Lunar Missions
Sean Li
mega’s story with the Speedmaster and its trips to the Moon is well known in watch circles, and given that strong designs are often enduring ones, it’s no surprise that there have been multiple iterations over the years. The brand hit a nerve, though, when it introduced the all-ceramic version, the Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon, just two years ago at Baselworld 2013. Omega was justifiably proud of its achievement, for the Dark Side of the Moon represented a very different look for the Moon watch and made some significant advances in its application of ceramic. While the material itself is not new, the fact that Omega was able to apply it to every visible element on the watch—from the case, dial and pushers all the way down to the buckle, and with alternating brushed and polished surfaces—made it substantially different from any other ceramic watch today. Of course, the finishing touch was made with a not-so-dark element: the in-house calibre 9300 co-axial movement, which appears in very sharp contrast with the blackness of the rest of the watch, and is made highly visible through a sapphire caseback.
It was no surprise that Omega would follow up the Dark Side of the Moon with another variant in 2014, the Speedmaster Grey Side of the Moon. As the name implies, it’s a similar watch but with most of the ceramic elements done in grey rather than black. Other than the colour, the differences lie in the sandblasted platinum dial and in the strap, which in this case is in alligator leather instead of the black Cordura fabric. The Grey Side of the Moon has been no less popular, with many subsequent discussions among collectors as to which version they preferred.
This year, Omega’s designers once again explore the ceramic Speedmaster, but it’s not just one more version—there are six new iterations. On the White Side of the Moon, which itself sees two variants, the difference is naturally dramatic, but on the other four versions, all on the Dark Side theme, there are subtle changes that make a noticeable impact on the look and feel of the watch. Here’s an overview of each new version.
The Speedmaster White Side of the Moon is, as its name implies, the white ceramic version of the watch. It’s not really a surprise, given that the ceramic used in the Grey Side of the Moon actually starts out as a white compound. It’s through heating at very high temperatures in a plasma furnace that Omega transforms the ceramic from white to grey. By skipping this heating process, the The Grey Side and White Side versions of Omega’s Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon