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Omega Celebrates 75 Years of Seamaster

Omega goes deep with eight new thematic models.

Griffin Bartsch8 Min ReadJune 27 2023

When Omega dropped the world’s first dive watch into Lake Geneva in 1932, I don’t know if they understood what they were starting. But from the moment the Omega Marine reached 73 meters deep and came back up working, Omega has been associated with water resistance. Over the next 16 years, Omega became a trusted supplier to the British Ministry of Defence, and through them, a trusted supplier to countless soldiers — all while pushing the water resistance and robustness of their watches further.

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Omega made good on this faith when, in 1948, they introduced the very first Omega Seamaster. Built using all the expertise they had gained during the war, the first Omega Seamasters were not dive watches like we would come to know them, but instead were thoughtfully designed daily-wear dress watches, not unlike the Aqua Terra line we know today. That didn’t mean they were any less capable than their military-issued predecessors. In fact, when Gordan McLean made his record-breaking 62.5-meter dive off the coast of Australia in 1955, he did it with a Seamaster on his wrist.

Everything changed in 1957 when, in one of Omega’s most significant moments, they released their trilogy of iconic tool watches — the Railmaster, the Speedmaster, and the Seamaster 300, the first Omega that fit the mold of a modern dive watch. In the over 65 years since that moment, Omega has never stopped pursuing improvements in its dive watches.

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From the PloProf in 1971, to the “Bond” Seamasters of the 1990’s or the Planet Ocean in 2006, Omega’s dive watches have consistently risen to the top of the heap, while also reaching the deepest parts of the ocean. And Omega has reached the bottom of the ocean. When explorer Victor Vescovo reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench in August of 2019, setting a new depth record in the process (an absolutely insane 10,928 meters), he did so with the Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean Ultra Deep Professional strapped to the outside of his submersible.

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In the last 25 years, Omega has continued to expand the Seamaster line. After a brief dalliance with the concept of a Diver 300M based Seamaster 150M in the ‘90s, Omega released the Aqua Terra in 2002, followed by the Planet Ocean 600M in 2006. Both of these represented a new era for Omega, one powered by the Co-Axial escapement, and with subsequent re-releases of the PloProf in 2009 and continued development across the line, Omega has proven that there are few others who can compete where depth is at play.

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With all that in mind, it’s almost surprising that all of that history was squeezed into only 75 years. Considering that it has, and that 75 years in and of itself is no small amount of time, the 75th anniversary of the Seamaster is absolutely worth celebrating. And celebrate Omega has, gathering in Mykonos (without me) to introduce a full lineup of new Seamasters. While some of these watches are essentially colorway updates to existing models, this new thematic collection has something worth talking about, from the Aqua Terra all the way to the Ultra Deep.

A Full Gradient

One of the easiest ways to make a watch feel new is to offer it in a new color, and Omega knows how to use color to change the character of a watch. In fact, there are few better examples on the market today of the impact color can have than the Seamaster Diver 300M — from vibrant blues and dark greens to arctic whites, the Diver 300M is about as receptive to color as any watch one can find.

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So, when Omega commits to a color, you know it will be good, and, with the release of the 75th-anniversary collection, they didn’t just commit to a single color, but a stunning gradient that not only comes into play on the individual models, but across the line as well.

While all the watches in this release feature a compelling combination of blue gradient and blue lume, a colorway Omega is terming “Summer Blue,” that colorway is not dead on the same across the watches. Instead, as the watches get more technical, and gain more robust depth ratings, the blues get progressively darker.

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What is most compelling to me about this is that each execution seems to match the overall tone of its watch impressively well, with the lightness of the Aqua Terra as ready for a day relaxing by a pool on the Amalfi Coast, as the Planet Ocean is for a day of wreck diving in the frigid waters of Lake Michigan.

The Return of the Solid Caseback

One of my favorite details of the Omega Seamaster I wear most days is the solid caseback with its Seahorse engraving. For me, it’s a big part of what makes the watch as compelling as it is. It is both robust and a wonderful tie-in to the history of the entire Seamaster line. So, I am really glad to see the return of the engraved solid caseback.

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Now, this is not the same engraving as I find on the back of my 2220.80, but is a rather more ornate design featuring Poseidon (clearly recognizable thanks to his trident — very helpful imagery that) being pulled through the ocean by not one, but two seahorses reminiscent of those found on the casebacks of earlier Seamasters. This engraving is found across the entire lineup, although it is rendered in a slightly different style on both the new PloProf 1200M and the Planet Ocean Ultra Deep 6000M, where depth resistance requires different structural engineering of the case back.

The New PloProf

Speaking of which — there’s a new PloProf, and it’s got an O-mega Steel monobloc case. Probably the most exciting new release of the day, the new PloProf resurrects a scale and proportion much closer to its original 1971 design, measuring in at a full 2mm thinner than its titanium sibling, which has been on the market for a few years now.

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It also boasts a new O-mega Steel monobloc case. All of this is cool for those of us who love these sorts of details but for the uninitiated O-mega Steel is a steel alloy developed by Omega and, until now, only available on the Planet Ocean Ultra Deep and a monobloc case is a case made from a single piece of continuous material (most traditional watch cases are made of three pieces — the mid-case, a caseback, and a bezel).

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The PloProf has long been one of my favorite models from the Omega lineup, so I am definitely excited to get my hands on one and experience it in the metal. The new (old) sizing and construction promise a great wearing experience, and is a good sign of what’s to come from the PloProf line.

Omega Was Here!

Omega is really good at having fun, and they are really good at producing dials. Over the years we have seen all sorts of things from them, like laser-ablated surfaces of the Aqua Terra World Time or the Apollo 8 Dark Side of the Moon, to luminous Snoopys and Ultra-Men on limited edition Speedmasters. Now, with the newest Ultra Deep, Omega has mixed together a bunch of these tricks to create what seems like will be one of the most compelling dials in their lineup.

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The dial itself features an accurate textural map of the Mariana Trench, with ridges and valleys evoking the genuine sub-aqueous landscape. The dial is then coated with, as Omega calls it, “an ocean of lacquer,” which produces a blue-to-navy gradient of incredible depth. The addition of a luminous map adds a touch of levity to an otherwise impressively serious watch, and another that I’m excited to see in person.

Who It’s For

Like with any new release, it’s worth taking a moment to consider who these watches are built for. To put it simply, these watches are for me. They are also for pretty much everyone else. I think it would be hard to find someone for whom there is no watch in this lineup that excited them. The Seamaster has really become an excellent point of entry for a generation of collectors, and this new lineup is sure to excite the next.

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As Alan Strassler, The 1916 Company’s Director of Originations and resident Omega Expert, put it:

“While the Speedmaster has historically been Omega’s real breadwinner and icon, the Seamaster is the unsung hero. Its more entry-level price point gives fledgling collectors access to an iconic brand, and the diversity amongst its model range (from PloProf to Aqua Terra World Time) provides versatility for all situations and needs. The Seamaster provides utility, personalization, and access unrivaled among other brands. When James Bond is saving the world, he’s wearing a Seamaster.”