Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch Chronograph Review

what's up YouTube I'm guy today on the channel we're doing a speedy Tuesday edition review video that's right I am finally getting around to doing my full featured length review of the Omega Speedmaster moon watch now I know you're probably gonna glance down at the timeline on this video and see that it is I don't know how long yet I'm just getting into it but maybe it's 30 minutes long maybe it's 45 minutes long maybe it's even longer a lot of you are gonna think couldn't you do something in 6-7 minutes this is just too much no sorry buddy there is no way not gonna happen it is impossible for me to do a 6 or 7 minute long review of this watch it's arguably the most popular watch and the collector hobby and it deserves to be covered in depth and in detail how do I know that it's one of the most popular watches in the watch collecting hobby well because I did a poll actually on my Facebook group the just blue fish watch Club speaking of which if you're not a member of that Facebook group I'll have a link down below you should join up and discuss watches with us over there again I did a poll I wanted to find out in the context of luxury coronagraphs what is the most popular luxury chronograph the results did surprise me a little bit to be perfectly honest if you take a look at this bar graph you're gonna see that I did a poll based on the most desirable or popular luxury chronograph watch I compared four different watches the Omega Speedmaster the Rolex Daytona the zenith el primero in the Breitling avatar I also created an option for other in case there was something I didn't put on the list and certainly a lot of people did use that there was in fact a fifth option that they preferred the big takeaway for me on this poll was that the Speedmaster dwarfed the competition in terms of votes popularity and interest I didn't think it would especially compared to the Rolex Daytona get so far out in front but it did in fact absolutely destroy the competition the Daytona and the zenith el primero have been kind of fencing with one another back and forth over the course of the last several days that I posted this poll but right now the Daytona has came out on top then of course we do have this NFL primero I was surprised that the Breitling navitor was not nearly as popular or desirable and then almost as popular as the navitor people voted for other the long gay data graph was probably in the comments one of the most mentioned other watches so yeah the speed master is easily the most popular cronograph watch in the watch collecting game or hobby I think it might actually be the most popular watch I'm gonna have to go ahead and do a poll comparing it to what I suspect is the other top runner for that position the Rolex Submariner which one will come out on top I think there's a really good chance that the speed master comes out on top on that poll again go over to the just bluefish watch Club Facebook group link down below you can participate in these polls you can participate in my giveaways it's a fun group of people discussing watches now this is an Omega video and if you want to talk about Omega watches only there's another group that I'm a moderator of it is called just Omega all we do is discuss Omega over there if you want to join that group there is also a link down below in the description of this video to take you there I really do suggest you join both of them they're great groups now Before we jump over to the table top and take a close look at this watch I want to talk about a few things first number one my reservations about purchasing and owning an Omega Speedmaster it was probably nine or ten months ago now that I did a first impression style video of the Omega Speedmaster my good friends at the Omega authorized dealer exquisite timepieces here in Naples Florida let me borrow a speed master to do a video on but ultimately to help me decide if I wanted to purchase one now my big problem with the watch back then was the clasp the lack of micro adjust and the ability to go to good fit on the wrist for this watch it did not fit me correctly with the base or stock model clasp it was either a little bit too tight or a little bit too loose I expressed all those feelings and concerns in that original video and subsequently I discovered that you can in fact upgrade the clasp I did a separate video after I bought the watch talking about how you can do the clasp upgrade and get a clasp that has six positions of a micro adjust we'll look at that clasp in this review video but I did want to point out that I do have a video talking about the parts in the installation of that clasp once I got that clasp installed on the speed master the fit was perfect and it absolutely quelled all my concerns about owning this watch overall very happy with it right now now I don't know if you're aware of this back in November 2018 Omega made an announcement that they're going to change the terms of their warranty program on all of their watches they're going to raise the warranty from two or three years up to five years on every Omega watch I was worried that this might only be applied to watches with the maybe coaxial master chronometer grade movements but in fact it applies to all of their watches even the watches like this one with the manual mind 1861 caliber movement very excited when I heard about that but I bought my watch before November 2018 well it turns out that it's gonna be a retroactive a warranty upgrade for all watches purchased after July 2018 so I'm covered now if anyone buys with any Omega watch in the future you're going to be covered for up to five years as well so I'm not gonna go super in-depth into the background and history of the Omega Speedmaster moon watch there's plenty of guys plenty of channels plenty of videos on YouTube that talk about that stuff I know a lot of people get really excited about the history of this watch and how it relates to the space program of course we all know this is the 50th anniversary of the moon landing and an Omega Speedmaster was worn on the wrist of the astronauts that did the moon landing for me personally that's just not a factor as to why I might or why I actually did buy this watch I don't really get too wrapped up in the history of a watch Vasavi who did what with it in the past now if this was actually a watch that was worn by a celebrity or worn by an astronaut I could see where that would be important to me as a collector but I'm never gonna be in the market to buy something that was worn by Paul Newman or worn by an astronaut on the moon that's you know not gonna happen we're talking about millions upon millions of dollars for those types of watches since this watch has done nothing more than sit in a box at the store and then come to my wrist the importance of who did what with it in the past yeah it's not a factor for me I think it's cool and I don't begrudge anyone that gets enthusiastic about these watches because of its connection to the NASA space mission program and what-have-you but for me not a big factor so I'm not gonna spend a lot of time talking about that here today we will take a look at the Speedmaster presentation case briefly that's also been covered by a lot of channels on YouTube already and I don't want to bore you too much with this stuff but I think it's worth showing just in case you're not familiar with what all comes with your watch V the V the presentation case and what comes in it it is a cool case for about 15 minutes after that you're like what the heck am I gonna do with this thing it is gigantic it's a little bit on the heavy side I mean you know not too heavy to like pick it up and carry it around but it's not like super convenient to do anything with it but it is cool it's really impressive I'm not sure that I would opt for this case if I was given an option between it and something more simple a lot of people on the Internet on my review videos when I point out the packaging that a certain product might come in complain that they don't want to pay extra for packaging well if you're that type of person this is going to disappoint you because you are most certainly paying more for the packaging with this watch as a matter of fact some number of years ago forgive me I don't remember if it was four or five something like that Omega released this watch in this presentation case they also upgraded