Omega Announces The Seamaster 37 Milano Cortina For The 2026 Winter Olympics
A 37mm shout-out to Omega’s history at the Olympics – and to some of its own most iconic designs.
Omega became the official timekeeper for the Olympic Games all the way back in 1932, and for the next edition of the Winter Olympics – to be held in Milan, and Cortina d’Ampezzo – it’s announced its first 2026 Olympics timepiece. The Olympics watches and timers produced by Omega over the years have been just about every type of timekeeper you can imagine, from mechanical to very high tech modern electronic timing equipment, mechanical and quartz wristwatches, and both simple and complicated watches. For the Seamaster 37 Milano Cortina 2026, Omega’s produced a watch that takes its design cues from a Seamaster produced for the 16th Olympic Games in Melbourne (which is about as far from Milano as you can get, but I don’t think anyone who sees the result is going to complain).
That watch was created in 1956, and Omega revisited the design in 2008 for the Beijing Olympics. The Seamster 37 Milano Cortina is the first Winter Olympics 2026 watch from Omega (the next Summer Olympics are scheduled for Los Angeles in 2028) and it is in its aesthetics a startlingly beautiful descendant of its predecessors.
From a design standpoint Omega very much went with an if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it approach. At first glance, this is a watch that could have come via time machine from 1956. The case at 37mm x 11.5mm is very much in the vintage watch range, and the uncluttered dial has all the restraint and lack of superfluous ornamentation found in the preceding models as well (and for that matter, in vintage Seamasters in general which although they were billed as watches for “sportsmen” were also, in many instances prior to the SCUBA era, very much plausible dress watches as well). In fact, it’s got a cleaner dial than either of the preceding Seamasters to which it’s related – no “cross of merit” as seen on a rare number of Seamaster XVI watches, and no Roman numerals indicating the number of the Games. In fact, the dial side of the watch has no overt Olympics badging or other design features at all. The dauphine hands and faceted hour markers are familiar elements to vintage Omega enthusiasts as is the hexagonal crown.
What really sells the watch from a design standpoint are the “dogleg” style lugs. These are some of the nicest lugs in the business – I think they’re some of the most attractive in the history of wristwatches, period – and they’re a wonderful distinguishing feature of vintage Omega Constellations as well. Often such lugs on vintage watches are the worse not only for wear but for polishing as well, with the geometry of the lugs softened and blurred, but these lugs are as crisp as you please and really show off the appeal of the original design.
The only Olympic branding to be found is on the caseback. My first reaction was that it was a bit of a shame that you can’t see the movement but this is after all an Olympics watch and if there is going to be Olympics branding on it, I’d rather have it on the caseback if in exchange we get that lovely clean dial.
This is of course, a modern watch, and here’s where we find the Milano Cortina 37mm really differentiates itself from its predecessors. The case, hands, and dial markers are Omega’s proprietary Sedna Gold alloy, which is a type of rose or red gold with a bit of palladium added in order to help prevent oxidation of the copper which gives rose gold its color. The water resistance is 100M, in keeping with the aquatic legacy of the Seamaster line, and the watch is Master Chronometer certified, running the automatic co-axial caliber 8807.
Price at launch is $19,300 and while this is a “special edition” it is not actually a limited edition, at least insofar as an exact limit on the number produced has not been announced.
This is kind of a no-brainer if you like this sort of design at all – it’s basically everything you would want from a perfectly preserved vintage Olympic Seamaster (or, if you want to stretch the point, a vintage Constellation) but with reliable modern gaskets, a highly accurate reliable modern movement with its own interesting history (the co-axial escapement, as nobody needs to be reminded but it’s still worth mentioning, is the only modern escapement other than the lever to be successfully industrialized for large scale production although the Grand Seiko dual impulse escapement is starting to get up there). Naturally not everyone who loves these design cues and technical features is in the market for this particular watch but there are an awful lot of us who’d love to see a dogleg lug Seamaster or Connie, in this size, in steel and with perhaps a pie-pan dial, since we’re indulging in a little wishful thinking. In the meantime this is one of the most attractive Olympic watches Omega’s ever made, and on top of that – if the fired enamel dial, crisp case geometry, and size float your boat – one of the most attractive watches in Omega’s present catalog.
The Omega Seamaster Milano Cortina 37 2026, ref. 522.53.37.20.04.001: Case, 100M water resistant, 37mm x 11.5mm, in Sedna Gold; movement, Omega co-axial caliber 8807, 55 hour power reserve, with Sedna gold rotor and arabesque Geneva stripes. Non-limited special edition for the 2026 Winter Olympics; price at launch, $19,300. The 1916 Company is proud to be an authorized Omega retailer; ask us about this reference for availability and more info.