Omega Boutique / Regent Street, 9th March 2019
So here's a curious thing, until the day I walked into the Omega boutique on Regent Street on the 9th of March 2019, I had never tried on an Omega. Which is probably quite surprising when you think about it, given that Omega are probably the most obvious alternative to TAG Heuer and operating in a broadly similar price range... well, kind of.
Still the SeaMaster is probably the watch I've been told to buy more than any other as an alternative to an Aquaracer, albeit it starts at around £3,000 which is about £700 more than the Calibre 5 Aquaracers. I'm sure the Omega movement is better than the base Sellita found in the Calibre 5, but does it warrant the price difference? Well, to be honest... I still didn't end up trying on the (new) ceramic dial SeaMaster. I looked at it, and found it rather odd looking and unappealing so I passed, but I did try on an older 300M SeaMaster chronograph.
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This was a watch I had seen before when I looked around the Omega boutique in the Royal Exchange (in the City of London), it caught my eye then and I still think it's one of the better looking Omegas, so it's fitting that it was my first. The SeaMaster Diver 300M Co-Axial Chronograph or the 212.30.42.50.01.001 if you prefer (seriously Omega, why do you need a 14 digit part number, do you really make that many watches?) measures 41.5mm across the diameter but it feels bigger. This is probably in no small part due to the thickness of the watch, in fact thick Omegas seemed to be the order of the day here, as pretty much everything I tried on felt like a lump on my wrist.
Now I'm used to the Aquagraph, which is 16mm thick, and as a one-off special piece that's fine, but I certainly wouldn't want all my watches to be that thick. The watch sat up high on my wrist and to be honest, while I like the dial I wasn't that bothered by it overall. I really don't like the fussy bracelet, and the scalloped bezel is flat, plain ugly. I'm undecided on the hands, they are kinda weird being skeletonized like that, but I don't mind that too much... I don't quite understand why the hour hand is so small relative to the minute hand though (which is rather oversized if anything), it looks a bit unbalanced in my opinion, but the red highlights on the sub-dials and the chrono hand are quite nice.
At this point I must commend Lin Lin, the lady who served me in the boutique on this visit. She was excellent, knowledgeable and friendly without being overbearing and seeing that I was making notes in my notebook she kindly offered to print spec sheets for each of the six watches I ended up trying on, which means that I am in the unusual situation of having all (*most of*) the information at my fingertips. So here we go! I've already mentioned that the watch is 41.5mm and has a 300M depth rating (the clue's in the name), but I can also tell you that the watch has an officially certified Chronometer rated self-winding chronograph mechanism and co-axial escapement, plus a free-sprung balance equipped with a Si14 silicon balance spring with a power reserve time of 52 hours.
Oddly the spec sheet doesn't tell me what the bezel insert is made of, I was pretty sure it was ceramic (and indeed the Omega website confirms this) which you would expect at this price (£4,000) really. I don't know, it just doesn't do it for me somehow. Maybe I have an unfair bias against the brand because my experience with Omega fanboys has been largely negative (the party line seems to be 'TAG is sh*t, get an Omega'), but every time I have been into a boutique I have found the staff helpful and reasonably friendly. I do kind of like that the design is quite aggressive, I mean it's not 'boring', and the same goes for the new ceramic dial SeaMaster, you can say a lot of things about it but boring is not one of them! But it didn't do it for me so I moved on to...
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The SeaMaster Planet Ocean 600M Co-Axial Master Chronometer Chronograph, seriously I'm not making it up, that is it's name. And well, I tried on three different versions, the black and orange chronograph, the blue and orange GMT and the plain black GMT, all of which came on these stunning rubber straps. And guess what, they were all as thick as a house brick. Okay, fair enough these are all 600M divers (let's not talk about the sleek and slender, black 500M Aquaracer shall we) but try as I might to like these watches, they are all a bit impractical. I did kinda like them though, I'm a sucker for a cool strap and these were really nice (especially the one pictured above with the orange trim), but this watch is nearly £9000. That's a LOT of money, and a lot of money one could spend on a TAG Heuer and get something really smart...
