The Many Ways Of The Seamaster¶
Published on Sun, 24 Jul 2022 12:00:00 +0000
The latest 300, its many siblings, and some Talking Watches BTS.
Synopsis¶
In this episode of Hodinkee Radio, host James Stacy sits down with colleague Danny Milton to discuss the evolution of the Omega Seamaster line and provide behind-the-scenes insights into recent Hodinkee content. The conversation explores how the Seamaster has evolved from its 1948 origins as a dressy, field-adjacent watch into the diverse family of dive watches it represents today. Unlike competitors like the Rolex Submariner that started specifically as dive watches, the Seamaster began more like Rolex's Oyster—a broader water-resistant concept that only later specialized into diving.
Danny provides detailed analysis of his recent Week on the Wrist review featuring the 2021 Seamaster 300, a 41mm heritage-inspired piece that blends vintage aesthetics with modern technology. They discuss how Omega has created an entire brand ecosystem within the Seamaster name alone, with hundreds of SKUs spanning everything from the classic 1948 models and Aqua Terra line to the Bond-associated 300M, the Planet Ocean, the Ploprof, and various limited editions. The conversation touches on specific details like the shift from liquid metal to aluminum bezel inserts, pricing around $6,500, and how the watch compares to competitors from Tudor and Rolex in terms of value proposition.
The episode also includes a delightful discussion about the recent Talking Watches episode featuring musicians Aly and AJ, with Danny sharing behind-the-scenes stories about filming at Webster Hall before their sold-out concert. He praises their genuine watch knowledge, noting how they referenced specific moments from previous Talking Watches episodes and spontaneously decided which watches to wear onstage during filming. James concludes by announcing that Hodinkee Radio will be taking a summer break, returning in early September with new episodes.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| James Stacy | This episode of Hodinky Radio is proudly brought to you by Hodinky Insurance. It's the fastest, easiest way to insure the watches you love. Get your quote now at Hodinky dot com slash insurance. Hey, it's me, James Stacy, and today I'm joined by Danny to dig into a couple of his latest stories. Essentially a full watch brand unto itself, the Seamaster has taken many forms and indeed formats over the years, and I wanted to chat over this would-be diver's evolution and how it relates to modern day Omega. One note before we dive in, Hodinki Radio will be taking summer break, with this episode being the last to air until we're back in early September. We'll be back soon with a brand new run of exciting conversations from all over the watchworld. So here's Danny with a behind-the-scenes look at the Seamaster, his latest talking watches with Allie and AJ, and a whole lot more. Okay, right from the top a quick note of disclosure as we're talking a bunch about Omega on this episode, and Omega is carried in the Hodinki shop. So this is just a reminder that we enjoy complete editorial independence. And with that, Danny, how are we doing? Hey James, we're doing. We are. We are indeed. Yeah. You ready to talk some Seamaster? Yeah, I'm always ready to talk some Seamaster. It's been a topic that that's kind of come up a bunch lately. Uh in our conversations. Uh, you know, obviously we we have some some stuff in the in the in the works that we can't fully talk about that's Seamaster themed. It it's an interesting thing because so many of the Seamasters peers, I mean, you look at something like uh like a sub these days, it was always a dive watch, it started as a dive watch. Omega has really taken their own path with it in that it kind of started before dive watches were were really a thing and and sort of in a different format |
| Danny Milton | . Oh yeah. I mean I have I think a Seamaster from 1960 in my own collection that is very much not you know a water themed watch in any way. I mean, it does have like a very faint engraving that says waterproof on the back, you know, back before the days where there was a distinction between proof and resistant. But no, these did not start as as divers tool watches at all. In fact, they were much more field adjacent |
| James Stacy | Yeah, kind of feel dressy everyday sort of watches for um a sort of less casual form of dress. You know, the the thing that in that kind of came to me when I was thinking about it is in some ways Sea Master was almost their um oyster. For sure. Right. So so almost of this this like bigger arc and then it became dive watches as as they as they move forward. But I th I think you can trace the line back to something like nineteen forty eight. Yep. Um, which obviously predates a dive watch by you know a handful of years at least, five, six years. And I I think it's uh it's it's kind of an interesting point that it took them a little while to decide that a watch name the Seamaster would be a dive watch, which kind of picks up into the at least the aesthetic format of your uh recent week on the wrist. For su |
