Is the blue Orbis edition of the 2022 Omega Speedmaster 38 range the pick of the crop?

We only ask the question after window shopping their website and something just draws us to the Orbis at £4550. First of all, it’s a two shades of blue dial, and blue remains the most popular dial colour amongst watch fans.

So it isn’t a quirky, left-field choice like beige or gold, you just know someone will always PX a blue Omega in the future if needed.

Next, you have the Co-axial Cal 3300 movement inside, with a healthy 52 hours of power. No, not as impressive as the Powermatic 80 in terms of reserve, but the longevity of the co-axial is one of its most appealing traits. George Daniels designed the co-ax escapement to make use of lower running speeds, which in turn means long life – and longer service intervals. It’s all good.

OK, so let’s look at the advantages of the Sedna gold variations; yes, the gold content adds some value to the watch. But even a solid 18K gold watch case probably scraps at between £600-£800 in the near future, depending on the price of gold bullion 2030-2040. So an 18K case doesn’t really add 10K of value to the watch. If it did, the watch would weigh about 6 ounces extra over the steel version.

The downside of owning a gold watch is that stupid drug-addled thieves think ITIS worth £14000, so they want to steal it using violence and then sell it to their dealer mates for 5K in cash plus a load of sniff.

So for us, the steel Speedmaster 38 Orbis, in stunning blue, is enough of a risk as regards wearing it openly at the races, weddings and business meetings.

Future classic. More here.