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Why I really don't care for the new Seamaster Pro Chronograph-Chronometre... (SeMPC-2):  It reeks of Rolex... Of course there is nothing wrong with that, Rolex makes fine watches. Everyone, and I mean everyone, imitates them or have imitated them in the past. And of course if the Rolex style wasn't serviceable and attractive it wouldn't be copied so readily... But that's not what made the Seamaster Professional Chronograph so unique in the first place. Previous Seamaster Chronographs were trendy, almost to an extreme (reference Darth Vader Seamaster), odd, and frankly not all that well suited to one of it's intended main "tool watch" uses: Diving. I've yet to see the use of a Tachy bezel on the water or under it, for example. With the exception of the 120m/400ft Seamaster c.1040 of the early 1970's most didn't even have a diving bezel. So when Omega introduced the original Seamaster Pro in the early 1990's they really took a look at what a diving chronograph should be, what others were doing, and what they could do to produce the best sea-going chronograph on the market.
It goes without saying that a Black SeMPC was going to look closer to the ,,Rolex Sub Chronograph,, paradym than the existant SeMPC would. If that was the only change I'd be satisfied with it. But there are a number of, for lack of a better word, flubs, mistakes, oversights and general goofyness that makes the new Seamaster Pro a must pass watch... There are one or two good changes though...
It's in the right place, it's in the right color scheme (white on black)... The only real problem is the posibility of someone misreading a chronograph hour indication with it hanging down there (not particularly likely). I wasn't a huge fan of the white border around the old date window, but since Omega seems to be reimbraceing the applied metal look, perhaps this would be a good application for this. Well, that's about it for the good... I mean they haven't abandoned the tried and true case, abandon any of the feature set. The bracelet, while I still prefer the older SeMPC style bracelet probably would not look as good on a Black/Black watch. But many of the rest of the details leave a lot to be desired... The Movement... I've talked enough about the movement that I'm certain people are sick of hearing me talk about it. Hopefully, the concerns I've raised previously will be largely or entirely unfounded, hopefully the new movement will "be a keeper" and well worth the dimenished parts availablity the previous movement enjoyed... Only time will tell... Enough said. Let's jump into specifics...
Now generally, I prefer Applied Metal Logo's, they have the tendency to simplify a dial that would otherwise be busy, especially with a black dialed watch. But in this case, I'm a little concerned that both the Omega logo "W" and the Omega name is applied. I guess I am afraid that both will be frequently lost and the watch will somehow suffer an identity crisis. None of the c.321 Speedmasters, Seamasters, or Darth Vader Seamaster had an applied "Omega" to go with the "W", but the Speedmaster 125 did. I don't know if this is or will prove to be a big issue, just thought I'd point it out...
This is a distinction from the earlier SeMPC with the new one. The old SeMPC's minute markers were circular and completely overpainted with luminious. The new SeMPC follows the Rolex style of applied metal surrounds to the minute markers. It's really a matter of taste. With only one picture to go by it's tough to get gushy or medieval on them. They are a definate nod towards the Rolex style, but at least they have a generally consistant shape and with the exception of the 12, 3, 6, 9 markers a consistant size. The others are at least larger than they were on the 1st generation SeMPC.
Here we have Omega continuing the trend of copying recent Rolex developements (largely the Yachtmaster) with enlarged text on the diving bezel. While I don't mind the larger type, I'd really rather they hadn't done it at the expense of tick marks on the bezel on either side of the number... Notice there is no tick mark for 31 or 29 on this bezel. The SeMPC had 'em. Perhaps 1 minute isn't a big deal under water. Perhaps it is...
One of the eagarly awaited aspects of putting the new "BA" movement in the SeMPC was the famed "Tri-Compax" layout and left-right symetery... Well, Omega screwed it up. Because of their choice of numbering and using 60, 15, 30, and 45 instead of the previous 60, 20, 40 setup they symetery of the Tri-Compax layout is ruined by the subdials. STUPID! STUPID! What are they thinking in Bienne? I think their cheeze has gone sour, their chocolates have melted, the blade on their army knifes are obviously dulled and rusty. I'm no rocket scientist, but this is really boneheaded...
Omega has chosen to adopt the broad sword hands of the SeMP Black/Black for the chronograph. I assume this was done for purposes of better visability, even in low light conditions. But I have yet to have found an instance when the hands on the old Seamaster were not easily readable:
This is a pretty dusky condition and I don't really have any problem picking out the hands from the dial. The real problem with the new hands is that they really cover the dial, and the Chronograph sub-dials. In the insert above, note how the hour hand already impinges on the sub-register and it's the smaller of the two main time keeping hands. The solution that the original SeMPC used was to skeletonize the hands. This worked great. I wonder why Omega is abandoning it now. Admittedly the hour hand on the SeMPC-1 left something to be desired, but they were much more practical and suited to the intended task than what we see in this photo... I don't know why they couldn't just skeletonize everything except for the arrow tips and make the hour hand diamond shaped for distinctiveness. But they aren't asking me...
One of the things that I immediatly noticed on each watch was how the luminious dot on the SeMPC eclipsed the axels of the sub-dial hands as it rotated around it's pinion. A wonderful attention to detail. The new model SeMPC-2 clearly doesn't do this. It looks like they just grafted on the hour and minute hands from a SeMP Black/Black, threw on the hand from an old SeMPC, and didn't take into account that the pinions of the the subdials are in a different location than the old Valjoux 7750 base movement. A galling and grating lack of attention to detail. In the end Omega chose to take the quick and easy route to updating the SeMPC. Namely the desire to bring a new movement to market quickly, forced the use of off the rack parts, quickly cobbled together to make it work, stirred with a distinct lack of attention to detail. It means mourning for fans of the watch that took watch of the year for the SeMPC's passing. Omega appears to have abandoned the SeMPC-1's distinctness and originality in favor of copying and emulating Rolex again. Part of this emulation is a $900 to $1,100 price jump into Rolex's territory. In the end it also is a return to the time before the original SeMPC when Omega regularly changed the watch every couple of years to seek out additional sales. I doubt the new model will stay unchanged in the product line for as long as the SeMPC. If you want one, my advise is to wait, as there will likely be lots of sellers in the Sales Corners once people notice these differences and how much of a goolash of a watch this appears to be. Why pay the extreme price that Omega is asking for this watch... Let the original owner take the depreciation hit. Don't expect me to be standing in line either in the new department or the Sales Corner for this one. No thank you pal... But that's just my opinion... -- Chuck |
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The Date Wheel/Window:
The Logo:
Applied Minute Tick Marks:
The Bezel:
No Symetery when there could have easily been
symetery...
The Time Keeping Hands:
On the subject of timekeeping hands what's with the second
hand?