Men’s Automatic Speedmaster Professional Stainless Steel Black Dial
Saturday, January 16th, 2010 at
11:34 am
The aesthetic elegance of this Omega chronograph timepiece will highlight a gentleman’s suit with its intricate detail.
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Tagged with: Automatic • Black • Dial • Men's • Professional • Speedmaster • Stainless • Steel
Filed under: Omega Dress Watches
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After owing a Rolex Explorer II for 18 years, I decided to save some money up and repurchase my second choice in the luxury watch department. The Omega Speedmaster Professional Moon Watch, it was a toss up 18 years ago and I have to say I’m still 50/50 on which is the better watch maker. They both have outstanding accomplishment’s through out their watch making histories. I did a lot of researching on this model before I made my choice on this “Special Edition” and I have no regrets!!!! I like the upgrade to the different “Themes” to the Moon Watch over the years, my first choice was the Snoopy edition but with the aftermarket price of $3500-$4500 to a used watch it was a bit out of my price range. My father worked for NASA during the Apollo days and when I came across this edition it reminded me of him every much and he would have been amazed at the Mars landing mankind has accomplished which is the theme to this watch along with our goal to put man on Mars. Their are a dozen or so styles too this watch but I choose to stick to the original makings of this watch with the plastic crystal and solid back, which hasn’t really changed over 50 years. If your a person that gets his hands dirty like myself you may want to get a model that has the sapphire crystal on the face, since the plastic glass style can scratch easily but light scratch can be buffed out with a wax compound. I can attest to the sapphire crystal as being very very durable to hits from owing a Rolex and is the usual choice of all watch makers for the choice of most better watch face’s. I also ditched the steel bracelet and picked up a black $10 nylon military watch band which gives the Moon watch the more astronaut look. Goes very well with the black face. The one big thing I have to get used to is the manual wind movement, I’m a bit more on the automatic style but again this manual style really hasn’t changed but other then a better more lasting finish on it, changed over after the moon landing to the 861 and now the 1861. So I think this movement has proving it’s self on earth and the moon!!!! Enough said there!!! Just one more thing about this watch, you may want to pick any style moon watch up because what I’ve been reading is Omega is switching to their new caliber of co-axil movements on “ALL”??? Watch’s. Don’t hold me to the “ALL” but I would think the end to the manual wind moon watch could be near???? I hope not!!!
All of the Omega Speedmaster Professional models are beautiful watches with a legendary history and phenomenal following. They have been arguably among the most popular watches ever made by Omega since the original “Speedmaster” debut in 1957. The current Speedmaster Professionals come in multiple versions, but are for the most part little changed in its over 50 year life. This watch has a distinct face, which differentiates it from the other Speedmaster Professionals.
Why are the Speedmaster Professionals amazing?
During the 1960’s space race with the Soviets, NASA did not have the time to announce an open competition from all interested watch companies to design a watch suitable for space travel. This would have required bids from different manufacturers with the eventual award of a government contract. NASA engineers in plain clothes went to downtown Houston and entered various high end stores and purchased high-end (i.e. expensive) manual wind wristwatches from 10 different brands, such as Omega, Rolex, etc. This was all done in secrecy and none of the watch manufacturers, such as Omega, were aware of this. NASA subjected the watches to grueling tests of temperature extremes, shocks, humidity, extreme pressure changes, etc. All of the watches malfunctioned and could not finish all of the tests except for one, the Omega Speedmaster.
NASA began to equip their astronauts in 1962 for the Gemini missions with a Speedmaster attached by a strap to the OUTSIDE of the astronauts’ suits. Omega executives saw NASA’s photos of the astronauts and realized that they were using their watches. This was quickly confirmed with a phone call to NASA. NASA then quickly announced that the Omega Speedmaster was the official watch to be used on their space missions. Realize that this was all done without Omega’s awareness.
Bulova, an American watchmaker, pressured congressmen who pressured NASA to allow for an open competition to include Bulova. NASA then allowed watchmakers to submit watches for evaluation. Once again, the Omega Speedmaster Professional was the only watch that passed all of NASA’s tests! Believe it or not, through constant pressure from Bulova, NASA again had to hold an open competition a third time in 1978, and AGAIN, the Omega Speedmaster was found to be the only acceptable watch. This is the stuff of legends!
What attributes do all of the current versions of the Speedmaster Pro (3570.50, 3573.50, 3576.50, etc) have?
1. Beautiful clear dial with luminous markers
2. Chronograph (timer)
3. 42.5 mm case size (good IMHO for wrists 6″ and above)
4. Classic looks from the original 1957 design (except for some special editions, including this particular version of the watch)
5. Wonderful manual wind mechanism with proven history of reliability
6. Water resistance of 50m or 167 feet (this is acceptable for “normal” use, but is certainly not intended to be a diver’s watch)
You should NOT buy any of these Speedmaster Pro models if you will be wanting to use this as a diving watch. Get a Seamaster 300M or Planet Ocean for that need.
As for its time keeping accuracy, most owners don’t mind it all. If you are very concerned with accuracy, then a mechanical watch, even if it is COSC certified, is probably not the right type of watch for you. A quartz watch will be significantly more accurate. I have heard that people’s experiences for the Speedmaster Pros range from -/+ of 0/0 -5/+15. It is not a certified chronometer by the COSC. This watch only needs to be wound every 1 or 2 days and its time adjusted about once every 1 or 2 weeks.
If you end up for some unexpected reason to not like the watch, realize that this watch has a phenomenally high resale value and is very easy to sell on various online auction sites.