteorite dial is the result of a surface oxidation process. The silvery seconds hand and chronograph counters appear in the meteorite’s natural colour. In the flesh, this is a stunning looking piece and may well turn out to be eminently collectible because of its limited numbers and one-off dial treatment.

Click on the above pictures for high-res images and for an incredible resource on Speedmasters click here for jean-Michel's Speedmaster-Mission.

Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra Annual Calendar

The new Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra Annual Calendar is about the closest thing you will see to line breeding in horology, for this Seamaster is a living embodiment of the genetic material that made the House of Omega such an unassailable presence in the world of production watchmaking during the halcyon nineteen-fifties and sixties.

Precision, ingenuity, quality, durability and style were the foundations upon which Omega’s reputation was originally built, and it’s gratifying to see a strong selection of these genes combine with today’s technology and meticulous production processes to create the Seamaster genotype we see in the Aqua Terra today. This is not hyperbole, but recognition of the long and restorative journey undertaken by Omega towards its true origins.

While some horological petrol-heads (a complimentary term that describes lovers of mechanical watches) have slated Omega’s Basel offerings this year as somewhat pedestrian, another way to view the company’s 2010 Basel releases is that of a year of consolidation: a year of building on a solid base of real accomplishment and innovation over the last decade. Let’s not forget the U.S. financial debacle and its impact on many of the boutique and less honorable Swiss brands, and let’s not forget that crises of this nature have a way of influencing trends and preferences. And so, we see prudence and circumspection reflected in the Omega 2010 portfolio – rightly so for any responsible watch producer.

The Seamaster Aqua Terra Annual Calendar is a natural outcome of this period of consolidation. Firstly, Omega recognises that that the Aqua Terra collection is a favourite amongst those who know their watches and are impressed by good engineering, good design and thoughtful innovation. Secondly, the AT Annual Calendar is powered by the in house Co-Axial 8601/8611 series (see here for a review of this family of calibres). Thirdly, the classic design of this model means that, unlike some of the more grotesque tool watches on offer across the brands today, the Aqua Terra is a stayer, and a likely collectible of the future.

The AT Annual calendar has authentic and not faddish style. Let’s explore the aesthetics of the bi-colour stainless steel and 18k pink gold model. The matt black dial is machined to create the appearance of decking, described by Omega as a “teak concept”. The surface of the dial has been radially brushed and the pink gold dial furniture strongly etched in a linear adoucissage finish. Sculpted in a contemporary asymmetric fashion, the date surround compliments the blunted applied arrow head hour markers beautifully. The classic Omega symbol and logo are applied in pink gold and all lettering is expertly embossed. A faceted and blunted Dauphine hour hand is contrasted by arrow-headed minute hand and second sweep. This uncluttered but strong union of design features renders a pleasing, timeless and sophisticated effect.

The case is an understatement. The polished pink gold bezel is offset by a brushed finish on the case body with a classic black polish chamfer that curls around the lugs, referencing four decades of case design of the Seamaster marque. A semi-recessed crown completes this elegant and subtle case design.

As mentioned earlier, The AT Annual calendar is powered by the OMEGA Co-Axial calibre 8601/8611. It is a high-precision COSC-certified chronometer that features the additional functionality of an instantaneous jump annual calendar complication. The movement automatically recognises months with 30 and 31 days and needs to be manually corrected only once a year, on March 1st. It also features an exclusive Si 14 balance spring that eliminates issues of magnetism and results in minimal loss of recovery of oscillating performance of the balance wheel when subjected to disturbances or shocks.

Perhaps in hindsight the Aqua Terra Annual Calendar will be viewed by collectors as a milestone piece, a watch that represented the very DNA of a revived and revitalised Omega manufactory.

Omega Constellation Double Eagle Four-Counter Co-Axial

This latest Omega Constellation launched at Basel 2010 is a Constellation Double Eagle Co-Axial with four counters staggered across the centre of the dial, a flow-on design from the Beijing Olympics Speedmaster that featured a similar but first-time-ever five counter configuration.

The Speedmaster counters – entwined Olympic rings - were in tribute to the Olympic tradition and contributed to a truly stunning piece of dial design. So, once having pushed the envelope, it was always a possibility that Omega designers would return to this idea and modify it for inclusion in other Piguet—based calibre 3xxx lines……

But a Constellation???…And using an aggressive black, red and silver livery more suited to the wrist of a Hell’s Angel’s sergeant-at-arms than snuggling the delicate and refined styloideus ulnae of a fully paid up member of the Beverly Hills Country Club????

Contrary to the opinions of some, many Omega aficionados enjoy the more ‘edgy’ styling of the Double Eagle family- even the chequered dial when framed in a gold case - but the question needs to be asked, couldn’t Omega designers have found a better home for this ‘look’ than the Double Eagle? Perhaps as a new signature piece in the Speedmaster range?

For some time now, Omega has aligned some of the Constellation family with the game of golf, particularly competition golf, hence the Double Eagle appellation. We’re not talking public golf courses here, but the kind of golf courses that offer membership to those who can actually afford the price of one of these watches, and that’s where this Double Eagle appears to fail the positioning test. It’s sporty for sure, but ‘golfy’, country clubby, neo-patrician and ‘let’s go for cruise in the Bentley’, it ain’t.

This new Double Eage four-counters is powered by the co-Axial calibre 3890, is a COSC-certified chronometer and has integrated black rubber strap with a satin-brushed stainless steel foldover clasp.

The dial offers eighteen carat white gold faceted hour markers, faceted and truncated Dauphine hands, and applied OMEGA symbol and name. Above the four counter configuration is a window revealing the day of the week. A date window at 6 o’clock completes the dial, which is protected by a domed, scratch-resistant sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment on both sides.

The screw-in transparent sapphire crystal case back gives you an eyeful of the well-finished movement and the case is equipped with a black aluminium bezel with silver Arabic numerals that is more at home on a diving watch than on the back nine. This is divided by the signature Constellation ‘claws’.

The Constellation Double Eagle Four-Counters was meant to express a distinctive flair. Distinctive the dial is, but miscast in the Constellation range.

Click on the pictures above for larger views

Omega Universal User Manual

Omega's universal users' manual is a useful handbook for those interested in the specifications, operating instructions, precision tolerances and other information specific to Omega calibres.

The publication covers all current Omega calibres, canvasses various other special watch features such as helium valves and bezels and even details the COSC process under which all Omega mechanical chronometers are subjected.

It also works as a pre-purchase companion for Omega enthusiasts who wish to weigh up the features of different Omega models.

Click here for a pdf file