I am looking for a dress watch and am going between a DeVille and a Globemaster. What are the pluses and minuses I should be looking for? Thanks!
Big price difference is first. lol I was looking at a Prestige for my wife to be honest, the blue one, she's still debating on that or a FOIS.
Interesting this has popped up...I own a 2013 Deville Orbis Hour Vision (co-axial) and I have gone back and forth as to whether I should flip it for a blue dial Globemaster or keep the Hour Vision and buy the Globemaster. Comparison shots below (my Orbis shots are shit so I am using Nilo's/puristpro pic here and a Fratello Watches photo for the GM) I believe the Deville Prestige range is currently not Metas certified / does not have anti-magnetic technology. I personally don't like the Roman numerals on the Prestige dial, but that is subjective, of course. The NEW 2017 Orbis Hour vision is Metas certified and has a very interesting and unique sapphire case. I do think the blue dial Globemaster is currently Omega's best three hand SS watch with a date. So between a blue dial Deville Presitge and a blue dial Globemaster I would go for the Globemaster. I am not so keen on the white dial Globemaster. I do think the Globemaster is more versatile and sporty than the Prestige range. BTW @Longbow is the resident OF guru on Globemaster...I am sure he can provide some superb photos to motivate your decision And of course...try both watches on before you make your decision. The Globemaster in particular has to be seen live to appreciate the dynamic of the dial and bezel in different lighting angles. Good luck!
OK here are a few motivational photo links https://omegaforums.net/threads/spring-has-sprung-and-the-sun-is-shining.57174/ https://omegaforums.net/threads/globemaster-owners.37324/page-3 https://omegaforums.net/attachments/rio-nato-jpg.415048/ https://omegaforums.net/attachments/img_4689-jpg.386983/ https://omegaforums.net/attachments/img_1374-jpg.383555/ https://omegaforums.net/attachments/img_4457-jpg.374865/ https://omegaforums.net/attachments/img_1455-jpg.374879/ https://omegaforums.net/attachments/sinn-104-jpg.369234/ as for the pluses and minuses I'll have to give that some thought
In answer to thr pluses and minuses question…my thoughts on the Blue dial Omega Globemaster after (approximately) 18 month ownership I won’t bore you with the story of its acquisition, nor the crazy antics that I have got up to with my GM; rather I wanted to pull together some of the main observations, likes, dislikes and emotions that 18 months of contact with this watch have provoked. Maybe I should start by saying a few words about size, weight and other dimensional stuff. Considering a case diameter of 39mm, you would be forgiven for thinking that the Globemaster is a rather modest sized watch compared to Omega’s other offerings, but the dial represents a large part of that dimension (circa 30/31mm) with a feeling of a lot of open space between the inner tips of the hour markers, i.e. it looks bigger than it really is. From lug to lug it’s 46mm which is actually less than my latest acquisition, the ’57 LE Railmaster (48mm) although you wouldn’t believe it by just glancing at the two side-by-side. The GM is not a lightweight. With a sapphire crystal and sapphire display back mounted on a steel bracelet you are looking at a max weight of 162g. Each removable link in the bracelet is 2g alone. Speaking of which, these things are worth a closer inspection. They are not your ordinary oval, symmetrical affairs; almost every surface has a complex compound curve. Truly a miniature thing of beauty, much like the rest of the watch. Everywhere you look on the GM there are subtle design features for you to discover and keep you fascinated for months and years to come. So, back to weight, the GM is heavy. If you are not a fan of heavier watches then the GM on steel is probably not for you. Perhaps you should be thinking about the OEM leather strap and deployant buckle (95g) or looking more towards vintage Constellations, the one shown above far left comes in on the bracelet at a flyweight 80g! Case thickness at 13mm is, in my opinion rather thick, for any watch. I would have liked it to be a little slimmer so that it fits just a little easier under shirt cuffs with cuff-links. It does fit but it’s tight. Is the Globemaster a dress watch or a sports watch? I think it does most things well but it works a little better with the more casual look; jeans and a polo shirt perhaps. It is a watch that encourages you to chill out, dump the suit and tie and go get a cool beer at the beach bar or hang out at the night club. You might want to swap the leather strap for the bracelet before you go to the beach though. On the subject of bracelets I must confess that I made the classic Noob mistake of buying my Globemaster on the leather strap first and later adding the stainless steel bracelet. This is an expensive way to acquire any watch. In my defence, I actually didn’t find the bracelet very comfortable initially. The strap by contrast was surprisingly comfy; better than any other watch I have tried on leather. Something to note about the OEM Omega leather deployant strap is that it is shaped to fit the watch head and is not capable of being folded flat at the spring bar (as far as I can tell). So it is not ideal if you like to store your watches in those flat pouches. Back to that steel bracelet. If you put a Steel bracelet GM on and run your fingers over the watch head and bracelet you will have a smooth refined experience. The upper, outer edges of the bracelet and watch head are chamfered and polished. The bracelet links