INTRODUCING: The Omega Speedmaster Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Limited Edition in steel (with a bit of gold)
Earlier in the year, Omega celebrated 50 years of Man stepping off our terrestrial sphere with the release of a very faithful reissue of the 1969 commemorative gold Speedmaster (even though the alloy itself is very new). But everyone kind of figured that wouldn’t be the only celebratory Speedy to step out of the brand’s Bienne factory. And everyone was right. Meet the Omega Speedmaster Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Limited Edition in a steel case. Now, though the 42mm case is traditional steel, the bezel is Moonshine gold, Omega’s new, more muted take on traditional yellow gold. But the special touches don’t end there. The dial is grey in the centre and black at the edge, there’s a nice Moonshine gold ’11’ on the dial instead of the usual baton, and a rendering of Buzz Aldrin climbing out of the landing module at nine. The subdial is also Moonshine gold that’s been blackened and laser-engraved. The caseback shows that famous footprint, and hidden behind it is the new 3861 calibre, a Master Chronometer certified version of the classic 861. The other major visual difference is the bracelet, which is a modern interpretation of a vintage bracelet. The links are flat,…
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Omega, as you would expect from the Swatch Group powerhouse, had a panoply of new watches on display at Time to Move. We were treated to a total of 67 new watches (often minor variations in case/dial/etc, but still), and two special vintage pieces thrown in for good measure. Suffice to say there’s a lot to get through, and that will happen over the course of the year. But here’s my hot take on the best Omega watches for 2019: Omega Seamaster Diver 300M Ceramic Titanium We were expecting updates to last year’s hero, the Seamaster Diver 300M, and we were not disappointed. There’s a ceramic and titanium version, with a larger 43.5mm case (which apparently wears smaller), no date, and hands in PVD-coated titanium. All these tweaks to the norm are because this watch is intended to be more tool-like in its aesthetic. $11,100 AUD Omega Speedmaster Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Limited Edition There was a lot of expectation riding on this one, fuelled in no small part by the exceptional gold tribute released earlier in the year. This steel 50th anniversary piece is distinguished by Moonshine gold details, a tiny illustration at nine, a nifty solid caseback and…
Editor’s note: There are two incredibly strong and distinctive design codes within the Panerai brand. They are the Radiomir and Luminor collections — both are instantly recognisable. Both have unimpeachable histories: one decorated in war, the other in Hollywood. Both are manly as all get-out on the wrist. Though, interestingly, the more popular — and iconic — of the two is the baby, the less battle-tested Luminor. Hopefully you learn something through this process. We certainly did. I’m putting myself out there in this video, which aims to establish whether the Panerai Luminor or Radiomir collection is more your jam. I’m pulling zero punches when I admit, in the opening few seconds, that at the time I bought my first ‘real’ watch, a Luminor PAM 177, I didn’t even know the Radiomir collection existed. This video is for people who are still unsure where they would stand if push turned to Panerai purchase, but want to explore. Is the slightly more svelte Radiomir, with its rounded cushion case, right? Or are you more connected to the big old Luminor crown guard? Beyond the looks, what about their histories? The stories that explain why they exist? If you’ve ever considered any of these questions, we hopefully…
Editor’s note: This story first ran a few years back, but, like the most virulent strains of disease, these watches are still circulating through the community, and – with what is estimated to be 30 to 40 million new fakes hitting the market every year – we receive a fairly steady stream of emails and DMs on the subject of how to identify any conspicuous tells of counterfeit models. Perhaps flatteringly for Tudor, the Black Bay is very popular with counterfeiters. We send this link out as a matter of course, but with a spate of queries lately, we thought it might be time post the original story again. Be alert, but not alarmed out there friends. Counterfeits have been around for a long time, but in this age of rapid global production, increasingly convincing fakes, convenient online sales, and a booming market in high-end watches, the problem has never been bigger. It’s no longer as simple as a TAG from Bali with a tell-tale tick – the game has changed. Forgers will try their hand at everything – from niche brands like SevenFriday – who’ve added an NFC chip in their latest model to combat the problem – to rare vintage…
Editor’s note: Brian King is a man who knows his mind. When Omega released a limited run of George Daniels’ co-axial concept watches in the early 2000s, he knew immediately that he was interested in going deep. Over a couple of months, he bought all three. But that’s only the start of the story. Here he writes of the watches’ performance over time, and the living testament that they are to their creator. Quality never costs, they say; it always pays. In 2002 I set out to purchase a very unusual trio of watches. About a year or so earlier, Omega began the serial production of George Daniels’ co-axial concept, the first radical advance in mechanical timepiece movements in nearly three centuries. In 2002, I learned that Omega had issued a set of limited production Speedmaster Broad Arrow chronographs with enamel dials, with 100 each in yellow gold, rose gold and white gold. Between May and September 2002, I was incredibly fortunate to be able to acquire one of each, all with the same limited series number (68/99), making it one of the few, or perhaps the only set in the world with the same limited-edition number on all three timepieces in…
