Hot Takes: Speedmaster Moonwatch 321 “Ed White”/“Cernan” in Stainless Steel (2020)

cvalue13

This isn’t the first Omega in outer space (the Ed White); this watch is the last Speedy on the Moon (the Cernan)

64Wing

Gene would've preferred the term "most recent" as opposed to "last." He told me as much when I met him. He dislike being known as the "last man on the moon." He believed that phraseology suggested that we'd never go back and he just couldn't stomach it.

A remarkable gentleman.

cvalue13

Sapphire Omega Logo = Laser Beams in Your Dreams

Speaking of the sapphire crystal vs hesalite: Omega did not want to lose the tiny, romantic logo that is typically stamped in the center of hesalite crystals, so they used a special laser technique on the sapphire.

Specifically, the laser-sapphire logo found on the Cernan 321B is not laser-etched into the surface of the sapphire as one might expect, but instead the laser is used to etch the logo within the depth of the sapphire (that is, the etch is ‘suspended’ within the center thickness of the sapphire).

In a video by an Omega product manager, there is the suggestion that the Cernan reference is the first time this specific technique has been used on a sapphire Omega. While other sapphire Omega’s in the past have had the tiny logo, the suggestion by this representative – to my ear – was that those priors had been surface etched, while the Cernan used the “latest in laser technology” for a newfangled approach.

In any event, here is a detail and then also microscopic photo of the Cernan laser logo (please someone with a prior model’s sapphire logo provide a comparison microscopic picture!)

B bruin20

I’m referring to the 9 and 10 hour markers under macro. They seem to be closer to the 44 and 49 minute markers and to the 46 and 51 minute markers.

B bruin20

As if the dial was rotated 1 to 2 degrees between printing the white portions and printing the cream portions.

padders

This is etched on the inside. I really should have dusted the crystal but there you go! For the NEW (see what I did there 😉) It looks like Omega have utilised the Rolex crystal trick using focused laser dots at different heights within the crystal to make their coronet logo so its new for Omega but not completely novel

cvalue13

Very observant, and just the OCD thing for this thread!

padders

am still not fully persuaded by the Cernan connection as a basis for naming. One of the the two models used by him was exactly the same as that immortalised by Ed White so it already has a name, it's just another example of the same.

padders

Be aware that Omega have tried to monetise the Cernan 'Last Man on the Moon' thing before and it wasn't universally well received:

cvalue13

Reminding first we’re now squarely in the realm of two dudes just shooting the breeze and with nothing at all at stake here:

My personal tick is that this watch is not an example of an Ed White, insofar as it is neither the same vintage, the same reference number, nor (technically) containing the same caliber. So, there seems to me a factual distinction between what until December 2019 was forever called an “Ed White,” and this new reference.

To say otherwise would be to call the modern FOIS “another example” of a CK 2998.

But despite our differences on the above view, we both seem to agree that it just doesn’t do to call it simply “Ed White,” or “cal.321,” or “new cal.321.” Otherwise, if I say “I just bought an Ed White,” or “just bought a cal.321” or “just bought a new cal.321” we don’t know if I bought a 105.003, a vintage sea master, or even the modern platinum big-body released in 2019.

I suppose “New Ed White” suffices, though to me still lacks a certain distinction or accuracy. I can’t deny it’s an improvement over the current state of affairs.

Whatever naming may be given, I do separately think it helpful to better observe the distinction between the cal.321, 321A, and 321B - the latter being the revived (and differing) incarnation.



😵‍💫 Wonder why?

While I finish my third cup of coffee, one last thought experiment:

The ST 105.012’s colloquial nickname is pretty universally the “pre-moon.”

Let’s say that Aldrin’s long lost ST 105.012 was recovered, and in celebration Omega used that watch to create a hologram-magic model of the cal.321 in engineering the movement’s resurrection, as well as magic-modeling of Aldrin’s watch case to create an altogether new homage reference styled after Aldrin’s watch that had been the first on the moon.

Would we call that new, modern reference the “new pre-moon”?

I’m equally unsure we’d call it the “Aldrin.” 😵‍💫

Perhaps we follow the “FOIS” example, and go with “LOOM” (latest Omega on Moon). 😁

padders

I am still not fully persuaded by the Cernan connection as a basis for naming.

cvalue13

I’d expect this little of change to be well within Omega’s view of its tolerances.

cvalue13

As it leaves your lips, I’m an instant convert.

The Cernan 321B is an homage to Cernan’s own watch, “the most recent Omega on the moon” 😉

Now THAT’s a caseback engraving I could get behind 😁

cvalue13

There’s really no good way to make certain the camera is directly parallel and square to the dial (put differently, with the smallest of camera movements I could make the needle appear to be a full needle width in either direction).

M'Bob

, “You have a certain watch?”

M'Bob

And, whilst (thanks to my British friends for that one...) we are discussing these things in excruciating detail...

M'Bob

I find the new crown too highly polished and chrome-plated appearing, compared to the original,