A watch post

To watch afficianados (read: obsessive nutjobs) the featured image above says more than words can really convey, as the picture is of my watch, on the right and the watch that my wife wears, on the left (notice how deliberately I didn’t write, “my wife’s watch”) and it immediately sets out my stall as an “Omega man”. We Omega wearers have somewhat of a superiority complex, deservedly, we would say and below are a couple of, non exhaustive, reasons why.

You see, we have chosen to wear the Omega Speedmaster Professional (aka, the Moon Watch), one of, if not THE most iconic timepiece of the 20th Century. The chap pictured below? That’s Buzz Aldrin and he is wearing the 321 calibre Omega Speedmaster, on his right wrist, on the moon (quoting calibre numbers yet forgetting birthday dates is a common trait among watch zealots). In the top 1 movies of all time for Omega (Speedmaster) lovers is “Apollo 13” starring, yes, you guessed it..the Omega Speedmaster (there may have been some actors, I didn’t notice)!

Another famous wearer, albeit a fictitious character, is a chap named Bond; James Bond, to give him his full name. The original, literary character wore a Rolex Explorer 1016, calibre 1560, (as did the author, Ian Fleming) and to be fair to Rolex, they do make a watch that the counterfeiters love but the latest iteration of the character in the Bond franchise, with Daniel Craig in the role, wears an Omega Speedmaster. Good choice, I say.

In our obsessive, often lonely and sad watch world we give a nod to other brands.

In the high end sector of watch makers, the aforementioned Rolex is arguably the only watch brand that is in the same league as the Omega, having similarly been written into the annals of exploration on land and ocean (Edmund Hillary wore the pre-cursor to the Explorer, the Oyster Perpetual, to Everest).

For non sports watches, Patek Phillipe is generally considered to be the watch that could be described as “generational” (although the marketing fellas certainly got a hefty bonus with that ad campaign, I’m sure) and Jaeger Le Coultre with their Reverso has more history and provenance that almost any other watch.

For me, the choice of my watch came about through having done a school project about Skylab in the ’70’s. This piqued my interest and I researched further back through Apollo and Gemini missions and discovered the story of the Omega Speedmaster Professional. Your watch choice doesn’t have to come with a story but it should come from the heart.

There is one more point to add at the end of this short post; observation. All watch fanatics observe others’ watches and whether we will admit to it or not, we make a snap judgement on that person immediately, so; don’t buy a Breitling 🙂

Further reading on the Apollo mission and how Omega became part of that can be found here: https://www.omegawatches.com/watches/speedmaster/moonwatch/professional/product

This is a deliberately short piece; watches and watch brands is as polarising a subject as a discussion on any other desirable or coveted item so, please, try not to take it too seriously.

(c) Andy Collinsson 2020