the bracelet at the time but let's be fair the bracelet upgrade wasn't any thing outstanding it's not like the clasp was good enough for my personal use and I had to upgrade the clasp anyway but at that time they upgraded the case they upgraded the the bracelet of the watch and they upgraded the price the price went up if I'm not mistaken a few hundred bucks at least and yeah basically you paid for all of this extra stuff again it is cool but what do you do with it after you've gone through it and looked at it for 10 or 15 minutes throw it back in the cardboard box throw it up in the closet somewhere and you basically forget about it the box has a black outer slip sleeve around it and this entire package comes inside of a brown cardboard box once you get that slip sleeve off you're presented with the Omega logo and the Box folds open left and right inside there you see a really nice almost piece of luggage in terms of the actual presentation case behind that you have holders for your warranty cards and pictogram and the little leather @ wallet that it comes in and of course there is your operations manual or instruction manual beyond that the presentation case is clipped down on two straps and everything here is really super high quality once you flip it up and you're presented with the watch you're presented with the metal Omega I don't know collectible coin I guess is what we'll call it and it's a big coin I mean it's basically the size of a small saucer or a small plate you might put like a teacup on or something quite large I'm not sure what I'm never gonna do with this thing but it is cool again don't get me wrong I like it I just don't know what I'm ever gonna do with this stuff the watch itself is of course on the little pillow in the case and then it looks kind of empty in there but there's a few compartments now just to the left of the watch is your first compartment and within there is a omega Jewelers loop or or magnifier and it's cool actually I've used it a couple of times it's come in handy for me it's nice to have a loop and yeah I'm glad actually that this is included but I could go a jeweler's loupe anywhere so it's not like I needed it right but it is branded with the Omegas branding and logos and one of the cool things about it is the sort of outer bezel of I piece has a tachometric scale on it kind of like the bezel on the Speedmaster now behind the watch is another compartment with all your little goodies inside that compartment first you get a little baggie of extra spring bars two pairs of them I'm really actually happy that they included some extra spring bars because we've all broken spring bars we've all lost spring bars it's convenient to have a couple of extra pairs lying around especially these good high quality pairs not just the cheap peas that you get off of Amazon after that you get a spring bar tool I've actually never used this tool I've never even taken it out of a package because I have a nice Bergeron spring bar tool and I sewn just really see no reason to even bother using this Omega one in you know the chance you don't own a good spring of our tool already at least there is one included with your spring bars the reason that you're gonna need spring bars and especially a spring bar tool is because it comes with a couple of straps first it comes with the NASA approved velcro style strap that these astronauts would have used over their space suits and this is a strap you're absolutely never going to use it's just sort of extra case candy that it's just kind of cool and you can look at it and appreciate it and you know have fun pretending you're an astronaut I guess I don't know the other strap that it does come with is an extremely nice high-quality NATO strap that uses a fine mesh seatbelt weave material it's got Omega branded clasp it's got the Omega branding on one of the keepers I own another Bond black and grey style strap so I've never even taken the stickers off of this one I probably never will because it's a very comparable to the Phenom NATO straps that I've reviewed in the past but it is a really nice high-quality NATO strap and if you don't already have one from another brand yeah you could give this one a whirl I absolutely do you think it's top-notch its outstanding now they are extremely expensive if you wanted to buy one separately one hundred and fifty hundred sixty dollars something like that a little bit crazy but very high-quality now underneath your presentation box there is two booklets the first booklet is just an instruction booklet on how to adjust and remove the bracelet put the NATO straps on or a leather strap if you want to go that route which I've done we're going to talk about straps in this video and one of the fantastic things about this watch is how versatile it is it looks fantastic on any strap I have thrown at it Bar None then there's another book that is sort of a history of the speed master and its relationship to the NASA space program the moon landing all of that stuff there's a lot of high-quality pictures it's actually mostly pictures with small little blurbs of information it's a nice little booklet you're gonna look at it once for five minutes there and put it back in the box and you're probably gonna forget about it but I guess it's cool that they included it so that's the presentation case that's everything you're gonna get with this watch once you get it home get it opened up a very very nice presentation very nice case very high quality but again 15 minutes after you're done playing with it what the heck do you do with it you know it just sits under my desk over here I mean it's been there for months now and up until making this video I had not opened it or looked at it one time since the day I got the watch and that's sort of the problem is you know not that it's bad it's outstanding it's just what the heck do you do with it alright guys here we have it the Omega Speedmaster professional moon watch reference number 3:1 1.3 0.4 2.3 0.0 1.0 0-5 that is a mouthful of a reference number I don't know why Omega does it that way I'm sure that there's some sort of code that gives you information about the particular model of watch buried into each of those number segments nevertheless very long reference number all you really need to know it's the Omega Speedmaster professional it is the moon watch this is the manual lined with HESA light crystal moon watch probably the best one a lot of people might disagree but for my money I think this is the best one the price on this watch retail MSRP 3000 or I'm sorry 5000 I wish three thousand five thousand three hundred and fifty dollars recently the price was increased by a hundred dollars it used to be fifty to fifty if for no other reason then you're getting an extra three years of warranty on your purchase maybe it's worth the extra hundred bucks I don't know you decide probably not a big deal either way just another way for Omega to milk an extra hundred bucks out of everyone that buys this watch it is what it is at least it's not a significant price increase it's not five or ten percent one hundred bucks isn't gonna break the bank for most people that are considering a watch at this price point now let's talk about this watch I absolutely love it it's not without some shortcomings and of course as always I'm gonna discuss the pros and cons of these watches like I always do it's a very versatile watch we're gonna look at this watch on a number of different strap options in the video one of the things that I love about it and while I don't always or even oftentimes wear watches on different straps that you can wear this watch on just about any strap and it looks awesome is that standing in terms of what other Speedmaster options are on the market I actually have an Omega Speedmaster first Omega in space and I'm gonna do a little bit of a comparison with that watch to this watch as well because that was a heavy contender for me when I was trying to decide which Speedmaster I wanted to buy in the end as you can see I opted for the classic moon watch and not the FO is but they're both cool watches and we will compare those before we get into all of that let's talk about this watch let's talk about the features and the specifications starting with the overall dimensions this watch is not exactly a lightweight it's not small the overall case diameter not inclusive of the crown or pushers over on the right-hand side of