Photo Credit: OMEGA
From record-breaking deep-sea dives to lunar landings, OMEGA’s legacy is replete with large-scale accomplishments. The first of this year’s big achievements is in fact rather tiny.
OMEGA’s latest Speedmaster is fine-tuned for precision thanks to the Spirate™ System, which includes a revolutionary new patent-pending spiral that allows for ultra-fine rate adjustments. Thanks to this one-of-a-kind mechanism, it is now possible for OMEGA to achieve certified precision of only 0/+2 seconds a day.
To meet these narrow targets, OMEGA had to quite literally reinvent the wheel: drawing on both the technical resources of the Swatch Group and the precision, stability and reliabity of OMEGA’s chronometrically superior in-house movements.
The innovative solution was a totally new Si14 balance spring which allows the watchmaker to act on the stiffness of the hairspring’s attachment point through an eccentric adjustment mechanism located
on the balance bridge. This new approach, based on the design of a high precision articulated structure with flexible bearings, is a superb example of OMEGA’s willingness to run with new ideas: to make progress by taking on challenges.
The first timepiece to include OMEGA’s fine-tune Spirate™ System is the Speedmaster Super Racing in stainless steel. A visual tribute to OMEGA’s 2013 anti-magnetic masterpiece which offers a clear view of the new mechanism through the sapphire crystal caseback.
Circling the dial is the distinctive racing style minute-track and a black ceramic bezel ring with the famous tachymeter scale in new yellow “grand feu” enamel. This bold yellow shade, featured on the Seamaster Aqua Terra >15’000 GAUSS of 2013, is also used on the gradient chronograph hand and
striped small seconds hand at 9 o’clock. The watch’s 60 minute/12 hour recorder, directly opposite at 3 o’clock, also serves as a second time zone. The honeycomb pattern of the dial references a concept timepiece on display at OMEGA Museum which survived extreme magnetic fields of 160,000 GAUSS.
Providing the power is OMEGA’s state of-the-art Co-Axial Master Chronometer 9920, a perfect amalgamation of the many milestones on the road to Spirate™ and certified at the industry’s highest level by the Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology (METAS).
As always, proof of this certification is provided by a distinctive red METAS card, which in this case includes confirmation of the 0/+2 seconds a day precision made possible at large scale by the industrialisation of the Spirate™ System.
The diamond-polished and bevelled black arrowhead indexes are filled with a new and exclusive Super-LumiNova which emits a surprising yellow glow. This colour code extends to the Speedmaster and Super Racing wording on the dial. At 6 o’clock there’s a stylish and regular reminder of the >15’000 GAUSS 10 year anniversary: a “10” in Speedmaster logo font, which appears once a month in the
watch’s date window.
The new Speedmaster Super Racing includes a sporty alternative to the steel bracelet. A NATO strap in recycled nylon with black and yellow stripes, referencing the distinctive colour code of the Seamaster Aqua Terra >15’000 GAUSS launched exactly 10 years ago.
Off-the-wrist home for OMEGA’s collectable is a honeycomb pattern Speedmaster watch box in black with yellow stitching. The special presentation box includes the recycled nylon NATO strap and a strap changing tool.
As the spiral is the most complex component of the regulating organ in a mechanical watch, creating the new Spirate™ System was a significant challenge. Therefore, OMEGA is determined to make the best of this hard-won innovation. The brand’s long-term plan is to introduce the new Spirate™ System step-by step into many other calibres. The tiny spiral has a big future. Stay tuned!
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