What time is it? Watches and horology

I missed the bidding anyway cheers. Too many beers in the sun.

The watch is from the late fifties/early sixties, so i’d Say it’s fair wear tbh

So nice!

I forgot to comment on that Oris as well, looks great. How big is it? For some reason I thought they were massive but it looks fine there.

platinum 50th anniversary with the 321 movement.. hopefully in the future one in steel for us mere mortals...

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Was in good new watch company there on Friday - great showing all and health to wear.

The Aquis is 43.5mm so not small by any means but the lug design makes it wear smaller for sure.

My interest kind of shuts down as soon as I read platinum, just ceases to be a tool watch. Saying that I’d sell a kidney for the yellow gold red bezel variant 🤦‍♂️

Cheesy but I’ve been wearing the Speedy all weekend, probably my favourite watch.

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The rumour is that yes, the remade 321 will eventually become the standard moonwatch calibre, or at least available as a series piece. With a commensurate price increase of course. They’d have to get it flight qualified by nasa again, but maybe the idea is that the original 321 was flight qualified so therefore it’s the “same” watch and they wouldn’t have to get it re-qualified.

Help! Who does everybody use to post higher value watches? Royal Mail special delivery only covers upto £2500. Thanks

https://www.omegawatches.com/en-gb/stories/321-is-back?utm_source=email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=sp-us-en-21jul2019

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Help! Who does everybody use to post higher value watches? Royal Mail special delivery only covers upto £2500. Thanks

https://www.malca-amit.com/

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When they first announced they were remaking the 321 it was clear they were going to put it into some expensive special editions first. But I heard some industry rumour/speculation through the Hoodwinkee podcast (iirc) that the longer term plan was probably to make it the standard Moonwatch calibre.

thats a beauty.

(Not a knowledgeable with watches but have followed this thread and grown an interest since March and my last bday) - what do people think about recreating the 321 movement? To my limited knowledge, it's highly desired and respected movement, but from the 60s; so surely it can't be as good as a modern movement in terms of accuracy, power reserve and stuff? To me it sounds like putting a s54 BMW engine in the latest m3.

Sick.

It's a bit complicated… the 861 as an evolution of the 321 (both Lemania movements) was meant to be a bit simpler and more reliable (and cheaper). Omega then made a few more improvements that made the (current Moonwatch's) 1861 probably better than the 321 ever was as a device for actually being used in space, despite the "cruder" cam actuation instead of column wheel.

Omega are also being a bit disingenuous when they say it's been out of production for 50 years - the same Lemania design is still in use, albeit decorated, as the Breguet 533.3 (the Swatch Group own Omega, Lemania and Breguet) and some Pateks.

Basically, a lot of high end mechanical watch movements are really very, very old designs and most of the significant improvements have been to the materials, to make them less affected by magnetism and so on. The 3861 in the solid gold reissue and Apollo 11 special edition are probably the most interesting, adding the coaxial escapement and silicon balance spring (to gain their "master chronometer" certification). That is clearly a "better" calibre than a 321, no question. But it doesn't have a column wheel, so…

Rolex movements are also very simple but they work, to the point where every single watch they sell is rated +/- 2 sec/day. Pretty much no-one else does that. Above that, the difference is mostly in the finishing, decoration and/or use of precious metals.

Ultimately though - the 321 was worn on the moon. The 861/1861 wasn't. The 321 is more desirable to collectors, so Omega are bound to make a big deal out of it.

The 321 undoubtedly looks nicer too:

The column wheel is at the top centre, the bit with the inward-pointing triangular teeth. You can see the cam in its place on the 861:

Yeah… might have been doing some nerding out this weekend.

Oh the humanity. Second album syndrome right here. Horrid case IMO. Ugly crown transition. Numerals look bad too. Shame as their first watch was classy af.

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Thanks, I hate it

Nerding out all weekend too

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Jesus Christ, what's happened here?! The dial I can live with, everything else is a no.

Nice! So this Explorer vs Air King models, is there only minor differences like the case size and movement or is it a bit more extensive?? Only I'm fond of the blue dials which only really appear on the Air-King with the same Arabic numerals.

Are you thinking of the Oyster Perpetual? The 36mm OP has a couple of dial colours with the 3/6/9 arabics, blue and silver. Same movement in them I think.

Edit: ah no, the OP uses the 3130, Explorer I uses the 3132, the latter has shock absorbers. Very similar watches though. Fully brushed case and oyster bracelet, polished bezel, no date.

The blue OP is very similar to the old blue Air-King, except the numerals are lumed now.

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god that is terrible