Even within watch-collecting circles, the fandom expressed by devotees of Omega’s Speedmaster chronograph sets a high bar for both passion and pedantry. Every new edition of the design, first introduced in 1957 and selected by NASA in 1965 for the US Space Program, is pored over in minute detail.
Normally, that’s because changes to the Speedmaster are rather incremental. But in September 2024, Omega forums lit up with activity as leaked images of a radically different design began to circulate. Some dismissed the “Flight Qualified” Speedmaster as a fake, but it was something far cooler: An exclusive watch available only to serving military pilots.
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Photograph: OMEGA
Now, the wider legions of fans can rejoice, because Omega has announced a version for general sale. The watch is known simply as the Speedmaster Pilot, and retains many of the features that debuted on its service-only forebear. It uses the same 40.85 mm case with a matte brushed finish—a rarity for Speedmasters, chosen to minimise reflections in the cockpit.
Unlike the classic Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional, with its chronograph subdials at 3, 6 and 9 o’clock, the Speedmaster Pilot has what’s known as a two-register layout, with subdials at 3 and 9 o’clock and a discreet date window at 6 o’clock. The dial itself has a grained matte black texture which combines with the unique styling of the subdials to echo classic cockpit instrumentation.
The “Flight Qualified” Speedmaster that set watch forums alight in September—available only to serving military pilots.
Specifically, the 3 o’clock register, which incorporates both a 30-minute and a 12-hour scale for measuring elapsed time, is designed to look like the “burn rate” display for a fighter jet, while its opposite number at 9 features an artificial horizon in blue (rather than the pilot-only original's gray) and a target crosshair; this register displays the running seconds.
The chronograph seconds hand, as is customary, is centrally mounted, and on this watch bears a varnished orange airplane shape at its tip. Each subdial features triangular hands, a nod to previous cult classic Omega models, in particular the Flightmaster, a 44mm chronograph introduced in 1969 and marketed as a dedicated pilot’s watch.
The hour and minute hands, as well as the hour markers, deviate from standard Speedmaster fare. The hands are PVD-coated in matte black, and are finished in large blocks of Super-LumiNova for maximum legibility at night, to match the 3D lume of the hour markers. The lume appears white by day, and has a green “emission”—the watch geek term for its colorful glow.
Inside the Speedmaster Pilot runs Omega’s in-house Calibre 9900, an automatic chronograph movement with a 60-hour power reserve (how long the watch will keep time when you stop wearing it). Omega, in conjunction with the Swiss institute of metrology, METAS, a government body, certifies the watch to Master Chronometer levels, stipulating daily accuracy of -0/+5 seconds and a resistance to magnetic fields up to 15,000 gauss, among other criteria.
Earlier this year Omega released the Speedmaster Moonwatch with a white lacquer dial, a long-awaited variation that has proven hugely popular with fans of the brand, as well as and an updated version of its First Omega In Space design, a vintage-inspired Speedmaster that pays homage to a 1962 reference, worn in outer space by astronaut Wally Schirra.
This new Speedmaster Pilot, priced at $9,500 in the US and £8,900 in the UK, might just unseat both as the most exciting Speedmaster of 2024.