BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
The new Swatch x Omega Mission to EarthPhase Moonshine Gold is the latest in a long lineup of quite controversial pieces from Swatch. Certainly, plenty of people enjoy them for their looks and their association with the Swatch Group’s most famous (probably) luxury brand, Omega. Other folks, on the other hand, feel that Swatch’s decision to make similar-looking watches to Omega’s iconic Speedmaster and sell them for a fraction of the price cannibalises Omega’s efforts over the past decades.Whatever side of that debate you fall on, you simply can’t argue that these watches sell. This newest watch, however, won’t sell for long.
Swatch’s Earthphase display is an intriguing one. It’s almost no different from a moonphase display, which this watch also has, but it functions in reverse. When the moonphase display shows a new moon, the Earthphase display shows a ‘full Earth’, as the month progresses towards the full moon the Earth becomes obscured. What precise value does this add to your wrist experience? Well, it doesn’t provide extra function, but it does provide some fun which is what Swatch Watches are supposed to represent. Fun colours and funny ideas are why the Swatch Watches sold in the first place and resulted in the rise of the Swatch Group which, as we know, saved or resurrected loads of historical watchmakers from the abyss.
The moonphase display on this new watch features Moonshine Gold, Omega’s special gold blend. One moon also has a net on it which is a subtle representation of the ‘Sturgeon Moon’ coming on the 9th of August, the net being just one of the ways sturgeon fish are caught and the August full moon apparently being one of the best times to go fishing for them.
The white of the dial also has Snoopy chilling out on it, which is again a reference to Omega. Omega received the ‘Silver Snoopy Award’ in the 1970s, its Speedmaster was used to assist the crew of Apollo 13 in getting home to Earth on that fateful mission and NASA recognised this with its award.
The blue hands and indications also have an aventurine-like sparkle to them, which is nice.
All of this is set within a blue 42.00mm x 13.75mm bioceramic case with 30m of water resistance. Inside it is a quartz movement with a chronograph function (and those funky displays). The watch also comes on a blue rubber strap with a bioceramic loop.
As for the selling part I mentioned at the beginning of this writeup, the watch will be on sale for one day only: Saturday 9 August, the day of the ‘Sturgeon Moon’. The price? $380.