| Danny Milton | re. I mean it's it's one of those interesting things where I I'm sure that the the term Seamaster might have related to you, know more, of, you know, and I'm using men in this sort of vintage term, you know, on ships, you know, at sea and not necessarily under the sea. And so I it's it luckily for them, the name can definitely work in both in both situations. Um, but it's still funny to see that the Seamaster continues. I think that the Aquaterra is sort of the sporty continuation of those early watches, because while definitely capable of dying, um, they're not dive watches per se. Um, but yeah, I my week on the wrist was with a really bizarre and I say bizarre in as positive a light as possible, the the Seamaster 300s that came out in 2021. Which was kind of like another generation of a watch that came out a few years previous. Yeah, and it's it's sort of indicative of the way that Omega sort of segments their their lines of watches. And there's just so many c masters even in like the current production and the names can get confusing because you have the watch that I reviewed for a week on the wrist uh a couple weeks back which is the seamaster 300 then you have and correct me if I get the name wrong on this one, the Seamaster Diver Professional 300M, which is a very, very different watch, which is more like the the golden eye James Bond sort of style of watch, the wave dial. Uh right |
| James Stacy | , 300M versus just 300, which is part of the and th the the standard three hundred, which is is the focus of this one, is that kind of throwback look yes in into the uh late fifties, the sandwich dial, the thin bezel, the the um the sort of um straight lug uh like sharp lug design um which i I believe they would yeah they call it it's under the heritage line which includes things like the rail master which is part of the seamaster master seamaster rail master, exactly. And some uh Olympic official timekeeping watches, and then of course uh the Ploprof, which is a the a deep seamaster, but also a weird cut. Even stuff like there's a bullhead chrono that's also a seamaster. And then on the same page within inches of each other, there's also the 1948 line, which is kind of the classic, the true classic. Yes. And then if you scroll all the way up, you come across obviously the Aquatera line, the 300M, which I think is where a lot of people know it from the nineties, right? From the the Bond style watch, the skeleton hands, that sort of thing. And then we have the Planet Ocean, which is also a Seamaster. Right. It's gotta be about three hundred skews. |
| Danny Milton | . For sure Maybe more. And I almost think that the Planet Ocean is almost the the most modern iteration of the original Seamaster three hundred in a in a way. You know, they they maintain some of like the Arabic numeral design on the dial. Um there's there's a lot that you see which I what I love about Omega is it's it's never been afraid to change designs much more than say a Rolex would and create a new watch with while still preserving like the idea of the old one, but it's it's completely different. But that brings me back to this Omega Seamaster 300 uh that was released I think in February or March of 2021, that is kind of a mixture of everything. It doesn't you were talking about sort of the original C Master 300s from the 50s, which have like very thin bezels, um, a very distinctive sort of dial design. This takes pieces of all kinds of watches over the life of a Seamaster 300 and includes them in this watch but also invents some things sort of just brings in vintage effect styling for the sake of vintage effect styling and that's what attracted me so much to this watch because there are things in here that other vintage watches from other brands have used in the past that have that are not necessarily true to Omega that pop up on this watch that just fascinated me. We saw |
| James Stacy | the basis kind of the absolute core rebuilt in the 1957 trilogy. Right. With the very thin bezel. Yeah. Yep. And then and then the sort of slightly massaged, a little bit thicker, a little bit deeper dial, sandwich dial. Um I've and then obviously there's been some special editions there's. There was a a the Spectre uh L E with the twelve hour bezel, which I I'm you know I'm a huge fan of. It's a very cool watch. Very cool. I I would wonder like how they describe Seamaster now to a retailer, right? Yeah. Cause it it's a whole brand. It it it is. Like there there are there are entire watch brands that don't have this number of SKUs across their entire product that Omega would have just in here. And like let's not forget uh Speedmaster or Constellation or another brand onto itself. I mean I think bet |