Editor’s note: The premise of the 20K Fantasy Watch Collection is simple: construct a hypothetical watch collection with as many watches as you like for as close to $20,000 AUD as possible. The only other stipulation — you can’t choose any watches that you currently own. As for whether you choose new or second hand, it’s up to you. Well, we had a lot of fun tackling it, back in the day and if the reaction on social media was anything to go by, you guys did too. To be honest, so much fun was had, we thought we’d keep the ball rolling and post a few of our favourite dream collections that you, our readers, sent us. So, without further ado, we’re revisiting the great $20K fantasy watch collection (readers only) challenge. And we’re getting ready to do it all again, so get those lists out … Jonathan from Facebook Jonathan’s collection is not only value-packed – we’re assuming he’s going with second-hand prices here and that he has some solid hook-ups – but it’s also incredibly diverse. There’s a GMT, a chronograph, a handful of divers, and something dressy for when the occasion calls for it. A collection more than…
Personally, I don’t need an excuse to buy a watch for myself. But I have, many times, used certain milestones as justification for a purchase whenever they have come under scrutiny. So whether or not you genuinely want to buy a timepiece to commemorate a special time in your life, or whether you just want a decent excuse to present to your family/partner/colleagues when you admit that the huge withdrawal from your savings account wasn’t fraud, read on. Graduation/Coming of age Stepping out into adulthood and graduating from high school and college are conveniently linked by the ages of 18 and 21. Both significant ages that occur at particularly tumultuous and stressful times in our lives — you could do with a treat to make it all worthwhile. Perhaps using a child’s first luxury watch as the carrot might be an effective route for parents to take if they are trying to encourage their progeny to study. I’m not sure bribing a child to work is an ideal way to encourage responsibility in later life, but at least it follows the notion that if you work hard you get rewarded. And given the pomp and rigamarole that can attend the purchase of a…
It’s a modern-day escape from Alcatraz, where the escapee is a defect on a watch that makes it to market, and Alcatraz is the Rolex manufacture. That, I suspect, is flattering Alcatraz. Because, the fact that a modern Rolex with a defect you can actually see even exists is unthinkable to the point of immediately being suspected as a hoax. But here it is. Not only does a ‘double nine’ Rolex Air-King 116900 — with a nine where the ‘3’ numeral should be — allegedly exist in the wild, it’s been captured by Watchfinder & Co., who used the occasion to do a proper exposition on just how extraordinary that fact is. To summarise the excellent post by Watchfinder & Co., here are three key reasons the ‘double 9’ Rolex Air-King 116900 is practically a miracle: Rolex now has fully verticalised production. Unlike in other eras, when accidents would happen, “from mild nuisances like deviation in fonts and design, to full-on critical failures like extreme paint discolouration and cracking lacquer”, a third-party supplier cannot be blamed. Rolex’s QA processes may even exceed “NASA’s JPL”: “From the iris scanner-protected automated stock system, its 60,000 storage compartments patrolled and operated just by robots; to the…
When this video, about holding Elvis Presley’s diamond-encrusted Omega in my hand, posted just now, the first commenter wrote “so excited“. This could be in relation to his own emotional state, or more likely it’s a comment about mine, as I beam, grin and awkwardly talk my way through yet another surreal moment that had me questioning: is this true real life? I was excited. So excited, because — hot on the heels of a watch that went to space, and one that ruled the free world for a period — I was now holding a watch I’d seen in movies, on stage, and on the wrist of The King, in my black velvet gloved hand. It’s no secret Elvis was a watch guy. Elvis buffs have amassed archives of watches he has worn over the years, including Rolex, Corum, several Omegas and Hamilton. Elvis had venturing tastes far beyond the norms of the day. The story of this watch is the stuff of legend, but it’s less about how he acquired it — that part is simple: it was a gift from his record company, RCA Victor, to commemorate 75 million records sold — but more about how it ended up out…
It may come as news to you (but not to our second biggest audience group by city, after Sydney) that people from Melbourne have a thing for wearing black. Some say it’s an inherently arty nature. You never know when you’re going to be invited to a gallery launch, after all. Being from Melbourne, we can confirm the cliché, and we do conform a lot of the time, especially during winter – which has just arrived. Black is easy, black is practically dress code-less and black is a great blank canvas to allow a watch to shine on the wrist like the star of the ensemble that it is. A recent picture of Keanu Reeves in Saint Laurent – his first as the brand’s new ambassador – proved this beyond doubt. Yes, Keanu looked like he was striding in to take that fashion shit over execution style, but in his new fashion finery, the eyes darted to the wrist, to find … nothing. Horror. So we turned it over to you: what would suit this all-black kit? And, like that, we had the ultimate list of watches to wear with black. Thank you, readers! Panerai PAM00026 Destro @thecuriae — This is…