Hands-On With The New 2024 Omega Speedmaster FOiS (First Omega in Space)

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I tried it on at an Omega Boutique but found that telling the time is almost impossible so it was a pass for me. Went with the regular Moonwatch instead.
 
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I tried it on at an Omega Boutique but found that telling the time is almost impossible so it was a pass for me. Went with the regular Moonwatch instead.
All are great choices. Did you get the original black or a white one?
 
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I like my white one the best. Of my three 3861's. The only complaint I have with my FOIS is the hour hand is too shiny and in some light it's hard to read.
Completely agree that the hands are too shiny, they blur right into the background. Honestly having regrets that picked it up over a vintage speedmaster, exploring some of the stepped dials for a possible trade now.
 
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Well, in their defense, it is an OmegaSpeedmaster and this is the Omega forum 😉
And I am an Omega fanboy owning a Speedmaster, albeit with a non-typical dial.
 
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The FOIS is hard to read. The hands are too shiny against the dark dial. Still gorgeous though.
I decided to change out the hands with 321 hands kit (067PP00395) based on Sam Tamborello's recommendation. I think they are perfect.

 
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I decided to change out the hands with 321 hands kit (067PP00395) based on Sam Tamborello's recommendation. I think they are perfect.


Looks great
 
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I decided to change out the hands with 321 hands kit (067PP00395) based on Sam Tamborello's recommendation. I think they are perfect.

Looks good, but I'm not into modifying them. If I wanted that look, I'd buy a 321.
Edited:
 
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I decided to change out the hands with 321 hands kit (067PP00395) based on Sam Tamborello's recommendation. I think they are perfect.

If you are happy with it, cool. But the lume on the hands not matching the lume on the dial would bug me.
 
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If you are happy with it, cool. But the lume on the hands not matching the lume on the dial would bug me.
For me it was about the legibility of the hands. I wasn't happy with the polished ones that came with it. Some may find it sacrilege to modify the watch from its original factory spec but it just didn't work for me.
 
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Never really had a massive problem with legibility. In lower light it can be a bit difficult but a flick of the wrist and all is well. I bought the black strap for it today. Very pleased with it, and even my wife who does not like black straps, agreed it looked better than the brown
 
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For me it was about the legibility of the hands. I wasn't happy with the polished ones that came with it. Some may find it sacrilege to modify the watch from its original factory spec but it just didn't work for me.
Not really, you are turning a 2998-3 into a 2998-62 so it has precedence but I too would want the hands tinted to match the dial lume.
 
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Walter Wally Schirra's personal space-flown Omega Speedmaster CK2998-4 chronograph on display at Omega museum in Bienne Switzerland.
Photo: MoonwatchUniverse
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For me it was about the legibility of the hands. I wasn't happy with the polished ones that came with it. Some may find it sacrilege to modify the watch from its original factory spec but it just didn't work for me.
I can’t understand that logic, as I personally wouldn’t spend that kind of money on a watch unless I was happy with 99.9% of it. There are just too many options out there. I always liked the idea of owning a Black Bay 58, but I never warmed up to their snowflake hands. So, when a blue dial version fell into my lap through a larger trade, I sold it as soon as I could, even though I loved everything else about it.
 
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Great take - I'm not with you on some of it, but I love the more forthcoming responses and would love it if we had more of them in here.

We all have different opinions, likes, etc and variety is the spice of watch life!
Okay then, here goes: the totally disparate hour and minute hands on the new FOIS seem completely incongruous to me. The minute hand should have enough lume on it to “balance” what’s on the hour hand. They’re so different it’s jarring. Plus they’re too shiny and often illegible. Otherwise, the rest of the watch looks great.

What is it with Omega consistently “under luming” the minute hand on so many watches? There is only lume on the arrowhead of the AquaTerra minute hand, as often discussed here, and the weak lume on the 300M minute hand is the first thing to fade/disappear. A crazy, but very easily corrected, design flaw.

Please don’t crush me. These are only my opinions.
 
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Okay then, here goes: the totally disparate hour and minute hands on the new FOIS seem completely incongruous to me. The minute hand should have enough lume on it to “balance” what’s on the hour hand. They’re so different it’s jarring. Plus they’re too shiny and often illegible. Otherwise, the rest of the watch looks great.

What is it with Omega consistently “under luming” the minute hand on so many watches? There is only lume on the arrowhead of the AquaTerra minute hand, as often discussed here, and the weak lume on the 300M minute hand is the first thing to fade/disappear. A crazy, but very easily corrected, design flaw.

Please don’t crush me. These are only my opinions.
But look at the real thing that SpeedyPhill posted. The new one has the same hands as that one except for the seconds hand. So they stayed true to the original. I love mine, but as I said before it’s hard to read sometimes.
 
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I saw this watch at an OB back in early October while traveling. Could’ve purchased, but it wasn’t my normal OB… Fast forward to yesterday, I was visiting my regular OB, and saw it again. Had to have it! It’s a great compliment to the White Speedy. Loving the bracelet so far. In terms of legibility- I find a slight “tilt towards the light” is all it takes to read the watch. It’s not nearly as legible as other models, but for what this thing is- it’s fine with me!

 
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I saw this watch at an OB back in early October while traveling. Could’ve purchased, but it wasn’t my normal OB… Fast forward to yesterday, I was visiting my regular OB, and saw it again. Had to have it! It’s a great compliment to the White Speedy. Loving the bracelet so far. In terms of legibility- I find a slight “tilt towards the light” is all it takes to read the watch. It’s not nearly as legible as other models, but for what this thing is- it’s fine with me!

My thoughts exactly.
 
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What is it with Omega consistently “under luming” the minute hand on so many watches? There is only lume on the arrowhead of the AquaTerra minute hand, as often discussed here, and the weak lume on the 300M minute hand is the first thing to fade/disappear. A crazy, but very easily corrected, design flaw.

I could not agree more on the Aqua Terra minute hand. It drives me nuts. The tip of the minute hand blends in with the indices at first glance. And it is so easily corrected by Omega.

And don't get me started on the lack of micro-adjustment with the bracelet.

I'd like to sit down with Omega CEO Raynald Aeschlimann and ask, do you guys even wear these watches in real life?
 
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If you mess up the DON insert I guess they replace it with a new DON at service… What if you service a vintage watch, do you get a new DON now?