These watches aren't just thick either, they all come in a 45.5mm case, which is slightly bigger than the original Heuer 01 Carreras and you really know you've got them on your wrist. They are kinda cool, but I would always worry about that vulcanised rubber section on the bezel and like the first watch I tried on, they have this odd blinginess about them that I can't quite explain. Blinginess is probably the wrong word, but somehow the watches are too shiny and a bit too much. It just feels to me that they send out the wrong message, like 'look at me, look at me...', there's no subtlety. Even the black one screams for attention and I just find them a bit vulgar to be honest.
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So, finally I thought, I really have to try on the Moonwatch. It's a youtube 'watch guru' staple, a watch that seemingly everybody loves to death and simply won't shut up about. 'Get the Speedy, get the Speedy' they cry in unison. 'Get the Hesalite, not the sapphire, only the Hesalite is real'. 'Manual wind, manual wind' they chirp like so many automatons. 'It's the watch that went to the moon, how can you not love that history?' they bleat. When it comes to youtube, the Speedy is second only to the Submariner in the untouchable stakes, this watch is like Teflon, no one has a bad word to say because this is an icon, and if you don't like it you're clearly an idiot, with bad taste, who probably steals money from charity boxes and has poor personal hygiene!
What they don't tell you however, is quite how boring this watch is. I mean it really is dreadfully dull. Unlike the pictures, the watch isn't even a nice shade of black, it's a darkish, boring grey that lends it absolutely zero dramatic presence. It's really quite hilarious how dull it is, especially compared to the other watches on display in the same boutique. Where the Planet Oceans are outrageous, oversized and shouty, the Moonwatch is so damn plain you'd almost miss it, if it wasn't highlighted at every opportunity.
I will say this, I can see why people prefer the Hesalite over the sapphire crystal. The Hesalite has a nice domed effect where the sapphire has an ugly stepped design, but the price for that is that you'll forever be polishing out the scratches. I'd still go for it though, because the sapphire is awful and makes a dull watch an ugly, dull watch, and nobody really wants that!
Speaking as someone who is quite keen on the 'Space Race' and the Apollo story in general, it should speak to me a lot more than it does, but I'm so punch drunk by the relentless Omega marketing that I can't help but take it all with a pinch of salt now. You can overdo these things you know, and Omega certainly have. I'm not totally anti-Speedy, I quite like the recent Apollo 8 version and I could have quite happily bought a white dial Snoopy, if everyone else hadn't got there first and made a killing on it! But the Moonwatch itself, I just don't get it. Why does everyone bang on about this tedious watch?
Meme provided by Calibre11 member and long time TAG Heuer enthusiast Otto William.
I'm sorry, I know it's got great historical significance and all that, but I don't really care, and I didn't like the bracelet much either. Actually, the last Omega I tried on was better, albeit the case was a bit umm, different, but... it still didn't exactly blow me away.
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Yes it's the Speedmaster II with that retro 70s case (not a fan) equipped with a rather funky dial, granted it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I couldn't help liking it just a little. Could I live with the case to get the dial, hell no - it's hideous. But give me a choice between this and the Moonwatch and I'll take this any day of the week, because maybe I could get used to the case... over time, it might grow on me. But the Moonwatch will always be a dull watch, and not just a dull watch, but a dull watch that people won't shut up about, and that's Kryptonite to me.
So, overall, while I enjoyed my hour in the Omega boutique, I honestly came out of there feeling less inclined than ever to buy an Omega. The brand just doesn't do it for me, it's a weird one, I kinda like that some of their watches are so brash and aggressive in design, but at the same time those designs simply don't quite mesh with me. And then there's the prices, clearly Omega are aiming for Rolex with their pricing and that's a ballsy move. Do I think Omega could be the next Rolex? Yes, actually I do, I see a parallel with Audi where at some point people might just decide to collectively get behind a changing of the guard, so while I don't personally gel with the brand or it's products, I could totally see a time when it's Omega sitting at the top of the tree. As it is the company has already gained a substantial following willing to buy pretty much any limited edition en masse, especially if it's sold by Hodinkee, and realistically if not Omega then who? It certainly isn't going to be Breitling now, is it?
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