Limited-Edition Moonwatch from Omega and Swiss Sailing Team Alinghi
A new Speedy Tuesday charter takes the model into new territory.
Despite being no stranger to sailing, Omega has deep ties to the ocean that go deeper than ever before. In addition to continuing a partnership with Emirates Team New Zealand, the brand has announced that it will serve as the official timekeeper of the highly anticipated America's Cup in 2021.
As part of the Volvo Ocean Race, the hardest and longest endurance race in the world, Omega introduced the Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean Deep Black.
In honor of the America's Cup, Omega released the 36th America's Cup Limited Edition Seamaster Planet Ocean equipped with the Master Chronometer Caliber 8900 and a blue ceramic diving bezel and a red ceramic 5-minute counter, which are designed specifically for sailing competitions. Only 2,021 pieces of the 43.5 mm limited edition are available for $7,050 each.
The Omega Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon Alinghi ($10,800) is the result of a collaboration between the brand and the Swiss sailing syndicate Alinghi.
In spite of the fact that Alinghi owner and double America's Cup winner, Ernesto Bertarelli, announced his team would not attend the Auckland regatta in 2021, this collaboration is a bit of a surprise. In 2003, the Alinghi crew won the cup against New Zealand, representing the Swiss yacht club Société Nautique de Genève.
New Zealand publication Stuff reports that his main reason for deciding to not compete is his disdain for this year's monohull boats, which he called "catamarans dressed as monohulls," according to Italian newspaper La Stampa. In his opinion, the redesign of the boats was turning the race into an engineering contest rather than one between sailors, he said.
Additionally, Omega’s partnership with a sailing team highlights the watch’s history with the space program, the Dark Side of the Moon. However, the brand managed to work in a five-minute timer into the sundial on the right in keeping with classic regatta pieces. As boats jockey for the best position in the water, the five-minute countdown before the start of a yachting race is crucial.
The caliber 1865 also makes its debut in the Dark Side of the Moon (based on the Moonwatch caliber 1861 used in the hand-wound Dark Side of the Moon Apollo 8 chronograph from 2018). In order to create a honeycomb effect on the main plate and barrel bridge, Alinghi's new TF35 catamaran's carbon hull was engraved on the main plate and barrel bridge in order to create a similar effect. Through the caseback, you can see the impressive architecture that is visible from the black carbon bridges with the same decoration used for the black carbon bridges.
The zirconium oxide ceramic case measures 44.5 mm in diameter, with a ceramic bezel displaying the speed of the watch in miles per hour, but the size of the zirconium oxide ceramic case has been reduced from 16.14 mm to 13.80 mm, making it a more wearable watch on the wrist.
This watch features the Alinghi logo as a prominent feature on the subdial at 6 o'clock, which is sandblasted and anodized in red with a red anodized finish. When the chronograph is activated, the logo of the watch will rotate to resemble two boats swirling around each other at sea. The stop/start pushers are also decorated with the logo in red as well. This design takes inspiration from the letter "a".
It is a well-designed watch that has subtle nods to the collaboration while highlighting its technical details, making it more appealing to people outside of the niche market for yachting enthusiasts. Whether you like it or not, the speedster was invented before the golden era of America's space exploration, so bringing it back down to earth wouldn't be totally out of character for the speedster.
