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colonel
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I love a random thought walk on the purchase of a new watch, however it is unusual for me to feel I am wearing one of the great watches of the world. The Omega 300m titanium feels like it can easily be an endpoint watch. The sexy look, understatement, lightness, comfort, rugged nature, and iconic presence, well since 1993.
Iconography normally comes with a price. The 300m titanium is one of the few watches that after handing over an unreasonable amount of money, continues with that good feeling. I am now eyeing watches in the collection that need to go. As they say: buy cheap, buy twice …
It is an unusual watch for me to like. It has no date, no display back (despite having a decorated movement), sepia brown hands and pips on a dark brown dial, and an aluminium bezel. It has things I don’t need, like a helium escape value. I was going to write 15,000 gauss resistance, but actually this is very useful in today’s obstacle course of electronic magnetic fields. I also could have said the 8900 for the double barrel, but this adds weight and an extra 1mm - although the 300mT could handle it.
The look is unusual but familiar at the same time, and all the individual design and colour choices gel. The 300mT would be nothing without the escape value, dodecagon bezel, wire hands and twisted lugs.
The titanium 300mT comes with other advantages over the standard 300m, it is thinner for example. Of course the number one thing is that the weight is a joke. When I first tried it on many years ago I thought its not enough weight for the money! but after wearing the new no-date steel 300m with a mesh bracelet, which BTW is already noticeably lighter than the standard 300m bracelet, it is amazing how further lightness can go with the titanium. It is addictive. After wearing it for a short amount of time, when I try on a steel watch, it feels like a real imposition.
The mesh bracelet is of course more comfortable then any oyster, multilink or beads of rice bracelet, simply as it drapes more around the wrist. The fact that it drops vertically form the lugs also helps. The effective links are around 1-1.5mm, compared to say a small jubilee at about 3mm. Confusingly, or usefully, Omega provides three sizes of titanium bracelet. I ended up buying the small bracelet. I have a 6.75 “ wrist, and in “summer sweaty wrist expansion” mode I am on the second last hole, which is perfect. The standard bracelet also fitted, coincidentally on the second smallest position. We all demand adjustable clasps these days, but a strap has always had the best adjustable system, just by changing holes. The metal mesh bracelet combines the benefits of both the strap and bracelet worlds.
I can talk about the large lume filled pips (blue lume on everything except the minute hand, which is green), the cool lumed bezel, the iconic hands, the matt brown dial, the matt brown bezel, the sepia fonts, but all of this fades into a single cohesive entity whilst wearing, and still provides great, but not awesome, clarity.
In some ways the 300m titanium is the ultimate laid back daily wear. Admiring comments and respect from onlookers, but fading after a metre’s distance.
For those that like desk diving, this is an experience to savour.
BTW I haven't mentioned Ian Fleming's creation - trying to avoid it to be honest 😁, but if you want to see Ian Flemings finest hour, I recommend "Operation mincemeat".