the case here comes in at 42 millimeters and we have a lug with between the horns of the lugs of 20 millimeters we do have a relatively chunky watch overall thickness comes in at fourteen and a half millimeters on my calipers you have a pretty aggressively domed has two like crystal though and that adds to it and you don't really feel that thickness when it's on the wrist too much in my opinion nevertheless over 14 millimeters thick is not exactly a slim watch lug to lug from one tip of the case to the other or the watches wingspan comes in at forty eight millimeters which is just about the maximum lug to lug or wingspan length that I personally can wear on my wrist with a circumference of roughly six and three-quarter inches we have a much smaller wrist you might find that this is not the speed master for you and you might consider picking up that first Omega in space speed master or maybe a speed master reduced there's some things that I don't like about the reduced in particular the configuration of the sub dials or registers I think it looks a little off but it is still a nice watch I know a lot of people do like the reduced because it is more wearable on the wrists if you are slightly slender wristed if you have a wrist of I would say six and a half inches and you can probably pull this one off just fine the easiest way to find out is to travel over to an authorized dealer and try one on but my my guess is that yeah six and a half inches in and up and you're gonna find that this is relatively comfortable the other specifications about this watch first of all water resists of course we don't have a screw down a crown you're very rarely gonna find a screw down crown on a non automatic watch or a hand wind only watch like this one it's not common despite the fact that it doesn't have a screw down crown it does have 50 meters of water resist but there is no shortage of discussion online about whether or not you should ever subject this watch to water I personally don't submit subject any of my watches to water unless it is a full-blown dive watch and I don't scuba dive but if I'm gonna get a watch wet you better be darn sure that it can take it can this watch take maybe swimming maybe I'll run through the shower how about just cleaning it with a little soap and warm water under the faucet in theory it should most certainly you would not want to actuate the pushers of the coronagraph function while it is wet or even after it's gotten out of the water because there are little crevices under there where a bead of water could get trapped and you might force it into the case when you push the pusher in I would say to be on the safe side No just don't bother getting it wet but you should be able to without too many problems I'm not recommending it however and tons of people online don't recommend it you know it's up to you you make the decision for yourself I had mentioned that this is the hessel a crystal version the dome tessellate crystal is just frankly outstanding I love the way it looks this watch does come in another version available with a sapphire crystal and the case back on the sapphire crystal version has a transparent case back so you can see the 1861 movement actually in the sapphire versions and called an 1863 movement they're more or less the same I'll talk about the differences when we discuss the movements the hassle light crystal on this watch is outstanding I really loved it the clarity it is just something about it like there's a there's a warmth there's a there's just a I don't know the way that it presents it looks nicer than the sapphire crystal in my opinion I wouldn't begrudge anyone that buys the sapphire version because sapphire is infinitely more scratch resistant and that's a huge problem with this HESA light or acrylic effectively plastic crystal it scratches very easily the sapphire version won't scratch I'm willing to accept that risk or that problem though because I think that it looks much better it's just overall for me the preferred option your mileage may vary I'm not gonna say which one you should get but for me yeah this one just looks perfect if I drill in really close on the crystal you can see that there is a little Omega logo there dead center just above the central hand stack on the dial imprinted into the crystal it's a cool little feature I guess it's maybe I don't know an authenticity piece of the puzzle so you know if you're looking at speed masters in particular that has to like crystal version you look for that little Omega logo in the crystal if it's missing it could have been polished off because you can polish out scratches on this crystal or actually I'm not sure if it could be is that on the underside or the top side of the crystal I think it's on the top side but I'm not positive but yeah if it's missing it definitely you know you should be a little suspect as to why that little and Omega insignia isn't there on the crystal our board of the SLA crystal of course we have the tachometric scale or the tack and meter bezel to me this is just a decoration you're never gonna use it the the functionality is of course to track speed speed you know time over distance traveled and you would start the coronagraph after you've traveled a mile or a kilometer or whatever unit of measure you'll stop it and it'll point at a graduation on this bezel and tell you how fast you went over that distance that you just traveled it's a decoration most people are not going to use it there isn't way you can use it to check your pulse though you start the chronograph up and I believe it's 30 you count 30 beats of your pulse and then you stop it and it'll point to a number and that number is your current pulse over per minute I guess is the way that you would read that so there is something kind of useful that you can do with the tachometer bezel and if you want to track your pulse yeah I I'm not 100% sure if I remember correctly if it's you count 30 beats of your pulse you might want to google it but nevertheless it's something that you can do other than that yeah it's just a decoration but it's a really cool decoration I like the look of it it just adds a little I don't know flair to the watch that's a point of interest again it's a decoration but it's definitely cool if we look at it in profile the bezel assembly is just you know stainless steel high quality insert is probably aluminum with painted graduations from this profile here you can see that there's kind of an under lip because of the height of the crystal or the whole watch including the crystal and because of this under lip on the bezel if you were trying to slide this under a shirt cuff good chance you're gonna get caught up there it's just it's a thick watch that piece of geometry certainly doesn't aid in the easy wear ability under your shirt cuffs but it's not really a dress watch it's not what it's meant for this is a sports watch it's pretty casual watch it's a t-shirt and jeans kind of accessory so while it is kind of classy looking I mean it's just a classic design and I think that you can dress it up especially on a nice strap just keep in mind that you know under a tight fitting shirt sleeve probably gonna have some issues and just realized that the watch isn't running right now so let's go ahead and wind it up and we'll talk about the crown and the pushers while we're giving the watch a little bit of a wind one of my complaints about this watch hand winding it is not great honestly the crown is recessed into the side of the case pretty deeply and it's not exactly a pleasurable winding experience if you had big meaty fingers and I relatively medium sized hands and fingers by extension but if you big meaty fingers getting a good purchase on that crown to wind it is gonna be mildly annoying at a minimum once it's wound up it's not an issue but of course since it's not an automatic movement and something you're gonna have to do every single day that you want to wear it anyway and it does detract from the overall positive experience that is most of the ass of this watch I don't know I mean how do they make that better could they have made that better is that as good as it gets it's not a make-or-break deal obviously I bought the watch I own it I deal with it but you would think you would have more of a kind of a luxurious experience of hand winding it now the feedback you get from the movement it does feel good it's solid it's smooth it's not it's