| Danny Milton | ween Seamaster and Speedmaster, those are two complete brand catalogs in and of themselves. You know, I happen to think that the 300M, you know, the sort of Bond 90 Seamaster design. Of of any watch that I can think of that could have stolen some of the thunder of watch you see most on wrist from the nineties to the mid-2000s could very well have been that watch. I mean, I think that you probably saw as many, and they could have been quartz or automatic, uh see Master 300Ms as sort of first watch buys from a lot of people in that time. And it's really rare that you see a design that's kind of startling when you think about how different it is from sort of past iterations of C Master watches. Take you know that much of the market share and sort of capture the spirit of buyers in that way. And it's almost interesting because it feels like a watch like the 300 and and any of these sort of vintage throwbacks, those are not core models for Omega. Whereas like for a tutor, the vintage design is the brand right now. And I think for Omega, a lot of the modern stu |
| James Stacy | ff is really their bread and butter. And so the the modern iteration of this 1950s dive watch is 41 millimeters, available in almost every metal at this point. Yep. So they make these in in this specific one in all sorts of versions. And it's a little bit confusing if you click around on their website because there seems to be two sort of generations at play. There's the one kind of previous 2021, which uh if you want to see of c some wild examples, I did a hands-on with the three precious metal versions, uh eighteen karat yellow, Sedna gold, which is the sort of rose gold option, and uh uh platinum version, all on the bracelets, all pretty wild. Um but from the core, the one that you're looking at is this latest iteration, which has a few small changes. Um and and I think if I mean I had to be told kind of what to look for because there's like like we've said a few times on the this episode, there's so many of these on their site and they seem to still be available, the pre-2021 versions and and this latest one. What what's the quick way to see the latest one and know what you're looking for? I |
| Danny Milton | think my eyes would go to the bottom half of the dial and I'm looking for just one line of text. If it only says C Master 300, you know you're looking at the new one. Um if it has sort of uh uh the modern um typeface that's letting you know it's a master coaxial movement. You know you're looking at sort of the previous gen or I guess we're saying contemporary generation. But it's it's that's how that's the easiest way for me to tell the difference on |
| James Stacy | these. Right. So it's a it's a few small changes to the dial. Um the it I think it's there's more sandwich happening than there was on the previous generation. That's a helpful thing. Like the I think there was more three six n |
| Danny Milton | ine more recessed markers on the old gen and here it's like full on you know, you've got you know uh an inch of space, you know, between and then we're we're we they've changed the material for the bezel insert as well. Yeah, which I always thought was super interesting because, you know, in especially in I guess we'll call it the previous gen, um to have a liquid metal bezel insert on a watch that was so vintage looking, I always thought was really a cool thing to be honest with you. It's not something that not many brands would do. Um, and in a way, I I mentioned this in my video, it actually harkens back to uh the look and feel of of bakelite because that was a bit more shiny. It was not quite like the aluminum is. And um you know the liquid metal situation is obviously more durable than an aluminum would be. Um but here yeah the new one is is aluminum bezel |
| James Stacy | . Right. So uh anodized aluminum bezel fully loomed um with the same sort of tan tan luminous treatment that's all around so you get a very kind of cohesive vintage sort of look. And uh what's the price point for these? I believe it's right around sixty one hundred dollars for these. I mean, that seems like a lot of watch for the money, which which kind of the if you're in that zone, if you're in the into the C Master zone, when you look at what what a lot of its uh kind of philosophical competition |
| Danny Milton | I I agree. And it feel it feels every bit. I'm sorry, I just want to correct myself a sixty five hundred on bracelet uh 6150 on a strap. But yeah, no, you you feel it in in your hands. It is absolutely, you know, a whole lot of watch for that money. I mean you're getting I've said this all the time, especially when with when you're talking the coaxial movement inside, the meta certified movement inside, what you're getting in an omega at this price, it's pretty outstanding. You know, in many ways, you're splitting the baby between the sort of aesthetic that many people are attracted to, and let's say at Tudor Black Bay, Tudor Black Bay 58, and the movement technology and build quality comparable to Rolex, you know, all in one. You know, of course they're not gonna get quite to that Rolex level in a lot of ways. Uh the bezel action is not anywhere close. I think in fact, even it's not quite as good as the tutor. However, it's still like you you you would never think that you are overspending for this watch. You actually might think that you're getting a ton of val |
