Hello all, I am new to Omega. I am a USAF Navigator/Combat Systems Officer. As a professional aviator, I have a real appreciation for good time pieces, but have always been into watches. With a recent promotion, I have recently gotten to a financial place where I can start buying high end time pieces. Before this, I had a bunch of inexpensive watches, the ones I still have are an old seiko my mom got me for high school graduation, a citizen ecodrive my wife bought me in college, a G-shock i used to use as my athletic watch, and a casio pro-trek Pathfinder my squadron issued me and I swapped a NATO on to(pictured below).



My first high end timepiece is this Breitling Transocean Chronograph Unitime I bought used after returning from my first deployment to celebrate how far I had come.









Latter got the mesh bracelet for wet and warm weather use





My wife and i just put our 5th anniversary gifts on layaway to pick up closer to our actual anniversary. And this is what brings me to Omega, we were looking at Omega's and Breitling's at a jewelry store and this caught my eye



Love the uber sporty look in contrast to the breitling. This will be a nice addition to the collection and the shop knocked 20% off the retail price which makes it a great value. This is also a watch that I wont mind taking in deployments and such as opposed to the extremely shiny/flashy breitling. Loving the contrast. Can't wait to bring it home!

My other hobbies include recreational shooting, cars (I autocross a 2001 Honda S2000), running (5k, 10k, and 1/2 marathon), hiking, and photography.

 

Welcome to the forum.... i'll be amazed if you can stop after the speedy....

 

Welcome aboard, That is a nice start to the collection

 

Is it wrong if I said I LOVE the Casio ? And yes the Breitling is also a beauty. my brother, also a Pilot, favored Breitling...I should say he was actually sponsored by them at a time when he was flying in the red bull air race. He also used to test new planes, commercial and otherwise and do some testing for NASA on pilot endurance and G suit development (until the last race or so Red Bull pilots endured over 12G with no suits) He also had a huge collection of mainly pilot watches, with some exceptions, now they are all safely waiting for his sons to be of age (my brother unfortunately passed on a training accident.) Anyway. Welcome to the forum and keep the wings on!!

 

Welcome! that's an interesting [design] CSAR unit patch! Good looking Breitling too I spent a few years working with your Brothers in Arms while assigned to the 32d AOS at RAB.

 

I enjoyed reading your post Bronx, thanks for sharing your story with us. I like the look of that Co-Axial Speedy racing edition in yellow also, but, I've seen others regret it after they buy it, whereas I've never seen anybody regret buying a Speedmaster Professional moonwatch. To me the question is: will this watch styling stand the test of time? I'm not trying to steer you away from it, just passing along that the last one that was for sale here in the forum took a long time to sell, so if you decide to flip it later keep that in mind. We know the Speedy Pro is a resounding "yes", it looks just a beautiful today as it did in the mid-60's. As for buying, there are some really good and trusted sellers here on the Omega Forums that can save you a lot over boutique or authorized dealer prices, if that is something of interest to you. Keep an eye on the for sale forums, and contact trusted sellers like @Kringkily and see what they have up their sleeve.

 

Sorry to hear about your brother.

Nothing wrong with loving the casio. It has a lot of useful survival features (barometer, sunrise/set, solar powered, compass, etc...) and will always be part of my kit while deployed.

 

Thank you, no worries, like you guys in the armed forces he made his choices and was at peace with the possible consequences. It's sad, for sure, but better than being run over by a car or, god forbid, shot by some random idiot.

 

I appreciate the concern, quite frankly, I looked at the pro, and while I really appreciate the heritage of the moonwatch, and all it represents, the watch itself just didn't speak to me the way a watch at this price point really needs to with my budget what it is. In reality, I wasn't even really looking at Omega at all until I started to see photos of other Speedmaster variants. When I saw this one in the store, I immediately liked it, it spoke the the auto racing enthusiast in me, much like the breitling spoke to the aviator in me. I tried it on and simply Loved how it looked on the wrist. Being that it is a 5th anniversary gift from my wife, it won't be flipped unless I am in dire straits.

 

can't beat a gut reaction like that. that's how I felt with the AT, which was never on my horizon. I went in to buy the smp 300, Master, tried it, didn't like it, then tried the AT Master and boom, I was instantly hooked.

 

Thanks! The patch is a common morale patch in the HC-130 community, I have also seen some Sandy qualified A-10 guys wear it. It isn't really unit specific, it it is a fun patch.