not like a cheap watch in terms of that feeling it's just getting getting your fingers on the crown it's not it's not super pleasurable that's basically the way up go ahead and put it now above and below the crown of course we have piston or plunger style pushers to start and stop the chronograph I've had a problem with my chronograph it's popped up once or maybe drop two or three times actually and here's what has happened of course if you're not familiar to start a chronograph you push the top button and it's off to the races now what happens to me or has happened to me again two or three times I've used the chronograph I don't know dozens if not hundreds right but a few times I've gone ahead and I've been timing something then I stopped it pushing the top button the bottom button obviously is the reset click that and it didn't reset I heard an audible click but the hand didn't reset back to 12 I just stayed where it was push the top button to restart it and stop it again push the bottom button and then it reset doesn't instill a tone of confidence in me even being perfectly honest to have something like that happen frankly such an expensive watch I was a little bit miffed because it's not something that's happened more than a couple of times it's not a repeatable flaw I see no reason to send it in to the service center like taking your car into the mechanic you say hey I'm having this issue but it's intermittent of course the mechanic test drives the car and they say I don't know what the problem is go home I have a feeling that would be the same sort of situation if I sent this in with that complaint to the Omega service if it becomes a regular problem hey I have a five-year warranty so I guess I don't really need to worry about it that much but didn't really make me super happy when I noticed that happen a couple of times one of the hallmark features of the Omega Speedmaster and several models of Omega watches including the C master is the case design these twisted lug or lyre lug profiled cases high polished bevels that fold over to a smooth brushed finish interior and then on the flanks of the case as well this is an extremely mmm nicely finished watch at the price point yeah we could say $5,000 is absurdly expensive for a wristwatch and I wouldn't you know call you crazy for having that opinion or feeling that way about it but when we compare it to other multi-thousand dollar watches the overall fit and finish on this watch is excellent its outstanding it compares favorably to watches that are much more expensive than it and this is obviously you know not a handmade timepiece this is a mass production machine produced timepiece with probably as minimal amount of hand finishing and craftsmanship as is possible to produce as many as they can in a short enough period of time I am nothing but impressed with the overall fit and finish the geometry of the case is very unique very distinct it's very cool you'll notice that on the right hand side the case is a little bit more stout than it is on on the left hand side of the case sort of gives some protection to the crown but like I had mentioned does bury the crown into the side of the case that's a little bit of an issue for me but less chance of you - you know shear or strike your pushers or the crown I guess better to have the protection then maybe the convenience of interfacing or operating the mechanism I I suppose I see why they would do that I see where it's coming from the case which is fantastically finish equally as nicely done the bracelet the links are kind of an oyster style bracelet they don't taper anything nearly as much as an oyster bracelet maybe it only tapers a little bit you have these high polished edge links on the center portions but otherwise it's all of a completely brushed finish a very very handsome very very nicely done something that is not super nicely done on the bracelet the end link take a look at the end link I'm gonna give it a little wiggle I don't know if it's showing up on camera as well as well as I would like but there is a lot of play on the end Lane because I wiggle it up and down here it's not a very tight fit on the end links I would expect at 5000 plus dollars that the end links would be fitted more snugly more seamlessly to the case I understand that they can't be perfectly snug to the case because it would make it difficult to install and remove the bracelet if it was but there's a lot of wiggle on these end links and it's both end links it might even be more so on one than the other and again I don't know how well that's coming through on camera because of all the light and reflections and everything but trust me the end links are very wobbly wiggly there's it's not a nice tight snug fit on my watch not a problem it doesn't seem like it's an issue with the the case holes or the spring bars or anything it's just not a very perfect night kind of bank vault lock up type of fit and again I would expect it to be a little bit better on a wash of this caliber and of this price point now of course my favorite thing about this watch and probably most people's favorite things about this watch and frankly most watches is the dial the dial on this watch is absolutely outstanding super classic just I don't know I mean perfect that might be the only way to describe it it is simple it is straightforward it is squared away in every possible way it is absolutely maybe my favorite watched Isle of all time if it's not it's like running neck-and-neck with one or two other watches but it is just absolutely a perfect dial layout simple flat matte black with nothing but printed markers the branding everything no applied logos no metal appliques just classic like a like a tuxedo a black and white tuxedo it's it's yeah not as formal of course it's not formal like a tuxedo but it's just perfect in its classic stylings the dial is of course facilitating chronograph functionality so you have several sub dials a thirty-minute totalizer or counter at the three o'clock position a 12-hour totalizer at the six o'clock position and then of course your active running seconds over over over at the nine o'clock position the 30-minute totalizer fantastic I hate and when I say I hate I mean I hate a watch that has a 60 minute counter for the chronograph I just can't read it there's too many tiny little graduations it's very very difficult for me to read if you have really good eyesight your mileage may vary but for me I just can't see a I just can't see a 60 minute counter sub dial so I'm very happy that this is a 30 minute sub dial obviously it was built for legibility in mind and you know it is perfectly legible now the 12-hour totalizer at the six o'clock position has graduations for each individual one hour increment I do wish that there were smaller 30-minute graduations in between each hour graduation because it takes two revolutions of the 30-minute totalizer to increment the 12-hour counter up an entire step and it would be nice to see that it's pointing at or just beyond a 30 minute step a little bit more clearly it's not a big deal it's easy enough to reference and read but I think a 30 minute increment or graduation between each our graduation would be helpful now the act of running seconds over at nine o'clock is not highly intricate it's not graduated at every second just every five seconds with oddly 2040 and 60 minutes Arabic numerals I don't think that that's super important though I don't think you need to note with pinpoint accuracy your current active running seconds so that's fine for me the printing on the dial is done exceptionally well the hour markers and the handset fully loomed bright green luma nova luminescence i'll bring in some video showing off the loom it's some of the better loom that I've seen on a nice you know high-end watch it's really well done despite the fact that the markers are pretty small despite the fact that the track of loom in the hour and minutes hand is relatively thin it's still very bright it's very long-lasting a very very good loom and I'm not much of a loom guy if I'm being perfectly honest luma has never been a driving factor for me in a watch purchase but yeah the Loom on this watch is impressive those little inset slightly recessed sub dials it just looks great it's a tiny little detail that you almost don't notice I don't know how well it'll show on camera here with all this bright light but yeah very nicely done dial the