are really a precision piece of work with minimal gaps and tight tolerance; it’s a delight to look at and the feel matches the looks. However, this edge is not the one next to your skin. The lower edge of the bracelet seemed to me to be razor sharp. Why does Omega do this??? It’s exactly the same issue on my new LE Railmaster, but it’s especially frustrating on the Globemaster because there is a chamfered polished edge on the underside of the watch head that suggests this could have been carried through into the bracelet, just like it has been done from the upper side of the watch head. Anyway, I finally got round to buying the bracelet and had those sharp edges knocked off with an almost imperceptibly small but beneficial extra radius added to the outer links. Now the bracelet is super comfortable. Omega please note, I want to wear my watches on my wrist, not shave with them, so please dump the razor edge finish on the bracelets. One point to note; if you have a habit of doing dumb-ass shit like me, such as putting your GM on a rock next to waves washing over a sandy beach you are going to get lots of little sand corns in between the bracelet centre links….which will cause it to lock up in the most strange (unwearable) form. Still, easy enough to fix though with 100m water resistance; just dunk it under the water and slosh it around a bit. The “butterfly” clasp on the GM bracelet was the first that I had ever tried on an Omega, the others being sliding and or fold-over types. It seemed pretty fiddly initially but it soon became second nature to operate. The quality of construction and finish is first class. I can remember thinking a month or so ago (while trying on the latest Rolex Sub) that the way it snapped shut was somehow more convincing than on the Glidelock…which is already excellent. It’s also fairly low profile and well-formed compared to other clasps. If you trawl around OF for some of my earlier posts you will see that I have tried almost every conceivable strap and bracelet combination on my Globemaster. It’s seen blue leather (original), light brown, dark brown, an Omega deployant and a cheapy depolyant (which was crap by the way). It’s had to endure a Sinn 104 leather strap with a Citizen buckle (which was actually rather good) and even a non-Omega shark mesh bracelet as well as a Rio Olympics NATO “swim lane” strap. I’ll let you track down all the madness here at OF yourselves. Something I would like to point out though is that the gap between the central body of the watch head and the spring bar is quite small. The consequence of which is that not all straps / bracelets will fit. You can easily fit non-Omega thin NATOs to the GM, but the real Omega NATO straps are higher quality and a bit thicker which presents something of a challenge if you stick with the standard spring bars. The solution? Curved spring bars, which your Omega Boutique can supply. Be careful if you decide to do the crazy shark-mesh thing. I think it looks great in a rebellious sort of way, but if the mesh links are on the thick side they are going to scrub on the watch head in the middle (where the spring bar to case gap is smallest). Remember the controversial fluted bezel debate; “It’s a DateJust copy” vs “no, Omega were first” blah blah? Surprisingly I hardly notice the bezel anymore. I say surprisingly, because it was the feature that most attracted me to the GM initially. It put on a most entertaining “light show” under the Omega Boutique spot lights. But this isn’t so noticeable under natural lighting and is completely overshadowed by the next point that I will address below. What I can say though is that the Tungsten Carbide bezel has proved to be very robust. Despite my best (worst?) efforts to mess up my GM, the bezel is still scratch-free….which is far more than can be said for the rest of the watch. OK, now to the main selling point of the Globemaster – the dial design and colour. I’m not a journalist or professional writer, so this is the point where I get hugely frustrated as I don’t have the poetry and eloquence to convey just how fabulous the blue Globemaster dial is. It will change apparent colour from one moment to the next depending on orientation and lighting conditions. Sometimes it looks teal, sometimes black, sometime two dimensional then in the blink of an eye the three dimensional faceted “pie pan” reveals itself. It can appear uniformly matt and then suddenly with a small rotation of the wrist you see the sunburst brushed surface sending two rays of light in opposite directions across the dial like a gamma ray pulsar. 18 months on and I am still surprised at the huge spectrum of emotions this watch dial triggers. The GM isn’t a Top Trumps bragging rights tool, rather a watch you have to own and experience to understand and if you find yourself in that fortunate club you will quickly forget any thoughts about loss of value or lack of double red this or precious metal that and simple smile whenever you have cause to glance down at your wrist to check the time; which will be more often than not. Pricing and residual value is a bit of a moot point. Omega says the GM on a steel bracelet is worth 6300€ new. The grey market says otherwise. A good used one like mine can be had (in Germany) on Chrono24 for just 4200€ and unworn for 4500€, before you even start haggling. Will the price drop further? Probably, unless Omega artificially limits production numbers and starts hiking prices. As before, you can find many photos of the GM dial here at OmegaForums, so go hunting and enjoy! The Globemaster is a visceral delight, whatever the specifications may or may not reveal.