| James Stacy | ue. Yeah. And and what did you think of the proportions in person? Forty one millimeters wide, it's twenty-one millimeter lugs, which if you buy the bracelet and you like a bracelet, then who cares, right? Right. But if you're a strap guy, if you're a NATO nerd or whatever, then that that's gonna be part of the math in in the decision. Uh and sometimes the the the high end the higher end sort of movement that you get in the omegas can also make them feel a little thick. Uh what how did it feel on person? Did it feel right or did you kind of wish it was that nineteen fifty-seven size |
| Danny Milton | thirty-nine? It felt exactly 41 millimeters, but it didn't have the beefiness that I think uh I I keep bringing up Tutor Blackbays. I think it's really good comparison here. It does it d it doesn't forty one black bay is a pretty chunky watch. It's not chunky in that way. I think that it it the the profile of the case and even just sort of like the top-down view of the case presents much more flat, a little more um angular Dare I say mid-century in a way that |
| James Stacy | keeps it from feeling chunky. You know, in in the video for the the week on the wrist, you kind of you had folks decide on Instagram between uh this kind of very current gen three hundred and a uh an an original three hundred a different sort of design from sixty seven. Yep. And uh and and we can include some of this in the show notes to make it easier. It's it you know it's we're splitting hairs on on C Master, but these are kind of three very different ones. And then the third one was a uh three hundred M. |
| Danny Milton | Yep, blue dial, just to keep things consistent. There obviously wouldn't have been a blue dial for uh the three hundred, although there were, I believe, blue bezel variants, some rare ones back in the day, but I wasn't I didn't happen to have one of those in the hand. What of the three would you have probably voted for? This is gonna be weird to say, but I have a real soft spot for the 300M. It's it's kind of a hot take, especially having sort of spent time with all of them. I think there was a a general call to action of Of and people may, you know, definitely talk to me about this in the comments section on Hodinky, but the angle that we were taking was the idea of where a watch like this from a design perspective came from. And I think that there is a definite Instagram effect right now in terms of how social media informs taste, how watch brands do research on what watches people like, what styles people like, it's the easiest way to crowdsource, it's the easiest way to understand um a market. And I do think that the Seamaster 300 is a beautiful watch, both in the metal and photographically speaking, but for me, I've always just appreciated how Omega continues to push forward from a modern perspective. And I like the idea of wearing a watch of now, uh, instead of of yesterday. Um as much as I loved |
| James Stacy | the Seamaster three hundred that I reviewed. I think I might have guessed that's where you would land. And yeah, I I I have a tough tough one with this 'cause I you know, being being a kid who would have been what, like nine or ten when when the the three hundred M kind of took the world with James Bond and the rest. Like I've never been a huge uh skeleton hands fan, but I've you know, I I've owned a two two five four. I I definitely like that size and and I I a wave dial's pretty rad, but the simple truth is like the original three hundred and the one in the videos from sixty-seven, you know, like uh one six five, I just think it's it's about a perfect dive watch. I love the the sort of military connection. I I think it's just about as good uh of a a vintage watch design as as one could hope for. Obviously it's it's um it's been homaged uh in in into uh you know complete repetition over the years. Sure. But I think almost for good reason. Omega hasn't really uh committed to making another one from that era. They just look incredible and and it's kind of cool because you can kind of hold them up next to a uh speedy of the same generation and see the the Omega-ness of it all. Oh yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which I really like, especially as a given my just general preference. But the fully gradiated bezel, the the big sword hands, who knows? Maybe, maybe we will get that at some point. And wouldn't shock me for sure. Nothing shocks me anymore. Yeah. The the the playbook is is well known at this point, but yeah, uh I really love that watch. It's definitely the one that uh I went and clicked on on Instagram and uh and and and really enjoyed. And uh anytime you get a chance to spend some time with those, they're really cool because the like I said, they're they're absolutely gorgeous and they seem to suit a lot of different wrists, but they have that the weight of a vintage watch. It's like not Exactly. With a bracelet is just as |