printing of the branding Omega Speedmaster professional at the six o'clock position has done very well down at the bottom did I say six o'clock I'm in 12 o'clock if I did say six obviously the branding is up at the 12 o'clock position down at the six o'clock position it does say swiss-made yeah I love this dial just a flat matte black classic just handsome well-put-together dial everything about it is just about perfect why did I say just about perfect well because there's a slight quality control problem with my watch in particular with the handset I'm sure you can already see it now it kind of annoys me when people say things like you know a watch like an Omega or Alexa's a fake or it's not authentic if there's anything wrong with it they don't put out watches that are less than perfect that sort of thing that misinformation is spread around the internet just readily every I see it all the time as just frankly not true these are mass-produced watches products if you will they're gonna have problems and this one has a problem look at the coronagraph counter the chronograph central second sand it is just a hair to the right of the dead top Center 12 marker or maybe the dial is offset to the left a little bit I don't really know but it does not line up perfectly I have seen watches that do line up perfectly I have seen watches that are more misaligned I've seen watches that have for example the sub dial hands misaligned like on the 30 minute counter I've seen misalignments so strong as that little pointer is almost a half second to the right of the top dead center 30 and mine's actually off maybe a hair maybe it's hard to tell it's close enough though but the chronograph central seconds counter is definitely off to the right a little bit was this enough for me to make a stink and return it and/or get it fixed or whatever no it's not at arm's length away it's barely noticeable and when it's on your wrist I'm gonna kind of tilt it here like you're looking at it at different angles right I have it on a perfectly flat surface so you can see that it's off a little bit once on your wrist you might look at it from this angle and from that angle it looks perfect right you might look at it from this angle and like no it looks way to the left it's only when it's like laying on a perfectly flat surface that you notice that it's off a little bit but it is off a little bit and that's just you know par for the course with with watches in general little quality control flaws exist even up to and including watches in this price point we haven't discussed the movement yet and let's talk about that somewhat briefly this uses the 1861 caliber Omega movement a 48-hour power reserve of course this is a manual hand wind only movement running at twenty one thousand six hundred vibrations per hour it's a 13 June that has specifications from Omega an accuracy range of minus 1 to plus 11 seconds per day mine is much more accurate than that mine runs about plus three seconds per day I would say I say I would say because the active running seconds hand isn't fully graduated so it's difficult to tell exactly how much off it might be but it's not quite five seconds a day that would be easily readable because there's five second graduations it's probably about three seconds per day fast which is fine by me for a non chronometer certified watch anything within plus or minus ten would be okay with me so yeah this one is very accurate but specifications from Omega R minus 1/2 plus eleven now the 1861 is what they call a cam actuated lever chronograph module or movement I guess I should say that is the the internal workings of what starts and stops the coronagraph as we can see the chronograph is currently running right now the original moon watch used a caliber 321 movement the 321 was a column wheel chronograph column wheel coronagraphs tend to be higher quality smoother on the start and the stop of the coronagraph functionality but more expensive to make more expensive to maintain I have reviewed a Rolex Daytona which used a what do they call it's a vertical column wheel something like that it's a column wheel movement though and I compared it in that Daytona review to this Omega watch because they're both highly popular and coronagraphs I didn't really notice much of a difference in terms of the coronagraph functionality between the column wheel Daytona and this cam actuated lever Omega the click to start and stop the movement of the kernel graph on the daytona may be smoother maybe I didn't really feel that the jerkiness of starting and stopping of the coronagraph counter seconds hand maybe a little bit more jerky on the Omega and that's what people always say is though the column wheels they just smooth start smooth stop and the cam actuated a little lever system is very jerky to start and stop maybe I don't know I didn't really pick up on it too terribly much with the Daytona versus this so apparently Omega I didn't think it was that important either because they discontinued the 3:21 movement and made an 861 movement and then eventually some improvements and made this 1861 movement the the movement here it's great mine's been accurate it's been relatively reliable like I said I did have a little bit of an issue with resetting the chronograph counter a couple of times where it didn't reset when I clicked that bottom pusher but it doesn't seem to be affecting the watch in any negative way so it's a wait-and-see I guess but overall yeah I like this movement I'm happy with is accuracy the power reserve it's plenty plenty of power reserve yeah overall absolutely no complaints with the movement despite the fact that I did have one or two little hiccups with it let's talk about the bracelet on this watch it's one of the big flaws not so much the bracelet the bracelet is actually pretty nice the fit and finish is nice the design the style maybe it's not for everyone it's a little bit flashy er than it probably needs to be or ought to be with these high polished edge scent edges of the center links and that might not be a style for everyone but high quality I think it's very attractive it's handsome very wearable design the the big issue is the clasp and as you might be aware I did a video talking about how to replace the clasp this is not the original clasp the original clasp says speed master on and it's smaller I had to replace the clasp with this clasp which I believe is a class 4 maybe the plan at Ocean Omega 3 that I replaced it was because this class has a push-button adjustable micro just I guess push that little button slide it out there's six positions of micro adjust in there the clasp that came on the speed master was a more traditional style of micro Jes we're just had two little holes and you kind of move a spring bar forward and backward not enough micro adjust for me my watch was always are either a little bit too tight or way too loose and if watches a little bit too tight in the morning by the afternoon it's gonna be way too tight it's you know your wrists change and swell and whatnot so it was a huge problem for me I had to replace the clasp and by extension you also have to replace these two end links that the clasp attaches to you this end link and then over on the other side that cost me just north of 200 dollars to do that modification now in terms of the overall quality of the clasp that came on this watch it was equal the had a very nice high end stainless steel milled swing arm the blades were well made the clasp itself again just super high quality very nice there was no issues with the build quality of the clasp it was just the inability to adjust the clasp on the fly or even get a proper fit right out of the case so I had to do that modification now if you're thinking about modifying yours again I did a video explaining all of the parts and tools and everything that you would need to do that modification I highly recommend it yeah it's disappointing than it costs just north of 200 dollars to do the modification but it's something that you got to do the rest of the bracelet though despite the fact that I had to change the clasp is again very nice yeah I have a little bit of a issue with the end links they're fit to the case is not perfect and it's a little bit Wiggly or wobbly I would expect slightly more from a watch at this price point but it's not a big deal the overall quality of the the fit and finish though it is very nice and then I can nitpick