Another moonwatch? Predicting what Omega will release at Basel 2010 is a bit more difficult than trying to predict what Rolex will bring to the show. Omega's line-up is less streamlined than Rolex, and so it is much harder to try to guess what they will do.Might we see another Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch limited edition. Omega has released plenty of limited edition moon watches in the past. In 2009 released the 40th Anniversary Limited Edition, and the year before that, the Alaska project, and so one and so forth. On the other hand, they also capable of pulling a rabbit out of the hat and surprise us with something like the Ploprof released in 2009.
Omega Seamaster PloprofBut we think, 2010 will be fairly interesting for Omega. Omega has started migrating it watches to in-house movements, now represented by the Caliber 8500 & 8600 movements. This Caliber movement which first appeared in the Omega Hour vision in 2007, and in the updated Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra in 2008. This watch was slow to hit the market, and I did not see my first actual sample until early 2009. Maybe Omega was not able to produce its Calibre 8500 in large quantities? We do not really know. More perplexing to us, if a banner release in 2007, to fa mainstream watch in 2008... the Omega Caliber 8500 was almost missing in 2009. We did see this movement go into the Ploprof in 2009, but that is a watch intended for a limited market.
Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra
We expect 2010 to be the year Omega continues to expand it line-up of watches with its Caliber 8500 movement inside. It is only a question of which line-up it goes into. And we think this is not too difficult to figure out. The next recipient of the Caliber 8500 movement will be the Omega's Seamaster Professional line-up. Composed two generations of watches, with sword and skeleton hands, co-axial and non co-axial movements this line-up of watches is starting to look like a rag-tag collection of watches, and gives you the impression that Omega is just trying to finish of its existing parts. The Omega Seamaster Professional also lost its one important marketing status as the "James Bond" watch, to its bigger brother, the Planet Ocean.
Omega Seamaster Professional 300m
Omega Seamaster Aqua TerraWe expect 2010 to be the year Omega continues to expand it line-up of watches with its Caliber 8500 movement inside. It is only a question of which line-up it goes into. And we think this is not too difficult to figure out. The next recipient of the Caliber 8500 movement will be the Omega's Seamaster Professional line-up. Composed two generations of watches, with sword and skeleton hands, co-axial and non co-axial movements this line-up of watches is starting to look like a rag-tag collection of watches, and gives you the impression that Omega is just trying to finish of its existing parts. The Omega Seamaster Professional also lost its one important marketing status as the "James Bond" watch, to its bigger brother, the Planet Ocean.
Omega Seamaster Professional 300mBut we do not think it is the end of this line-up of watches. The Planet Ocean is too big for many wrists, and the Seamaster Professional will fill the need for a sporty mass market mid-size watch. We expect to see a new Seamaster Professional line-up this March.
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