I have two questions “Did they do it? Did they do the Worldtimer in steel?” It was only the second day at Baselworld 2019, and already the replica Omega was showing its newest novelties in secret, but to retailers only —no media was present and no photos were taken. For the past two exhibition cycles, I’ve been anxiously waiting for the 2015 platinum halo edition to make its way into the regular collection — and this must be the year.
“It’s amazing. It’s seriously gorgeous,” he added breathlessly, as though adjectives failed him in that particular moment. What I didn’t know is that fake Omega had not just shown him the blue-dialed Worldtimer in steel, but also an equally gorgeous Sedna gold variant with a stark white dial that complements the laser-ablated map relief in the center perfectly. Wait, laser-what?
It is just the laser-ablated. It is how Omega replica has rendered the gnomonic projection of the earth at the center of the dial in such staggering detail. Actually, the dial center’s grade 5 titanium surface is zapped with a laser at varying levels of intensity, creating chemical reactions that yield an equal variety of intense textures and colors, meant to evoke the planet’s seas and landmasses, encircled by a glass 24-hour ring. But what really surprised me about seeing this dial in the flesh is just how much depth and dimensionality it hides — not the same with the textured rotating globe that you might remember from geography class. The visually striking end result uses super-modern manufacturing methods to achieve the time-honored tradition of putting a map in the center of a world timers dial.
The rest of the eggshell-white dial is rendered in a somewhat traditional world timer manner: You have the beveled applied hour markers, a deep, tonneau-shaped date aperture at 6 o’clock, and subtle longitudinal striping, which seems a bit like the vertical “teak-deck” style dials from the 8500-series generation of Aqua Terra watches.
Functionality-wise, fake Omega’s new Worldtimer runs similar to a traditional GMT watch, albeit one whose information is simply presented in a different way. Rather than a 24-hour hand running around the center of the dial, as Omega did with its Calibre 8605-powered Aqua Terra GMT of year’s past, we now have a rotating 24-hour disc, which simply reads the local time in each of the world’s primary time zones.
Speaking of which, I had a love or dislike relationship with the Aqua Terra GMT of year’s past. On one hand, it was amazing, super legible, strongly water-resistant, and was full of a globetrotting movement that dunked on any of its contemporaries, making it a serious contender for true GMT supremacy.
At 43mm by 15.5mm, the new Worldtimer is hardly a small watch, but the fake Omega’s edits to this larger case included shortening and sharpening its twisted lugs, which now taper in a steeper downward angle, cutting the overall lug-to-lug measurement to 50mm and enabling the Rolex replica watches to sit closer to the wrist. Even in solid gold, and weighing just over 150 grams, it still wears comfortably, owing to the highly supportive leather strap which pushes directly downward from the lugs, rather than out and down, as stated in the previous generation. Everything about the redesign reinforces the fact that the original case size, and even weight, of the watch, is secondary to the design of the earpiece — Omega nailed it here.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll repeat it, that the world time traveler’s good watch is conspicuously lacking. When I say “yes,” I mean those that can easily adjust the hour hand while observing “family” or “global time,” and that is waterproof enough that the wearer doesn’t stop when looking at a hotel pool or seaside vacation halfway around the world.