little things about it but overall I'm quite happy with it take a quick look at the rear of the case if you've happened to never seen it you have that Omega Speedmaster with the hippocampus logo they're central to the case back and then flight qualified by NASA for all manned space missions the first watch weren't on the moon and then the engravings for professional moon watch along the edge there it's nicely done it's something that you don't really ever look at her see but it's a nice little presentation it is a screw down case back eating in that alleged 50 meters of water resist I mean I say alleged I mean that's you know what they advertised it as it should be fine but I don't get my watches wet again I don't like to risk it so screw down case back though nicely decorated with the Omega branding and the little memento to commemorate the the fact that this is the moon wash now in talking about the bracelet another really nice thing about this watch is that it looks excellent on basically any strap that I have thrown at it I've taken it and put it on a black simple black leather her strap I want to say this is the Hersh Ranger and I actually took the buckle of the Omega buckle off of the the NATO strap and it fits on this Hirsh leather strap so I have a nice official Omega buckle on it and yeah it looks fantastic it wears great I love it on this strap an actual Omega strap from the boutique with a deployment clasp but if I'm not mistaken it's upwards of $500 and it is super high quality alligator leather and the the clasp is is awesome don't get me wrong but I don't really think I'm gonna spend five hundred dollars just on a leather strap so plenty of strap options out there on the market I really like this black Hirsh leather strap the watch looks fantastic on it and that's the thing about this bead master it looks fantastic or not the thing but it's a thing it looks fantastic on everything I also went over to the Omega boutique and I bought a black and gray Bond strap and you know the watch does come with the black NATO strap but I I really wanted the black and gray bond and since I knew I was gonna be doing a video I said you know why not it's insanely expensive for a NATO strap 160 dollars I would never suggest spending this much on this strap unless you really wanted it because you have an Omega watch to put it on I've compared this strap to a phenom NATO strap in a previous video and the Phenom NATO strap is nearly as well put together as the strap I mean it's 95% of the way there and it's I don't know a fifth of the price or a quarter of the price it's it's just hugely more affordable so by an bio phenomena toe strap if you want a really high quality nylon seatbelt nylon style strap that's it this watch does look fantastic on this NATO strap I love it I don't wear it on this NATO strap often because I'm not a huge NATO strap guy but very very impressed with just how versatile this watch can be you can wear it with anything that I've thrown at it and it looks great I have not yet tried a rubber strap but I bet it would be awesome on a rubber as well rubber is usually more for like dive watches though so I don't know well sooner or later I'm gonna get bored to throw a rubber strap on it but I predict it's gonna be awesome another little comparison I wanted to do let's look at this watch relative to the Omega Speedmaster first Omega in space that's a watch that I was seriously considering as an alternative to this Omega Speedmaster professional moon watch the reason being is it's a little bit smaller the fo is comes in at a case diameter of about thirty nine and a half millimeters as opposed to the 42 millimeter diameter of the professional another thing is that the first Omega in space doesn't have that sort of awkward dial layout like the speedy reduced and I know people like the speed master reduce and if you like it that's fine but for me I feel like the sub dial configuration on that watch is a little awkward this first Omega in space is a smaller watch and it doesn't have that awkward presentation of the dial explicitly the sub dials the issue that I have with the first Omega in space is that it's not available on a bracelet and I don't wear watches on leather straps often enough to justify buying a watch that only comes on a leather strap I like to mix it up once in a while and do it for a day here or there but predominantly I like to wear watches on a metal bracelet apparently there is a metal bracelet that you can buy aftermarket that's an official Omega bracelet if I'm not mistaken that will fit on the first Omega in space but I didn't want to go through the hassle and the expense of tracking down a bracelet for a watch that I just bought yeah I just decided against it for all of those reasons that said it is a very very cool watch it's very similar it's got the same 1861 caliber movement same chronograph functionality the design is very similar it is using an sapphire crystal instead of a HESA light crystal but of course you can get the speedmaster professional with sapphire as well so you know it's not that much different in those terms I do really like this first Omega in space watch and I think it would be a great alternative for somebody looking for something a little bit smaller and it would be my preferable alternative versus the speedy reduced it's just man I wish it came on a bracelet everybody always complains cuz I forget sometimes sometimes I just don't bother to do a wrist shot I I don't like doing earth shots I don't really think that it's all that indicative of much that this is like close camera perspective but I'll do it because I know people will complain if I don't I'll go ahead and take off the g-shock in case you're wondering what is I don't do wrist watch just watch checks either what I'm wearing today the Casio DW 5600 g-shock another watch that astronauts actually can wear it's NASA flight certified or whatever if I'm not mistaken so I figured I'd do to space watches today we'll throw the Speedy on the wrist and give you guys a look at it all right there it is my wrist six and three-quarter inches in circumference always good diameter and circumference mixed up but yet they think that that's a circumference if it's great for me it's a little big for sure it's it's on the larger side but it does fit and I think you could even pull this off down to I don't know six and a half beyond that then you're gonna start looking at the speedy reduced or the first Omega in space there's those options out there it is like I said tall 14.5 ish something like that 14 yeah 14 point five millimeters thick it's a tall watch for sure but it's comfortable I have no issues with the wearability of this watch and once I added the adjustable clasp and you can see that little adjustable part sticking out the back there I could get a absolutely perfect fit so overall very much yes happy with this watch happy with style happy with the aesthetic happy with the quality for the most part yes happy with the fit on the wrist I am I could it be a hair smaller sure it could be but I say that about just about every watch every watch could be a hair smaller in my opinion but I can take a slightly bigger watch if it's a chronograph if it's a dive watch maybe if it's an Aviation's inspired or styled piece a little bit bigger is okay I'm those kinds of washes watches but we're just a simple three hand time only watch I prefer 36 to 38 millimeters for sure but yeah this at 42 it works for me let's see we'll go ahead and reset the chronograph before we close out here I told you I had some problems where I would stop the chronograph and then pushing the reset button would click but it wouldn't actually reset all the hands let's see if we can replicate that problem I have it's only happen to me two or three times everything reset just fine there it is something that has happened though and every time I go to reset it I wonder like is it gonna is it gonna reset correctly and it pretty much always does so I guess wouldn't have to keep an eye on that let me know down in the comments if you've ever experienced any problems with this were any chronograph watch in that regard of you know starting stopping and resetting it have you ever had any issues besides that though it's been great it's very very accurate at least for a nun chronometer respect watch I'm quite pleased with it so stick around for a few more minutes we're gonna go over some of my