Two Weeks On The Wrist With An Omega Speedmaster

“Hey Gavin, what’s it like wearing someone else’s vintage Omega Speedmaster for an extended period of time, and not just at a watch meet-up?” asked literally no one. Well curious reader… Let me answer that unsolicited question for you. DUDE, IT’S WEIRD. I won’t lie to you, it feels incredible. I’m getting a real taste at what is effectively a luxury product, without having done the work to obtain it on my own. Maybe I can justify this as starting a journey of planning what I want to work for? Hell, I formed my own opinion on the Fiesta ST due to my automotive journey of driving other people’s cars. Now I’ve had mine going on 3 years now. I only get two-weeks with the Speedmaster, and I’m making nothing short of the best of it.

I promise I’m not going to talk about it…. I’m not going to add to the lore about a specific event that NASA and the US Government accomplished in 1969. Chances are extraordinarily high that if you’ve heard about the Omega Speedmaster Professional, or if you’re into watches for more than 30 seconds, you’ll know all about the watch Neil Armstrong was wearing in July of 1969. In my brutally honest opinion, I believe the Omega Speedmaster gets far too much attention and praise from desk-diving, armchair warriors online for being the first watch to the moon. Hell, in 1971 there was a Speedmaster that FAILED commander Dave Scott on Apollo 15 due to the acrylic crystal popping off and entering its own orbital trajectory. Luckily, mister Dave thought ahead and packed a second watch, that being a Bulova Chronograph model 88510/01, which would later be dubbed the Bulova “Lunar Pilot”. Only 52 years later is it now getting some recognition and attention with the “reduced” 43mm size and “Blue Panda” colorway. It’s also known that Rolex GMT Masters have held a presence during the Apollo 13 and 14 missions as well. However, I digress.

With this being a car-based website, I may as well make some car references to this 42 millimeters of horological significance currently residing on my wrist. Well… What is it then? It’s a ubiquitous, classic go-to for many collectors. It doesn’t take a lot of creativity to arrive at this conclusion of a piece, but it’s also a cliche for a reason. Ladies and gentlemen, the Omega Speedmaster Professional is a Volkswagen GTI. With a watch that has been through all what feels like countless generations, and the slightest of nuanced revisions in-between since its inception in 1957. You can wear and use it every single day to work, you can travel with it, and is also completely in its element either in a hoodie and sweats on the couch, or when dressing up to go out on the town for dinner/drinks. Or dare I say, sliding back and forth on your wrist running up a canyon on any given weekend?

You can easily call this watch an Omega Speedmaster Professional, you can even call it a Speedmaster “861” given this was the period when Omega moved on from the original 321 movement and upgraded the column wheel to a cam system, as well as increased the beat-rate from 18,000 vibrations per hour up to 21,600. Now we’re really cooking with some gas!

So, what does the Speedmaster offer its wearer when worn on a daily basis? I have always been weary of the stark contrast between the black dial and white hands, indexes, subdial markers, the lot. I must say, I’ve never in my time looking at watches been more wrong. Even after constant enjoyment for 2 weeks, the pure monochromatic colorway has yet to lose its charm. No silver/steel hands or index markers? No problem. But what about the lack of any accenting color such as the ever-popular red?  I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this watch still has eye-candy! My young-millennial ADHD brain still finds a way to keep itself entertained! While we are on the same topic of keeping the mind busy, don’t even get me started on the satisfying click of the start/stop and reset pushers for the chronograph. Huuuuuuuuu…. The action of the pushers inspires a tactility that I can only refer to as a satisfying “click” of a manual shifter without any cables. Just, straight and direct into a transmission. Sharp and crisp, yet punchy and direct. If the function of the chronograph complication wasn’t so damn destructive to the health and wellbeing of the movement, I’d straight up use it as a fidget-spinner.

Now for the sake of my own journalistic integrity, I need to highlight some personal issues and get real honest with the Speedmaster Professional.

My wrists come in swinging at a less-than-girthy 6-inches in circumference. That makes watches above 43 millimeters  in diameter basically impossible to pull off, and 42 millimeters cases are genuinely at the upper limit of what I find to be comfortable on the daily. In the case of this Speedy, the swagger, the elegance, and the history of this piece absolutely give the watch a legitimate pass for the 42mm case size and 48mm lug length. Especially when paired with a heavily distressed black leather strap.

Now even if you have a wrist that most would consider “average”, that still won’t save you from the piss poor water resistance rating from a brand new Speedmaster (50m), let alone one that is knocking on the door of 50 years old. Should you shower with any watch? Some say you shouldn’t ever shower while wearing a watch for a multitude of reasons. Mostly, water vapors are accessing areas where liquids cannot, but also chemicals in detergents such as shampoos and body wash getting into bracelets and endlinks, corroding over use and time. Now I’ve been wearing watches for almost my whole life, and have never had water breach the movement due to showering. And when it comes down to me, and my collection of watches, if the water resistance rating meets and exceeds 100 meters of water resistance, and has a screw-down crown, with a rubber strap or metal bracelet, I’m gonna send it. Maybe not every time, but that’s also what G-Shocks are for (shout out to the 5600 series). That said, I’m not risking it with any Speedmaster, let alone a vintage one, and let alone one that belongs to a very good and kind friend (thanks Jason). That element of being forced to take the watch off to shower, or even introduce a level of anxiety when washing my hands may get old over a long period of time.

The Omega Speedmaster Professional is an absolute icon of a watch and I have been absolutely elated to introduce it into my daily life. Over these past weeks I went from shock, to joy, to comfort, to even forgetting that I’m even wearing it. Which in turn, begins that process all over again.

I’d like to thank my good buddy Jason for allowing me to sample one of the most iconic watches of all time, for such a long period of time. This gesture has not been lost on me in the slightest, and has even changed my outlook on what I see for myself over the next few years. These are heavy words coming from someone writing the very first installment of a watch column, but I can assure you that I mean every single one of them.