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Breaking Story - Omega Caliber 321 Is Back In Production!
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gostang9
路Doesn't it advertise itself?
At least in the west I'd say the manual wind Speedmaster and the Seamaster 300 are the two pillars.
The xSOTM watches, yes. Bond watches, yes. Speedy Pro, I often have to search to even find it. When I first came to OF I knew nothing about the Speedmaster Pro. I think the OF echo-chamber leads us to believe it's much more prominent in the broader watch buying public than might actually be reality...
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Davidt
路Not if OB/AD displays are any indication.
I love straying by any Omega counter when I see them (in cities, at airports) and I have never seen any Speedy Pro displayed prominently.
The xSOTM watches, yes. Bond watches, yes. Speedy Pro, I often have to search to even find it. When I first came to OF I knew nothing about the Speedmaster Pro. I think the OF echo-chamber leads us to believe it's much more prominent in the broader watch buying public than might actually be reality...
Maybe that's true. I'm not really up to date with modern Omegas.
Given the history of the Speedmaster with Gemini and Apollo I'm assuming Omega would be looking for ways (and have possibly found one), to make the Speedmaster Pro a premium product in their line up.
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i20rider
路Ooooohh shiiiit
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Archer
路路Omega Qualified WatchmakerAs usual, a hornets nest of different opinions, compliments and criticisms. I don't know how many times I have read on OF 'bring back the 321' ... so to me the biggest take from this whole resurrection is this : Omega actually reads this forum and gives folks what they want. They give a damn about our community.
There鈥檚 no doubt they read this and other forums, but I doubt the decision had anything to do with them caring about this community or giving any specific group what they want. This might have been a small part of their market research, but that鈥檚 all.
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abrod520
路What makes you think the Speedy Promis the flagship model? It鈥檚 barely used at all in advertising.
I see a lot of advertising for the Pro, though that may be due to the tie-in with First Man etc. But there's more about the Speedmaster Professional as a model than any other single model
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arcadelt
路Interesting that the 50th Anniversary Apollo 11 Speedmaster commemorates the 145.022-69 which was the initial use (1968 actually) of the 861 movement. I would have thought that a 321 would have been reintroduced earlier but better late, or illogical, than never.
I've always been under the impression that only one watch on the Apollo XI made it to the moon, and that was a 105.012, so isn鈥檛 that the primary reference that is being celebrated?
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gemini4
路路Hoarder Of Speed et aliaI've always been under the impression that only one watch on the Apollo XI made it to the moon, and that was a 105.012, so isn鈥檛 that the primary reference that is being celebrated?
Very true
Here鈥檚 an early example. 105.012-63, tritium lume but no TTs on dial
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gostang9
路I see a lot of advertising for the Pro, though that may be due to the tie-in with First Man etc. But there's more about the Speedmaster Professional as a model than any other single model
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WatchWalker
路Do we think this is going into a 50th Anniversary Moon watch? It would seem to make sense.
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rohnin
路It won't.
Which is very disappointing and makes no sense
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abrod520
路I'm curious to know where. You must be exposed to different media than me... Newspaper? Magazines? Online? TV? in a big city?
Social media mainly, since I don't consume watch-related content on other platforms. Though I did see a bunch of TV spots and poster (in airports etc) ads for the Speedmaster during, again, the First Man tie-in
Again though, the only other advertising I've seen from Omega (at all) are their standard campaigns - Bond, golf, Her Time etc. But the Speedmaster seems to be the only single model they actually advertise consistently, rather than model lines or tie-ins
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eugeneandresson
路Just some things from Mr Monanchon at today鈥檚 fantastic Speedytuesday GTG:
I asked Mr Monanchon about cal 321 part fitment and availability, and his opinion was new parts will fit vintage watches, and parts will be available to Omega certified watchmakers (the parts network). However, only in a year+ will we see any new watches with 321鈥檚...and there will only be 1000 to max 2000 produced per year. They hope to have final production movements by beginning 2020 and hope to have the first new 321 watches by end 2020. He also mentioned there will be 2 watches...
But as usual, what will happen will be when it happens, so a dash of salt might be required.
I asked Mr Monanchon about cal 321 part fitment and availability, and his opinion was new parts will fit vintage watches, and parts will be available to Omega certified watchmakers (the parts network). However, only in a year+ will we see any new watches with 321鈥檚...and there will only be 1000 to max 2000 produced per year. They hope to have final production movements by beginning 2020 and hope to have the first new 321 watches by end 2020. He also mentioned there will be 2 watches...
But as usual, what will happen will be when it happens, so a dash of salt might be required.
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Archer
路路Omega Qualified WatchmakerI asked Mr Monanchon about cal 321 part fitment and availability, and his opinion was new parts will fit vintage watches, and parts will be available to Omega certified watchmakers (the parts network).
His "opinion"?
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BlackTalon
路路This Space for Rentbut it is already well past the beginning of 2019. Should that be 2020?
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eugeneandresson
路but it is already well past the beginning of 2019. Should that be 2020?
Fixed thanks. Been a long couple of days...
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eugeneandresson
路His "opinion"?
Poor choice of words on my behalf. They鈥檒l fit.
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SpeedyPhill
路馃嵖 ...
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Longbow
路Was at the same event and remember the question. I wrote down: August production for Xmas delivery 2019 or early 2020.
Jean-Claude gave an interesting presentation about the various methods they used to re-create the 321 (tomography, reference to original drawings etc), so it shouldn鈥檛 be a big surprise that the new parts are interchangeable with the original ones. He did mention that some parts were particularly difficult to re-create...all watchmaker jargon at that point so I didn鈥檛 catch which ones specifically.
Jean-Claude gave an interesting presentation about the various methods they used to re-create the 321 (tomography, reference to original drawings etc), so it shouldn鈥檛 be a big surprise that the new parts are interchangeable with the original ones. He did mention that some parts were particularly difficult to re-create...all watchmaker jargon at that point so I didn鈥檛 catch which ones specifically.
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Archer
路路Omega Qualified WatchmakerHe did mention that some parts were particularly difficult to re-create...all watchmaker jargon at that point so I didn鈥檛 catch which ones specifically.
Not so much watchmaker jargon, as marketing jargon. From a watchmaking perspective, there's nothing particularly difficult in this movement for Omega to make, considering that a version of this movement was being made for Breguet up until recently. They are intentionally making this sound much more difficult than it is....and to me that means they have $$$$ in their eyes...