closing thoughts we're gonna talk about the value proposition of this watch we're gonna talk about the market saturation of Omega and Speedmaster watches we're gonna talk about whether or not this is a must-have timepiece in your collection so we're not done quite yet stick around alright guys well that was my review of the Omega Speedmaster moon watch I hope you enjoyed it a few things before we wrap up though some closing thoughts if you will first one is yeah I absolutely do love this watch but is it a forever watch I've had a number of people suggest me that I should flip this watch and get something else and I don't know if I'm gonna do that right now I'm pretty happy with it I'll say that right now I plan on keeping it for how long though I'm not entirely sure I've actually had some questions emails people have asked me is this a must-have watch what's my thoughts on that I'm not sure if I would describe the Omega Speedmaster as a must-have watch now certainly if we look back at the beginning of this video and we talked about that pole I did about the most popular chronograph watches in the luxury segment anyway this is the most popular it's the most desirable it's the most sought-after luckily it's probably the most widely available and one of the most affordable again within the luxury segment of timepieces is it a must-have watch though I mean only you as a collector as an enthusiast as a potential consumer can decide that I would say that you know there are some shortcomings with it in terms of the stock bracelet in terms of the overall size it's a little bit on the large side if you can get past all of those things if you can get past the pro the the price or the point of entry for this watch maybe maybe it is a must-have watch it is an outstanding watch and I think it would be nice if you're interested in watches and if you're interested in coronagraphs and maybe if you're interested in the space program to own this watch at least for a while a lot of people have described the Omega Speedmaster as the most flipped watch of all time and that might be true I bet a lot of people buy this watch they wear it for a little while and they flip it and if you buy one pre-owned and you're smart with your money you can probably do that without losing too much because there's always gonna be buyers out there interested and the same thing that you were interested at one point trying this watch out and finding out if you love it if you do love it you keep it forever fantastic if you don't love it you got to get out of it no big deal just make sure you don't pay full retail because yeah you're never gonna get all your money back if you do that brings me to my second point in the closing thought segment of this watch review the over saturation of the Omega Speedmaster on the market there's a ton of model variations of this watch they are widely available both from authorized dealers both on the gray market and also pre-owned on the secondary market because of that over saturation it sort of makes this watch not a great value at least in terms of buying it at its MSRP price of $5,300 $5,300 yeah it is not a super good value and the main reason is because of how oversaturated Omega is with all of their watches tons of different models of speed masters and C masters and everything else make it so that it's difficult for any one model to really catch fire and to really be super super desirable like what we're seeing with Rolex models now in Rolex terms a lot of that demand is due to probably an artificial shortage of the watches but there's also not a ton of different variations of their most popular watches just a handful of variations if Omega had went with that model I think these watches would be in and much your demand not the artificial shortage part of that model but just less less options as it turns out the the basic speed master professional moon watch like we have here today or its counterpart the sapphire sandwich version which has a sapphire crystal on top and an exhibition case back on the rear side are arguably the two most popular and most sought-after models nevertheless though not a super great value because of that over saturation how can you tell if a watch isn't a good value here's here's a couple of tips number one is the watch something that you can buy anytime you want from an authorized dealer number two is the watch deeply discounted on the gray market and this watch is deeply discounted on the gray market on a site like Joma shop you can get over 20% off I think they go for around $4,200 over $1000 off of the MSRP or list price so that's a really good indicator that it's it's not a great value when they can be bought gray market readily and easily at steep discounts finally is it widely available on the secondary market and that's your probably third cue as to whether or not a watch is a great value it is readily available on the secondary market Corona 24e Bay the different sales forums you can pretty much go pick up a pre-owned speed master today any day all day every day so yeah it's it's not a great value for all of those reasons but it is a great watch and if you're smart with your money if you're smart with how you purchase it you can actually do really well and probably not lose a ton of money if you decide you need to get out of it what do I think about the new 50th anniversary Apollo 11 launch in particular this watch was just announced two or three days ago I guess if you're not familiar with it I'll throw up a picture of it somewhere over here if I can find one it is a limited-edition anniversary or 50th anniversary edition commemorating the Apollo 11 moon landing and limited to 6969 total pieces because the the moon landing was in 1969 I guess and they thought 69 69 was a fun number I'm a little curious as to why it's not actually limited and what do I mean by actually limited seven thousand pieces is not very limited I mean there's watches out there that are limited to I don't know 20 pieces thirty pieces that's limited even if this was limited to say nineteen hundred and sixty nine pieces that might make more sense to me at the price point that they're asking for this watch and that's the real big rub for me price point on this watch is ninety six hundred and fifty dollars if I'm not mistaken a hair over 9,500 bucks regardless and that is pretty super expensive in my opinion the the watch has some things going for it no doubt the new bracelet looks pretty cool I haven't seen pictures of the clasp on the bracelet and I suspect that the clasp was gonna have the same issues that I had with the original class but that came on this speed master that I have here it's probably not gonna have a ton of micro Jess but I don't know I haven't seen any pictures of the clasp yet so I'll reserve that judgment I'm I'm not optimistic though but yeah the rest of the bracelet actually looks really cool looks to be a little bit thinner a little bit more streamlined than the standard moon watch bracelet I do like that the new movement that comes on this watch it's a coaxial master chronometer grade movement based on the 1861 that we find here I think it's caliber 38 61 or something like that I'm sorry if I don't remember the correct caliber number or reference number of the movement off the top of my head but it's an upgraded manual hand whined movement I was on a livestream and somebody asked why didn't they put an automatic movement in it well there's no automatic movements in the official moon watches the reason why they wouldn't do that is because an automatic movement wouldn't work in a zero-g environment so there would be no point now that's sort of neither here nor there nobody's taking these watches to space anymore maybe okay maybe they are maybe astronauts are still wearing speed masters but when I say like nobody one of these anniversary watches are very unlikely to find its way into space right so it's it's an enthusiast watch just a collector's watch and they could have put an automatic in it and it would have been fine but they probably just wanted to stick with the tradition of it always being a manual hand wind watch I sort of look at it the same way that I look at the sea master and the planet ocean with the helium escape valve it's a feature that is absolutely 100% not necessary because people really aren't using those watches for the task for which they are designed I in the case of the speaks RC Master saturation