This was announced a few days ago, but better pics are starting to show up. Here's a new Speedmaster that's really going to be hard to attain:


Just be one of the three winners for the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication and you get to own the first Speedmaster with an electric guitar on the caseback!

http://www.ablogtowatch.com/omega-s...chronograph-starmus-science-award-gold-watch/

 

Now that is a GORGEOUS special edition Speedy! I'm mostly a traditionalist, preferring a basic design. But this one is sharp, legible, and retains a lot of the classic look. If you ignore the gold color, that is.

If it wasn't a 3-off special edition, and was instead a regularly available model Speedy, what do you suppose the retail price would be?

 

wow

 

Stunning, I can only imagine we will see this with a normal NIAD caseback soon.

 

Wow!

 

Is this the first time a Speedy is the prize for this Medal? Stunning

 

The dial and mid-case appear identical to the regular production gold Speedmaster that was discontinued around 2012. I can't find an exact price but I think the full MSRP was around $14k USD?

Here's a pic from @Robert-Jan 's 2015 article on gold Speedmasters:

 

Can be had for about $9,000 in good condition

 

Isn't that the new midcase with the NIAD threading? Like the speedy Tuesday?

 

Ah, could be.

 

I don't believe that either this watch or the Speedy Tuesday use the NIAD system. These are traditional threaded case backs...

 

You're right, Omega probably would have put "NAIAD LOCK" prominently on the casebacks as they did with the ceramic POs. The original Speedy Tuesday article on Fratello states: "Although it is a screw-in caseback, it is always in the same fixed position in such way that the text is aligned (top starts at 12 o’clock) correctly." No mention of NAIAD, and I'm sure it would have been mentioned since that feature was one of the headlines when those POs came out.

So maybe they have found another, not yet patented way to align the caseback for aesthetic purposes.

 

Well Naiad in the new PO's just serves to align the caseback just like it is here. I could have sworn someone referred to it as Naiad at the launch.

The threading is different though, as it is always aligned.

 

Sort of...

The NAIAD on the new ceramic PO's is more about the difficulties in threading ceramic cases and case backs, and the risk of damage to either through overtightening, than it is for alignment. Note that the various "sides of the moon" watches have snap on case backs, but this would not sit well on a diver (see comments on recent Panerai releases for more on how well that went over). The Naiad case back in no way guarantees the alignment of the case back - it can go on in three different locations spaced at 120 degrees, so there's a 33.3% chance it will be done right I suppose.

Referring to the Speedy Tuesday, I see nothing on Omega's web site about the case being NAIAD, or that the case back always stays aligned. This looks like (other than LE engraving) to be a pretty basic Speedmaster case, with no special features like self-aligning case backs. You would think if Omega had found some way to keep things aligned, they would be shouting it from the rooftops, rather than not saying anything at all about it. Looking at the Extranet and the case breakdown for the Speedy Tuesday, it uses the same enlargement ring (movement spacer) that a regular Speedmaster does, same case back gasket, same anti-magnetic cover...if there is something different about this case (doubtful based on what I can see), it will be interesting to see what it is. My gut tells me they are fudging it to get it close, but the alignment won't be "perfect" as it would with a correctly installed NAIAD case back.

The ABTW article also says nothing about the case back being aligned on this gold watch - even if it did I think these are the guys that started the original rumour that the Cal. 3330 was based on the F. Piguet - took me months and months of correcting that on forums for people to finally get the fact it based on the ETA 7750. I take such information with a grain of salt on these blogs.

Cheers, Al

 

I remember someone on another forum years ago complaining that their cal. 1120 era SMP caseback wasn't aligned. The idea was thrown out there that Omega could get the alignment right if they first fitted the case with a "blank" caseback, tightened it, marked where it lines up at 12:00, then removed it and did the engraving/etching/text/ etc. Then refitting it with the same case, it should in theory always be close to perfectly aligned. The consensus was that it seemed like way too much effort for something very few people cared about.

Yes, I think anything regarding the specs of the Starmus watch is pure speculation until Omega releases something. The alignment in these images is could easily just be the result of typical marketing photoshop. I should clarify my earlier comment which sent us off on this tangent:

When I said "appear", I really meant that visually it has the same appearance from the front as the old production model. I never meant to imply that the actual part is the same. It very possibly is, or they may have tweaked it for any number of reasons. And the alignment of the caseback may be real or just photoshop work, and if it is really aligned we have no way of knowing at this point how they did it.

 

The caseback section of the FratelloWatches article announcing the Speedy Tuesday does mention something about it always being aligned, but as you say about the standard case and gaskets etc they might be fudging a little.

From the last line of the "Special Engravings" paragraph in the article:

Any idea how they might have done this?

 

The complaint I see most often is the logo on the crown. Not sure why people obsess about these things, but on a screw down crown to get this lined up (and more importantly keep it lined up) would be a huge technical challenge. To ensure that something lines up you would have to control the exact length of the threads, and there starting positions relative to the case and each other. In a screw down crown, there are typically 4 threads you would have to control - the case is internally threaded to attach the case tube. That case tube is externally threaded where it screws into the case, and also threaded where the crown screws on. The crown is also threaded where it screws to the case tube.

Now you would have to make every single case, case tube, and crown with tolerances close enough to ensure that when any of these three parts are changed, they would all line up. Not easy, and then as soon as you start to use the crown and gaskets start to compress, the positions can all change - not to mention if the stem is cut too long by a watchmaker and that restricts the depth that the crown can screw down to. It all seems very simple on the surface - if we can pout a man on the moon after all - but in practice would be a nightmare. This is why the Naiad case back is what I would refer to as a "bayonet" style attachment.

For the Speedy Tuesday I suspect they are doing what you suggested. Since these are LE's, so a small number of watches made, they can take each case set, install the case back, torque to a specific value, then locate it for the engraving. As long as they don't mix a case frame and case back in the process, the gasket is new, and the case back torque spec is met each time, then it should line up close. Of course if someone torques the case too little or too much, the position will change, but since most people don't mess with their case backs, once it's on and lined up, it should stay that way (more or less) at least until the first service.

So again nothing special here in terms of technology, just able to pay a bit more attention since it's small production for the LE. Until proven otherwise, that would be my SWAG.

Cheers, Al

 

If people didn't obsess I think WUS and TRF would collapse in on themselves! The crowns in particular seem to come up almost daily.

 

The speedy Tuesday does not feature the NAIAD lock, I got to handle one last week, I now regret not taking photos of the caseback but it is the traditional caseback. Anything featuring the NAIAD lock with have it written on the caseback.

 

At Wednesday's Omega Event at my local boutique, the rep was talking briefly about some of Omega's future plans. He said that in two years, all Omega watches would be anti-magnetic and they would all feature the NIAD back cases. For now, however, the only Omegas I have seen with the NIAD back is the ceramic Seamasters.