By Meor Amri Meor Ayob
Another iteration of the Omega Speedmaster will be presented at Baselworld 2016. The Omega Speedmaster Grey Side of the Moon Meteorite Watch will be made available in stores from June 2016 onwards. In this new model, Omega is using a slice of a Gibeon meteorite that fell in Namibia a long time ago as the dial surface. Each watch will have a unique dial depending on the meteorite slice used.
The watch is a 44.25 mm ceramic case. The bezel ring is made of silicon nitride which is harder and lighter than ceramic. The tachymetre scale printed on the bezel ring is made out of OMEGA Ceragold™, the brand proprietary gold alloy. The same material is also used for the hands and sides of the markers.
The engine operating this model is the OMEGA Co-Axial Calibre 9300 chronometer. Water rating is 5 ATM or 50 meters.
The dial as well as the display case-back is protected by a sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment on both sides of the glass. The grey casing is matched with a grey leather strap.
A standard feature of the watch such as chronograph function, small second sub-dial and date window are as per the previous Omega Speedmaster Grey Side Of The Moon series.
From a design perspective, the ‘desolateness’ of the grey colour and unique dial fits well with the bright rose gold parts of the watch. As a personal policy, I don’t go for gold watches but the subtle of gold in this instance fits perfectly with the ‘rocky’ material used. I have to say its looks rather handsome.
In Omega’s website, it appears that this is not a limited edition watch. It would be interesting to know how much of the meteorite is in stock. This is important information that should be shared so that people can judge the investment value for the watch. As it is, the number of novelties for the Omega Speedmaster is getting more numerous. This can have a ‘crowding-out’ or ‘buyer-fatigue’ if Omega continues to milk this genre.
Despite this risk, I still am tempted to get this piece by virtue that this model continues the Moon Watch association with space (meteorite). For more info, please visit omegawatches.com
MEOR AMRI MEOR AYOB – CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Meor Amri is a passionate watch collector from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Having bitten by the horology bug in 2010, he has written extensively about the watch scene and has assembled a large collection of watches (excessively!!!) on his own free time. His blogs on the same subject are: Eastern Watch & Western Watch Read his articles here
