Omega’s New Constellation Observatory Collection: High Precision, No Seconds Hands

Omega has just introduced a new collection which has aroused both a great deal of interest, and a certain amount of controversy (which seems to be the case more often than not nowadays in the watch industry in general, but that’s another story). The new collection is the Constellation Observatory collection, and they’ll be available at launch in steel models with green, navy, and silver sunray dials, or steel with a ceramic dial; as well, you’ll find them in precious metals, including Omega “Platinum-Gold,” or Sedna, Canopus, or Moonshine Gold. The Moonshine Gold is available with a very attractive 9 links-across bracelet as well, and Omega’s really leaned into connecting with the original vintage pie-pan Constellations, with classic pie-pan style dials across the entire collection, and with the dog-leg lugs of the vintage models as well.

All watches are 39.4mm x 12.23mm, and movements are either the automatic caliber 8914 or the cal. 8915, which is essentially the same movement, but with a more decorative finish – either a “Luxe” model with gold rotor, or a “Grande Luxe” version, in the Platinum-Gold edition, which carries an enamel Observatory medallion.  The observatory medallion could be found on the casebacks of the original pie-pan Constellation watches, and references the observatories whose observations were used as a timebase for rating chronometers; the stars represent awards given and records set in observatory timing competitions by Omega, between 1933 and 1952.

There is a lot to love here, particularly if you are a fan of the old-school pie-pan Connies (I am) and have been hoping Omega would bring them back in some version. While Omega did have pie-pan dials in previous watches – most notably, the Constellation Globemaster – the latter has now been discontinued and all Globemaster models have been removed from Omega’s catalog.

The thickness of the watches is probably the biggest potential gotcha for someone looking for a classic dress watch – vintage automatic pie-pan Connies were mostly just under 11mm and 34mm in diameter, which is actually not that far off the new models in terms of aspect ratio: for a vintage model, with a 34mm case and a thickness of 11.5mm, the aspect ratio works out to 3.238; for one of the new ones, at 39.4mm x 12.23mm, the aspect ration is 3.226 (rounded up). Aspect ratio isn’t everything – I mean, a 394mm 122.30mm watch would have the same aspect ratio as one of the new Constellation Observatories, which is not exactly in the wearability Goldilocks zone – but it’s still indicative of a respect for the proportions of the original, if not the exact measurements.

Your mileage may vary as they say, but the takeaway is that proportions between the vintage models and the new ones are pretty darned close (for a great overview of the pie-pan era Connies, check out this in-depth look at Goldammer).

Omega Constellation Grand Luxe

The dauphine hands and kite-shaped indexes are also straight from the vintage Constellations and that bracelet is a kind of reboot of the bricks-of-gold bracelet on the vintage Omega Constellation Grande Luxe, which I think is one of the most gorgeous bracelets ever made.

The 800 pound gorilla in the room is not, if you ask me, the thickness; as we’ve seen the proportions of the new Connies and the vintage pie-pan models is as close as never mind, and even the vintage ones were not designed to be, nor marketed as, extra thin watches; they were showcases, as the designs and marketing demonstrate, for Omega’s prestige as a maker of precision chronometer wristwatches, which are not as a class noted for making slimness a priority. What is going to have some folks scratching their heads, is the decision to omit a seconds hand.

Having only an hour and minute hand is a feature usually associated with extra flat dress watches, not precision oriented chronometers. Now, the new Constellation Observatory models are Master Chronometer watches, and that means they must be first certified as chronometers, per the international standard ISO 3159, and must then pass an additional battery of tests – most notably, a test measuring resistance of a magnetic field of 15,000 gauss – to receive Master Chronometer certification. Omega was the first brand to use the Master Chronometer cert, but it’s been joined since then by Tudor, and the Master Chronometer certification is monitored by METAS, the Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology (check out our visit to the Tudor factory, and our story on Master Chronometer certification, for more info).

Now, generally speaking, any brand that wants to produce a Master Chronometer watch, tests the movement internally first, then puts a standard dial on it with a standard seconds hand, and ships the movement to the COSC.

Kenissi movement, ready to be shipped to the COSC for chronometer certification.

At Tudor, the movements are rated acoustically first – basically, the movements go into a machine that measures the time between ticks and tocks, in order to calculate things like instantaneous and mean rate deviations, variations in rate between positions, and so on. The COSC testing is visual, and relies on the test dial and seconds hand to evaluate performance (fun factoid: according to the COSC website, since its inception in 1973 the COSC has certified 57 million movements).

Now the twist in the tale is that Omega no longer uses the COSC for ISO 3159 certification for its Master Chronometer watches (which is I think, pretty much their entire production at this point, except for their quartz watches (of which there are currently 189, believe it or not). In 2024, Omega announced the opening of its “Laboratoire de Précision” which tests movements to meet the ISO 3159 standards. The standard is the same as for the COSC, although the testing methodology is different – LdP uses what it calls “Dual Metric” technology, which is essentially a holder for watch movements which uses acoustic signals for rating the watch. A key point here is that the Laboratoire de Précision performs both ISO 3159 Chronometer, and Master Chronometer, certification. The ISO 3159 certification is done with acoustic testing, and Master Chronometer certification according to the LdP website, is done with a combination of visual observation of the watch hands, and acoustic signal analysis (I presume that the use of both acoustic signals and visual data is where LdP gets the “dual” in “Dual Metric”). The differences between the two testing regimens are summarized on the Laboratoire de Précision website.

