First Impressions: Omega Speedmaster 38 Collection
Omega dropped a new collection of 38mm Speedmasters, which fans have been asking for a while now. There’s a lot to like here, some genuinely great colorways, a return to round sub-dials, that Moonwatch DNA finally showing up in a smaller case after a long hiatus. But there’s also one glaring issue that’s hard to ignore, and it might be enough to sink the whole release for me.
Technical Specs:
Case: 38mm diameter, 44.96mm lug-to-lug, 14.73mm thick on the no-date model, 14.75mm on the date models
Crystal: flat box-shaped sapphire with anti-reflective coating
Water resistance: 100m
Movement: Omega Co-Axial Calibre 3330 on the six date models, Calibre 3332 on the no-date black model, both self-winding with a column wheel chronograph and silicon balance spring
Power reserve: up to 52 hours
Certification: COSC
Bracelet: five-link, tapering from 18mm to 15mm at the clasp, two-pusher deployant with micro-adjustment
Price: from $6,500 for the steel black no-date model up to roughly $7,100 for other steel references, around $11,700 for the two-tone models, and up to about $12,300 to $13,100 for the diamond-set versions
What works well:
There are some fresh new colorways added to the Speedmaster lineup that are pretty eye catching. The warm gray bezel with Sedna gold PVD-coated indices might be my favorite. There’s also a white dial and blue bezel combo that’s very striking, similar vibes to the Snoopy, plus the classic black config for the Speedmaster purists.
The new two-tone configurations are nice too, especially the green one. The two-tone models nail the gold-to-steel ratio, just enough gold to add elegance without tipping into flashy. I also appreciate the removal of the previous generation’s oval sub-dials in favor of the classic round ones.
The oval sub-dials made the watch look off-centered, so I’m glad they are rid of it.
The pricing isn’t bad compared to some recent Omega releases. The black, no-date version comes in at just $6,500, about $2,500 less than the 42mm Sapphire Sandwich Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch. Sure the two-tone models are above 11k due to the gold, but the steel models being well below the 42mm Speedy is refreshing to see because I was starting to think it was becoming impossible to purchase a Speedy under 8,000 now.
Room for improvement:
The one and only issue is the massive thickness. To sum it up, this is a lazy move from Omega. They understood the market wanted a proper reduced Speedmaster, and rather than going all in and creating a long-term best seller, they put lipstick on a pig and tried to pass it off as something it’s not.
The ask was simple: shrink the Speedmaster Moonwatch into a smaller case. But they failed to realize that meant proportionally smaller, not just a smaller diameter. These new 38mm Speedmasters are 4mm smaller when measuring case diameter but are in fact thicker than the 42mm Speedmaster.
The reason I call this a lazy move is that getting the proportions right would have meant designing a new movement or at least modifying the movement to address the thickness, and it doesn’t seem like Omega wanted to invest in that. They wanted to just release the watch with the movement they had, hope people would over look the elephant in the room and spend thousands of dollars on it. But if they had put the effort into redesigning the movement they wouldn’t have to worry about sales because they’d know the watch would speak for itself.
To fix this watch I’d start by dropping the rotor and going with a manual winding movement. I don’t think anyone would complain about that since the 42mm Moonwatch Professional is a manual wind and removing the rotor would shave a few millimeters off the thickness. Second, I’d remove the date function too, which would also help shave down the height. I think people really just wanted a smaller version of the same Moonwatch they already love, yet they got something that’s 90% of that instead, which is just kind of frustrating.
I know that redesigning a movement to be proportionally smaller is easier said than done, but did no one in Omega question the design of this watch when it is 14.75mm thick? Or did anyone question the intent of this release? Were they trying to create a proportionally smaller Moonwatch so fans with smaller wrists could finally purchase a speedy? Or were they just trying to slap to gather a chronograph with a date window and use the Speedmaster branding as a way to score a quick buck? Seems like the latter to me.
The 42mm Moonwatch Professional isn’t exactly thin either, it is 13.2mm, so if the 38mm had launched at that thickness, it would have been received a lot better. I also know that a 1.5mm difference may not seem like a lot on paper, but with watches, it’s everything. For some people a 2mm difference in diameter changes a watch from being the perfect fit to blocky and chunky. It’s all about the way the watch wears on the wrist.
At the end of the day, it’s an unfortunate release. I really like some of the new colorways, but I can’t justify purchasing this when it’s going to look like a hockey puck on the wrist thanks to the thickness. Whenever I see photos or Reels of this watch I will always think “if only it was a few mm thinner it would be an amazing watch.” That might be why this release is so frustrating, it was almost a game changer, it was so close.
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