Great write up! Now I have to decide which kidney to sell. Seriously, though, this will likely be my next and last watch purchase.
F***ING BRILLIANT WRITE UP NICK @Longbow!!!! BEST GLOBEMASTER REVIEW EVER!!!!!! @Trev, @dsio, @cicindela I strongly suggest moving Nick's post to the OMEGA WATCH REVIEW section as a STICKY THREAD!!!!!
Yes it is nice , Nick is free to write a review and include what ever parts of his post he deems appropriate as well as create a fitting structure and then post it in the reviews section. His post here however, performs a function as well though and I am going to leave it.
Although it is more the dress watch of the two, I'm not a big fan of the Prestige. Its movement lacks the latest technology, and the dark-dialed versions are ruined in my opinion by the stark-white date wheel. I love the Globemaster, but... I too don't really consider it to be a dress watch, especially on the bracelet. So I'd echo Riviera's post, and draw your attention to what I feel is the most underrated/overlooked watch in Omega's current product lineup. The De Ville Hour Vision. Whether on bracelet or strap, light-dialed or dark, hour track or Roman numerals, it's is a gorgeous timepiece, the perfect showcase for Omega's 8500 movement. I own two, and recently wore my 431.30.41.21.02.001 while dressed to the nines on the occasion of my 50th birthday celebration in Las Vegas.
The Globemaster is like a datejust dress and casual. Although a nod that the Globe is a bit more dressy due to size. Which imho is perfect at 39mm.
I like both, think the prestige looks dressier. I'd wear the globemaster daily and the prestige at more formal settings.
I agree. @Riviera Paradise, it was posted here to answer the specific questions from @Shailor. I've cross-linked to here from another thread, so moving it would break the logic. I'm curios about the comment "create a fitting structure"; is there something specific you would like to see done differently or added? Any pointers to another review that has an optimal structure would be appreciated. I'm up for preparing a proper review, but there are a few members here who could surely add more interesting content to such a review. Maybe a team effort is called for. @w.finkenstaedt or @munichblue might like to add something I missed.
You've gotten so much advice here, who am I to add?! But, here goes anyway... I'm really smitten with the Globemaster and if it's a "dress" watch you're after, I think that this is the most grown up choice in the catalog. I have sadly dainty wrists myself, but when I tried it on, even with the steel bracelet, it felt great. I like it because of its spiritual and aesthetic connections to the grandad of them all, the Constellation (née Globemaster) and those old timey pie pan dials. I really dig the GM design: the date window at 6 like some 50's era Seamasters; sober, but the dial in blue reads really fresh to me. More than fresh, the Globemaster is bracing when you talk price! Ouch. If that is a factor, I would definitely go for the Aqua Terra. It fits nice on a skinny wrist, it's a little less dressy, but on a leather band, it would be great. You might even try to score an unsold vertical plank model when an AD is liquidating stock to make way for the new horizontal plank design. If you don't get either of those, I would probably go vintage for a dress watch then. They're definitely a more manageable size and the old Omegas are really classy pieces!
Oh wow... you wouldn’t need to worry about a tungsten bezel getting damaged, you would worry about it damaging other items Great write-up.
I own both the DeVille Orbis and the blue-dialed Globemaster. Very different watches and love them both just as much. Interestingly, bought the Globemaster over a 39mm Rolex oyster perpetual (blue dial with green dots which I absolutely hated). Indoor lightning picture but you can see the two side-by-side. You can't really miss with either, but most people will prefer the Globemaster over the Hour Vision. The DeVille range isn't particularly popular in Western countries, while the pie-pan dial appeals to a lot of persons.
Interesting...side by side the Orbis Hour Vision looks 20th century old school in a cool "hipster" way and the Globemaster looks like a sleek 21st century design with the angular lugs and steel bracelet.... (Not my wrist shot BTW) This is my "secret agent" shot...