November 14, 2017

The Speedy Tuesday Limited Edition Speedmaster

Earlier this year, Omega announced a limited edition of their iconic Speedmaster watch through their Instagram channel, and it subsequently becoming the brand’s first watch to be sold exclusively online. All 2,012 examples were spoken for within the day. Turns out, the venue was fitting, as the watch itself took its name and design inspiration from a popular social media hashtag started by Dutch watch journalist (and all things Omega expert), Robert-Jan Broer; #SpeedyTuesday. What sets this limited edition Speedmaster apart from the scores of others? The execution.

The design of the Speedy Tuesday Speedmaster was inspired by the Alaska Project III developed for NASA in 1978 (these watches are a story for another day). The watch, which was never available commercially, features a unique dial design that reconfigures the sub-dials to pull the markers into the flat portion of the register, pushing the numbers themselves to the outer ring. This was done at the request of NASA to bring a greater level of legibility to the dial. The Speedy Tuesday follows suit in its design, though Omega decided to go with a reverse-panda colorway here, setting white sub-dials over the black dial.

A second, more subtle but equally as important detail of Speedy Tuesday that originates with the Alaska Project III is the fully brushed case. The original case was bead blasted to reduce a potentially troublesome amount of glare for astronauts. The use of a fully brushed case on the Speedy Tuesday may not be the first thing you notice, but it does wonders for the look of the watch as a whole, and a trend we’d love to see carried into other watches from Omega and others.

Within the 42mm brushed case beats a hand wound Omega caliber 1861. The solid case back means you won’t get a look at it, but you will get the iconic Omega seahorse and engravings that read “SPEEDY TUESDAY ANNIVERSARY” and “A TRIBUTE TO ALASKA PROJECT III” alongside the serialized number stamp.

Original pricing for this special Speedmaster was $6,500. If you were lucky enough to get your name on the list, you’d have received your watch late this summer and you’d be thrilled to see them trading hands in the $10k range today (the last sale on StockX was for exactly $10,000). At the moment, there’s an Ask listed at $8,700, so act now if you want to get your hands on one for under market price.