State of the Art

RUBBER

One of the hottest trends of the 1980s was wearing chunky diver watches on big rubber straps. Now, the rubber strap is back in fashion, but this time the inspiration is taken from the very first and more elegant straps of the 60s, such as basket-weave patterned Tropic straps or the Deep Black Planet Ocean strap of this image inspired by nylon braided-weave Perlon straps. New rubber compositions and colours, such as the anti-bacterial coating integrated into the rubber formulation shown here, now make it possible to create super strong, flexible, lightweight, colour-dense and highly detailed straps for both diving and formal wear.

CERAMIC

One of the most eye-catching design innovations in Omega’s watch collections in recent times is the addition of ceramic watches. A zirconium oxide powder is subjected to heat and serious pressure to form the ultra-resilient, scratch-resistant machined casebody, which is subsequently polished and then satin-brushed by diamond-encrusted bands. The etching in the bezel of this Speedmaster Moonwatch Dark Side of the Moon is then performed using a very high-powered laser. The result is not only stunningly beautiful, it also creates a solid watchcase six times harder than steel, one which will not fade or oxidise and is destined for a long, pristine life.

18K MOONSHINE™ GOLD

For the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11, Omega has developed a new 18K gold alloy entirely in-house. Bringing together metallurgists, manufacturing experts and scientists from different companies within the Swatch Group, Omega has created a soft golden hue as pale as moonlight by mixing the perfect balance of gold, copper, silver and palladium. And not only is the shade of the gold beautiful, this modern-day alchemy has also resulted in an alloy much more colour resistant than ordinary 18K gold alloy.

SILICON Si14

In 2008, Omega launched the first Co-Axial movements with a balance spring (the wristwatch’s miniature equivalent of a clock’s pendulum) manufactured from Silicon Si14. While steel springs suffer with variable results during manufacturing and finite life, creating these delicate parts from Silicon Si14 ensures the exact geometry is reproduced every time and remains in specification indefinitely. This space age material uses precise computer-assisted manufacturing processes to perfectly form springs directly from silicon wafer in a single step. The result is a component three times finer than a human hair that resists sharp shocks and is completely unaffected by magnetic fields.