Rolex vs Omega at Baselworld 2016 2026

This year inBaselworld 2016 both Rolex and Omega have presented interesting newsfor his followers. Surely there are both brands, but usually this is more like rival soccer teams: mine is better than yours and I can't be heartbroken. So, and taking it from the playful side, I have titled this article Rolex vs Omega at Baselworld 2016 in the style of some mythical threads from the Special Watches forum: you can call me sensationalist if you want, I won't take it the wrong way 😉

Omega Baselworld 2016 News

Starting with theOmega news at Baselworld 2016,It is surprising how many models they have presented: forty-six new watches (I put it in letters to make it clear that it is not a mistake), from the new star of the Biel firmament, theGlobemaster, this year with an annual calendar, until the new seriesSpeedmasterwith moon phases orSeamaster Planet Oceanand the commemoration of the next Rio Games. Although the most important thing is the presentation ofsix new Master Chronometer caliberscertified by METAS (Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology). Certificate that, by the way, they also have those forty-six new models.

Let's go with the highlights: theGlobemaster Annual Calendar, with the new caliber 8922, has gone from 39 to 41mm. Steel case with scratch-resistant tungsten carbide bezel, white dial with -quite a few- blue touches including the hands... and a typography that in my opinion they should have rethought a little more if they want to captivate the Western market, because it would seem specifically designed for the Eastern market and in that case the size (remember, 41mm) would be excessive. The market will tell.

Three Seamasters, with slimmer cases and up to three sizes: TheSeamaster Planet Ocean 43.5mmIt mounts the Master Chronometer caliber 8900 in a steel case and displays a unidirectional bezel where orange rubber (first 15 minutes) is combined with ceramic and Liquid Metal figures. The dial is also made of black ceramic, with applied indexes. HeSeamaster Planet Ocean GMT, also 43.5mm, is presented as the first to sport a two-color ceramic bezel… black and white. It features a dual-time zone caliber 8906, also certified by METAS, and is completed with a rubber-covered leather strap with a steel clasp. Very Seamaster, they will be easily recognized by the Helium valve at ten o'clock. HeOmega Seamaster Planet Ocean Chronograph45.5mm caliber 9900 mounts in a Sedna® gold case (gold, copper and palladium) which in turn is mounted on a bracelet that combines gold and steel. Intense blue ceramic dial and Ceragold® numerals on the ceramic bezel.

Radically decreasing in diameter (which would be justified by its more dressy appearance but above all because it targets the female market) we find theOmega Seamaster Planet Ocean 600m“chocolate” that combines a 39.5mm Sedna® gold case with a brown ceramic dial and a ceramic bezel with Ceragold® Transparent back that reveals the caliber 8801 with a rotor also made of 18-karat Sedna® gold

Moving on to theSpeedmaster Moonphase, if at this point Omega started to draw a Moon it had to be with the realism that having walked on it demands... And that's how it was. The result allows us to see (with the help of a magnifying glass, which one no longer refines as much) the extraordinary detail of the lunar orography, to the point of being able to detect, if one looks hard enough, the footprint of an astronaut.

Contrary to popular belief, a lunar month does not have 30 days, but rather more than 29.5. A difficult period to master for a standard shoot, but not for theOMEGA Moonphase. Its high-precision mechanism only needs to be adjusted every 10 years; simply with a few turns of the crown. In addition to the phases of the Moon, the dial can be read, on the counter at nine o'clock, the continuous seconds and the date. At three o'clock we can see the accumulated chronographic time with two hands: sixty minutes and twelve hours that the central treadmill has been marking. The 44.25mm Sedna® steel or gold case is water resistant to 100m while showing through its sapphire caseback the caliber 9904, METAS certified, coaxial, with column wheel and non-magnetic up to 15,000 gauss. Almost nothing... A platinum version with a red ceramic bezel has also been made in a series limited to 57 pieces. By the way, only in this limited edition does the date indicator have a small magnifying glass at the end of the hand. Could it be that Omega foresees that its future owners will suffer from eyestrain due to age? Also worth highlighting is the Gray Side of the Moon with a meteorite dial and Ceragold bezel.

Rolex news at Baselworld 2016

And the news ofRolex at Baselworld 2016? It would seem that Rolex has everything done and that its followers laugh at it without needing to break their hair (the brand), but the truth is that it has been working on the position it holds for more than a century: its founder, Hans Wilsdorf, invented marketing without even knowing that years later it would be called that.

But let's go to what theRolex news at Baselworld 2016. After months of uncertainty, of dizzying the partridge (the fan forums) it has come out with... the ceramic bezel on the emblematic Daytona. Well, that is what has been talked about the most, but in my opinion the big news is not in the new models (rather they would be remodeled) but in the redefinition of one of their best-known slogans: “Superlative Chronometer”. For a few years now, all top-level watch brands have been trying to delimit their own territory in terms of chronometric precision: the COSC would be somewhat surpassed (although I think the issue is that it is more of a test that more and more brands see themselves capable of passing and having it does not represent a competitive advantage) and to mark these distances the Fleurier punch (Chopard), the PP seal (Patek Philippe), the METAS certificate (Omega) have appeared... even Glashütte Original has presented its own chronometry certificate, precisely in this edition of Baselworld.

I may have to eat my words later (in which case I'll come back here and edit), but I haven't heard/read that any of those new stamps "get wet" with the precision they claim to achieve, while this one "Superlative Chronometer Reloaded” states that the speed will be +2/-2 seconds per day, which doubles the precision required by the COSC. The new green sealing wax, together with a five-year warranty and a ten-year recommendation interval between revisions materialize this – for me – important achievement.

As I said, following in the footsteps of his gold and platinum brothers, theSteel DaytonaIt now features a black Cerachrom bezel with the tachymeter figures engraved on it. The most visible difference apart from the change in color is that these figures are written in a circular way and “facing” the center, so that the one located at six o'clock is literally read backwards, while in the now old model (Rolex is not going to produce it anymore) the figures were always horizontal with respect to the observer's view. On the black dial, the subdials have also changed color: they are gray instead of silver. To the surprise of some, the price of this new Daytona “only” rises €350 compared to the last known price of €11,050.

Apart from this, the most striking thing has been a40mm Airkingwith a dial that promises to be as controversial as that of the green ceramic Submariner (later baptized as “Hulk”): recovering the aviator tradition from which it supposedly descends, the indices other than the cardinal points are marked not with sticks or hour figures but with the minute figures. And not small, precisely. As if that were not very striking (at least on a Rolex) it was decided to paint the crown in yellow and the brand's graphics in green just as the first model in the series had. The second hand is also green. Being that it is a watch designed for aviation, theAir KingIt has a magnetism-proof case. I don't know if they will sell many, if few or if it will become a collectible; What I am sure of is that no layman will tell you that hackneyed thing that all Rolexes are the same. This one will also come with its green sealing wax.

Also new, but less so, is the40mm YachtMaster with chocolate dial. It recovers the aesthetics that should never have been lost “at the hands” of the rubber strap that, no matter how well made, detracted – in my opinion – from a watch that *has* to go with a metal bracelet. Also the 41mm Datejust in Rolesor®, the Rolex combination of steel and Everose®, the feminine Oysters with stone settings and the Cellini which, you will forgive me, I don't know what they still do in the catalogue.

What else? Oh yes, a couple of photos of the Daytona on the wrist:

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