By Harlan Chapman-Green
Crazy things are what we like here, it’s what we do. We especially like it when the bigger companies like to get their crazy mitts on and do something proper weird just for the sake of it. Sometimes people like to get a little relaxed with their design language and has lead to good things in the past like Zenith’s Defy (yes, those ones) and the venerable Royal Oak Offshore. It’s not the first time Omega’s done some weird things to its watches either, remember the Seamaster 300 Apnea Chronograph? Not something you see too often is what Omega’s ‘crazy division’ has written on its coffee mugs, so when they pitched the idea of blue ceramic with lashings of orange you can guarantee a few eyebrows were raised.
As with last year’s ‘Deep Black’ ceramic Planet Ocean were, from a single block of ceramic, this time in cool blue colour. Omega really set the bar with their materials research division, creating any kind of ceramic is hard, but they have proven themselves able with watches like the Grey Side of the Moon, which looks exactly like steel. The blue on this watch is quite subtle, at least it was until they threw some orange at it, which is good in a way as Omega’s orange Planet Ocean watches have been very popular in the past, even with collectors that aren’t that into Omega. On this watch, the sides of the strap as well as the strap stitching, inner bezel, Omega logo on the crown and the first 15 minutes of the Liquidmetal diving bezel are all coated in orange. It’s a very classically attractive colour combination, even the Rolls Royce Dawn used this colour combination as a promotion when it was first launched.
The 45.5mm case houses an impressive technical achievement, the Omega in-house developed co-axial calibre 8900 which is an automatic winding movement that has been awarded Master Chronometer certification. The movement is also anti-magnetic as well with silicone components and a free sprung balance wheel on a dual anchor bridge to give the watch the same level of shock resistance as the Submariner has. The sapphire caseback over the movement has also been given the works with a Naiad Lock system, which means the writing is always in the correct place when the caseback is screwed back on.
We like the attention to detail on this watch, even down to the ceramic fold-over clasp on the rubber strap. The strap, by the way, has been designed to look a lot like fabric, even though it’s all rubber with an anti-bacterial coating and wave-shaped grooves on the underside to allow sweat to evaporate. There’s no word on official pricing yet, but we will keep you updated. Can we see one of these at a local AD within the next three years, please?
That concludes my coverage of Baseworld for this year, but Jovan still has a few more articles in the works which you will see soon. Here’s hoping we can actually be present next time! For more info, please visit omegawatches.com