I can think of several reasons why Omega would have gone to the considerable time and expense necessary to set up the new testing centers, and develop new technology in the form of the Dual Metric system, but the most obvious would of course be better efficiency; cutting out the step of transporting movements to the COSC probably streamlines production to some extent, albeit the COSC has a lab in Biel/Bienne, as does the Laboratoire de Précision; however if the LdP is on the same premises as Omega’s factory, at least they don’t have to ship movements a few kilometers across town. One point Omega makes is that the new Constellation Observatory watches are the first watches with only two hands to receive Master Chronometer certification, which I see no reason to doubt; Omega credits its acoustic testing capabilities at LdP for this and testing a two hander at the COSC would not be possible (as the COSC relies on a standard seconds hand attached to the fourth wheel pivot).

The basic technology, however, is not new – acoustic rating has been around for decades and measuring the sounds of the beats of the movement is how Witschi Chronomaster machines work (for instance). The barrier to Master Chronometer certification for two handed watches is therefore not technical, but rather, a matter of the historical reliance by brands seeking it, on the COSC as the certifying agency for ISO 3159.

In terms of its impartiality, the Laboratoire de Précision is under the regulation of ISO 17025, and the Schweizerische Akkreditierungsstelle SAS, or Swiss Accreditation Service. ISO 17025:2017 (the year of the last update) covers “General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories” and requires adherence to certain standards for impartiality, competence, and consistency in measurements and operations; the number of bodies which are administered to ISO 17025 by SAS is quite large – in the hundreds. This is the same accrediting body and the same standard under which the COSC operates, so if you trust SAS, and the strictness of the standard, you have as much reason to trust the impartiality of the Laboratoire de Précision as you do of the COSC.

As to why Omega chose to omit the seconds hand, the reason may be as simple as that it was a design decision. It may also have been done to reduce height (adding a seconds hand means adding clearance below the seconds hand for the minute hand, and above the seconds hand so that it clears the crystal) but the Milano Corto, which was announced last year for the Winter Olympics, is 37mm x 11.5mm, with center seconds and date, although it does not have a true pie-pan dial, which may add height as well. The pie-pan dial, discontinued Globemasters were 39mm x 12.63mm, though, and that’s with a date guichet and center seconds, and with the new Constellation Observatory watches at 39.4mm x 12.23mm, it’s still possible that leaving out the date wheel and center seconds to make the watch thinner was at least part of the reason for the omission. The difference is only 0.4, or four tenths, of a millimeter.

The first impression I’m left with is of a watch which has much of the charm and virtually all the design details of the original pie-pan Constellation watches, albeit with the somewhat mysterious omission of one of the most basic elements of a precision watch: a seconds hand. This may be a dealbreaker for some collectors who might otherwise be clients for the watch, but I think a lot of folks might find this watch attractive primarily on the strength of its design, rather than approaching it as an exercise in precision watchmaking. The highest precision standard at Omega is currently a feature of the Spirate adjusting system, which promises 0/+2 seconds per day precision, but so far it has been deployed in only one watch: the Speedmaster Super Racing.

However Master Chronometer certification, it’s worth remembering, is not a feature restricted to a few precision timekeepers at Omega; it is instead ubiquitous across just about all of its hundreds of mechanical watches, and rather than seeing the omission of the seconds hand as an abdication of identity, it’s perhaps better understood as a design decision supported by the same mechanical technology – including resistance to strong magnetic fields – found in any other Master Chronometer watch. Still, both the design cues, and the name Constellation Observatory, are almost irresistible reminders of the roots of both in the pursuit of precision timekeeping. Should Omega’s engineers figure out how to put the Spirate system into a Constellation Observatory and give us a center seconds hand – without any increase in height – I think the company might find the audience for real advances in chronometry is a sleeping giant, waiting to be unleashed.

References:

Ref. 140.13.39.21.01.001 (black)
Ref. 140.13.39.21.02.001 (silver and gold)
Ref. 140.13.39.21.10.001 (green)
Ref. 140.13.39.21.03.001 (blue)
Ref. 140.50.39.21.99.001 (Moonshine gold with bracelet)
Ref. 140.53.39.21.99.001 (Moonshine gold)
Ref. 140.53.39.21.99.002 (Sedna gold)
Ref. 140.53.39.21.99.004 (silver)
Ref. 140.93.39.21.99.001 (champagne)

All watches, 39.4mm x 12.23mm, 30M water resistant, in 18k Sedna, Canopus, or Moonshine Gold; Platinum-Gold, or O-MEGASTEEL. Movements, calibers 8914/8915, hours and minutes, with “timezone function” (independently set hour hand) running at 25,200 vph in 39 jewels; 60 hour power reserve; silicon balance spring; Master Chronometer certified and ISO 3159 Chronometer certified at the Omega Laboratoire de Précision. Prices start at $10,900 in steel, and $37,900 for precious metal versions (topping out at $57,800 in Platinum-Gold). 

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