diving nobodies saturation diving with sea masters and planet oceans but they still put that helium escape valve on there I guess because it is steeped in tradition and you know they just want to stick with that tradition same reason they didn't put an automatic movement in the anniversary edition of the moon watch the 50th anniversary edition I get it that's why now my question about this new anniversary watch is what the heck happened to the calibre 321 movement Omega announced back in late 2018 if I'm not mistaken that they were going to reissue in some capacity the calibre 321 movement now of course the big difference between the 321 and the 1861 that we have here in this watch is that the 321 is a column wheel chronograph as opposed to the cam actuated lever system that we find in this movement I would have thought for sure that because the original moon watches used a 321 when they this anniversary edition watch that's what they were gonna do with the 321 when they announced it some months ago that's not the case that's not what they're doing so we still don't actually know when they announced the 321 becoming a part of the Omega line of watches again we don't know what they're gonna do with that I'm really starting to get curious if they're gonna issue an entirely new production model speed master with a 321 I don't think that's gonna be the case because the way that Omega operates is they just put out limited-edition watches and limited-edition watches and so on and so on and so on forever right so it's probably if I had to bet on it anyway not gonna be a standard production Speedmaster that features 321 I just don't think that's the way they do business I think they want to hook line and sinker everybody reel them in and you don't do that by making a watch that is widely and readily available at all times that's just my my prediction sometime in the future we will see a version of the speed master that's probably gonna be very expensive and probably will use the calibre 321 unfortunately it's not in this watch now what about the rest of the designs of this watch that's where I start having problems with it I don't particularly like two-tone watches and it's odd this watch is just two-toned in the bezel and the dial and a few spots I wish they would have just went with a more standard stainless steel silver tone coloration for this watch I think it would have been cooler the other big problem for me is the active running second sub dial they put this picture in the sub dial of an astronaut although it's kind of hard to see it actually but it would appear that he's descending down the lunar module ladder and you know about to make the first step on the moon that picture is not awesome I think they could have done a lot of cooler things with it when we were talking about this on a live stream the other night somebody had made the suggestion that you know why didn't they just put like a nice silver tone moon there I mean that would have been better any number of things would have been better in my opinion than the imagery that they decided to put in there you're basically looking at the backside of an astronaut and I don't know it does just doesn't appeal to me that's probably one of the biggest negatives but all of the gold-tone stuff on it as well is not really appealing to me in a lot of ways I think they had the opportunity to do something really special with this anniversary edition watch and in a lot of ways they missed the mark no doubt there is some cool stuff in it I'm really interested in learning more about the new movement that they've put in this watch I like some of the stuff that they did with the bracelet the overall design I mean it's a speed master and the speed master is classic the case the twisted lugs everything is as you would expect but there are a few key points for me that I just don't get blown away by I guess it's a good thing that's gonna save me 9600 ish dollars I'm not gonna buy one and that's maybe one of the biggest points of contention is it feels a few thousand dollars too expensive and you're getting charged that premium mainly because it's a quote-unquote limited edition we see lots of watch companies doing this Seiko has been been going crazy with the limited edition watches where the prices are escalating up and up and up and you're not really getting a ton of value the biggest point of value you're getting is the fact that it's limited and they seem to want to make us believe that because it's limited the exclusivity of the watch makes it more valuable I mean maybe that is the case but for me I would prefer to stay away from limited edition watches because of the price points that are involved so yeah long story short there's a lot of things going on with this new limited edition anniversary watch that are very cool there's a lot of things going on with it that I'm not in love with in the end it's a pass for me but I'm sure they're gonna sell out all seven thousand pieces and they'll just continue making more limited edition watches alright guys well that's gonna wrap this video up a couple of things before I finish first of all please join my facebook group the just bluefish watch club will be a link down below and yeah I'd love have you over there number two if you want to join a Facebook group that is specific only to the topic of Omega joined be just Omega Facebook group I'll have a link to that group down below as well other ways you can help me out if you'd like to help support the channel as always you could subscribe to my facebook my Instagram and my Twitter accounts I would definitely appreciate that I have not converted a whole lot of my subscribers here over to those accounts I'm not sure why exactly but believe me it does help quite a bit when you know I'm trying to negotiate with watch brands to borrow watches when they see those numbers that impacts their decisions case in point I asked Chris Ward if I could borrow one of their watches to do a review video on they responded to me and said how long when you need the watch for and you know I said maybe two weeks and I never heard from him again I tried reaching out to them two or three more times and they just quit responding I don't know why exactly but perhaps if I would have had all 20,000 of my subscribers following me on Facebook Instagram and Twitter we would have got that watch in for review I don't want to buy one with my own money and of course I don't want them to give me one but it would be nice if they loaned me one for a week or two so that I could do a video again follow me on all my social media platforms and it might help with those things number two if you'd like to help support me financially you can join my patreon a lot of people have been joining my patreon lately and a big thanks to you guys in the event that I want to review a watch but I can't get one loaned to me if I had enough patreon support I would be able to just go ahead and occasionally buy one of those watches I get requested all the time would you review this watch would you review that watch I can't shell out the money myself but if you guys all support me on patreon and donate a little bit every month you know a cup of coffee 5 bucks a month then then yeah I'll bring in a lot of those requested watches and I'll do review videos on them even if I can't get one loan to me or otherwise find it at no cost please do jump over to patreon and help me out there and the big thanks to all the guys that have been finally if you'd like to help me financially but you don't want to spend any money extra you could just click my Amazon affiliate link if you like anything that I've reviewed and you're thinking about buying it or if you're thinking about buying anything on Amazon click my affiliate link first and I get tagged as a refer and I get a small commission with every single transaction those Commission's absolutely do add up they do help me out and cover some of the expenses here so a big thanks to everyone that has been using the Amazon affiliate link a lot of you have been I really appreciate that all right well that's going to do it for now thanks again for tuning in until the next one bye now

Channel: JustBlueFish Watch Reviews

Views: 181,402

Rating: 4.5756755 out of 5

Keywords: Omega, Speedmaster, Professional, Moonwatch, Chronograph, Wrist Watch, Timepiece, Review

Id: BOQ9AhuR874

Length: 72min 34sec (4354 seconds)

Published: Tue May 21 2019