To some, what I’ve put together below is no secret; but for me it’s been a truly fun ride and learning process. This story/post begins here: 2 mos ago I spotted and felt suddenly and bizarrely compelled to buy this 90s Speedy Auto Date MK40 (3513.53), issued only in Japan for a year as I understand. It looks nothing like a Speedy Moonwatch or Racing watch, other than the lyre lugs and the broad white & black pencil hands used in some Speedys over the years. The subdials are oriented 6-9-12; no hesalite; 39mm; V7750 automatic, not 861 manual variant; Arabics; guilloche dial. It all screams not Speedy. Yet I fell in love just the same. I’ve since worn it practically non stop as my daily beater. I don’t worry about it getting dinged. And I’m always finding excuses to use the chronograph. I love the rigid pusher activation and constant swing engagement of the rotor inherent to the 7750. So, I started poking around until I found what I think the watch was trying to communicate: a particular design language of military pilot/racing chronographs that goes back to 1930s and through the decades (in Heuer, Doxa, Breitling, Hanhart, Hamilton, Porsche Design and Bell & Ross by Sinn)—that look being a black or white dial (this Speedy also came in white) with Arabics (sometimes) and a red (usually) chronograph hand. As to why Omega improvised this look, my theory is because the 90s was still near quartz crisis. The 7750 (the blueprints of which had almost been destroyed during the crisis) was/is heavily reliable and easy to mass produce, found in chronographs by IWC, Breitling, Habring, Panerai, Sinn and others. Here we go and have a great week. Cheers; here’s to the journey….🍻

2 pics of my watch—the sunlight in the second showing more clearly the guilloche dial 




30-40s pilot watches by Heuer, Doxa. Hanhart (white hand but still a bunch of sporty red) Breitling, and a brand named Tara 


Early pilot watches by Omega, Breguet, and U Nardin that overlap with, but vary a bit in tone from the look above 


1960s Omega Racing and Ultraman dials that more closely resemble the Moonwatch (with color) 


60s Heuer Super Autavia (world’s first dashboard chronograph) and also Bund watch (made with Sinn) for German military (red accent)


Omega’s funkier 60s/70s watches with the red/orange chronograph hands, thick white/black pencil hands (and Arabics with the US version of the 90s Mk40 auto) 


1970s Porsche Design Chronograph 1 (which became the “Top Gun” watch), Heuer Monza and Pasadena, and 90s Bell & Ross Space by Sinn, most using the same subdial configuration and numbering, some using the thick black/white pencil hands, and the last using Arabics. 


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