Horological Meandering

Baselworld 2011: The big PuristSPro report -- Omega

 

Finally, the long expected new chronograph movement was presented this year. In fact, it is rather a movement family, currently consisting of two variants, cal. 9300 and 9301, the difference between these two being limited tothe decorative finish. These new selfwinding movements permit Omega an even further independence from specialised movement suppliers and developers, like ETA and Piguet. Basically, there was no real necessity for Omega to develop and produce own movements, since the movements in use have proved to be both technically well designed, and reliable in practice. In spite of that, Omega had been criticised for relying too much on movements supplied from outside the company.

While these movements had either been developed together with Omega engineers (such as the chronograph movements cal. 33xx), or massively modified with Omega’s exclusive co-axial escapement, the launch of completely “own” movements seemed to be desirable enough to invest a fortune into development and setting up an own production infrastructure. Based on the known Hour Vision automatic movement with co-axial escapement, titanium balance and silicon hairspring, we are now facing a chronograph movement.


Omega’s main argument on behalf of the co-axial escapement is its superior friction behaviour, compared with the classic Swiss lever escapement. This benefit justified the increased complexity of the whole co-axial system. I feel, though, that meanwhile, most of this argument has lost its substance, as a result of the massive progress in material development. For example, the friction coefficient of silicon on silicon is five times better than that of ruby on any metal. Consequently, a Swiss lever escapement mechanism, now being completely calculated and tailored to the attributes of silicon components, should be able to meet, if not outperform a co-axial system’s friction behaviour, without the disadvantages of increased complexity.

On the other hand, such a system would barely permit any adjustment during assembly, while the ruby pallets still offers a bit of flexibility in this respect.

One might be tempted to ask why Omega still is so firmly committed to the co-axial escapement. Yet this is understandable, taking into account the massive effort in development and finances that were necessary to make George Daniel’s escapement ready for a series production. The perspective of it being outdated, if not now, then in a few years would certainly not be met with enthusiasm by its producers. The good side for the customer, though, is that Omega decided to grant a full warranty of four years on all watches with co-axial escapement and silicon hairspring (weirdly, the hairspring material has nothing to do with the service interval, so there should be no reason why watches with metal hairspring are treated differently in this respect). I hope that other brands will follow this example!


The first impression of the new chronograph movement already reveals two unique attributes: first, it is thicker than the cal. 33xx movement hitherto used, causing the watches to appear more massive. Second, the new cal. 9300/01 - the difference between these two version being limited to the pink gold coating of rotor and balance bridge - features a co-axial indication of chrono minutes and hours in a single subdial.


This permits to read the time elapsed easily and intuitively, like from a separate watch dial. Of course, also the chronograph movement has a silicon hairspring and co-axial escapement, two mainspring barrels with 60 hours of power reserve, and a column wheel for managing the chronograph functions. Additionally, it also has the practical way to set the hour hand separately in hour steps, without stopping the movement, which makes it easy to adapt the watch to a different time zone.

The first watch line equipped with the new movement is the Seamaster Planet Ocean. The attractive PO chronograph with a case diameter of 45.5 mm is certainly not small. However, this size makes some sense, since it permits a clear reading of the combined minute/hour counter at 3, which is of course the most unique feature of the watch.



The PO’s case is rated water tight to 600 meters, and available with a revolving bezel featuring either a black ceramic insert, or the already well-known bright orange aluminum inlay. The latter is more prone to scratches, but also a lot cheaper to replace, if this should become necessary.



A special version is the Seamaster Liquidmetal, which has a titanium case and a bezel with blue ceramic and scales and numbers made from so-called Liquidmetal This is my personal favourite version, it is highly comfortable to wear and looks striking.



This variant is also available as a three hands diving watch, also with 45.5 mm diameter.


Besides the Planet Ocean, the new chronograph movement is used also in the Speedmaster. this watch has a diameter of 44.25 mm, and of course features the combined chrono minutes and hours counter at 3. Unlike the Planet Ocean, this counter appears rather small on the Speedmaster, and its legibility is by far not so good.


The new cal. 9300 needs more space. Therefore, Omega searched for a solution that would permit avoiding a higher steel case. The result was not only the already traditional highly domed sapphire crystal on the top, but a similarly domed crystal on the back. This necessitates less steel, makes the case appear a bit slimmer, and also offers a nice side-aspect view on the movement. While the wearing comfort is claimed not to suffer from this thicker case, it does appear a bit clumsy on the wrist now.


The fans of the classic Moon watch, the handwound Speedmaster Professional, will be delighted to hear that Omega releases - another - limited edition, this time in memory of the mission of Apollo XV, together with the engraved lunar rover on the steel back. People with exceptionally sharp memory might recall that Apollo XV had been celebrated with a limited Speedie already five years ago. Since NASA unfortunately has ceased its manned space exploration program, the occasions for limited editions is limited, and it is thus not astonishing that the same mission will be subject of such an edition every now and then.


In 2012, the Olympic summer games will take place in London; for the first time since 1948. Since 1948 was also the year when Omega released its famous Seamaster, the opportunity was taken to make a really neat special edition: In the shape of the original Seamaster in stainless steel, without date, but with a small second, comes a selfwinding coaxial movement, limited to 1948 pieces.


The solid caseback displays the logo of the 2012 Olympic games in gold.



The Seamaster Planet Ocean has become a facelift, and a rather sober, but not unattractive black lacquer surface:


Also new, and presented with a large PR effort is the new series of ladies’ watches, the Ladymatic. While Omega’s earlier ladies’ series were hitherto based on prior men’s timepieces, and mechanical movements were the exception rather than the rule, the Ladymatic has been designed from scratch for ladies, and all models are powered by the selfwinding cal. 8520 and 8521. The model’s uniqueness is its case construction, that consists of an inner case with a ring made from ceramic, the colour of which matches that of the dial. The outer “case” is rather an intricate framework of waves, through which the coloured ceramic can be seen. The Ladymatic is offered in several variants, of course also with diamonds, is water tight to 100 meters and has also the manufacture warranty of four years.


 
This message has been edited by Marcus Hanke on 2011-04-18 04:52:17 This message has been edited by Marcus Hanke on 2011-04-18 10:03:10 This message has been edited by MTF on 2011-04-20 08:24:06