| Danny Milton | light. So and it and it hugs the wrist. So it like to your point, it f it it is an easy fit for a lot of folks. I'm interested though because going back to 300 M for a moment, because there's one that I have not yet seen that you have, and it's the the green dial um yeah model that was a 2022 release. You know what what's your take on that one in the metal? Because that's one that I'm psyched to see at some point soon |
| James Stacy | . Yeah, I like it quite a bit. Um, you know, the the green green watches haven't really landed for me in in terms of like wanting one, but I like that they went with a nice kind of dark green, um, good distance from something like a Hulk or or a Kermit in terms of the colorway, a little bit more like a Britishy racing green. And in some photos and some light, it's almost black. And I think that's a nice way to do green. We've seen a few other dive watches that that have done very similar sort of shades where in one light you'd almost just swear it was the black one, and then the sun hits it, or or you get a nice highlight and it's this like really radiant rich sort of color. And and I think Omega does that really well because you have those the the construction of the dial is so glassy. Yep. That it just takes color really nicely. You know I'm a sucker for the older ones, the matte ones, the you know, pre-coaxial stuff. Uh, but I think in almost every regard, these watches have become kind of technological showcases for materials and movement and and all that kind of stuff all wrapped up into one. And I think for a dive watch, that makes a ton of sense. Um, I my my preference is still the white one. That's such a good one. I think it's so cool. The white one on the |
| Danny Milton | black rubber is really tidy. The one thing that bugs me, and this is you know, I think we all have this where you love a watch and there's just one little thing that that can trip you up from from making the purchase, and it's on a good amount of the steel models, it's the red text for C Master and the red tip of the second's hand, I think it is, where the green model does away with all that. And I that's what I really loved when I saw it was just white text all around. You know, no red to be seen. I just I I don't know why it doesn't work for me in that context. Just a just |
| James Stacy | a personal thing. Yeah. I mean the funny thing is is we started off by saying just how many versions there were of the of this the idea of the Seamaster, and now we're into little tiny exactly deep cut, you know, text color of one dial version of the 300M, and there's probably 40 or 50 300Ms. I you know, I'm also a big f I love that last bond one for no time to die on on the Milan A's titanium bracelet. It's so good. Super fun. So good. Yeah. And and just one of those times where like uh it's easy for me to get fatigued when it comes to the Fotina, the sort of fake tan coloring of stuff. But when it's all matte, like they did with that one, I just I I it's has sat with me since I got a chance to to shoot a hands-on for it. You know, back when the movie was supposed to come out. So it was about a year and a half ahead, or maybe two years ahead of the one when people actually saw it. Yeah, so so it was ten years ago. Yeah, something like ten years ago, yeah. Uh we'll see a tenth anniversary of that watch soon, no doubt. You know while while we have some time, I I and and while we're talking about specificity and kind of the specialness and even some omegas, I'd I' loved to dip quickly into um into maybe a little bit of behind the scenes from the Allie and AJ uh talking watches. I assume Ali and AJ are listening. I know that they're uh big fans, uh, and of course the feeling is super mutual. I' Id love to have them on at some point to chit chat more about some of the watches, but uh it it the the the video largely kicks off with a look at um Ali's uh Omega constellation, which is like a beautiful pipan on the bracelet, which is the way to do it. Not at all |
| Danny Milton | . First of all, hey Ali, hey AJ if you are listening. It was awesome. Great video. Great shoot. Yeah. They took all the heavy lifting off of me because they they just knew their stuff like through and through. Like they're hardcore. Like they're rattling off like movement numbers. You know, I're there's an amazing just image in my head of AJ holding her disco volante up, you know, one eye closed, just examining how just how thin the case is. And that's just the kind of stuff that's like when you really love a watch, you admire such a random it's not random to a watch lover, but you just admire how thin your watch is, even though you've owned it for maybe years at that point. You still get so much enjoyment out of out of that. Um so the moment that we and you're right, like just for some behind the scenes, it's like you know, these are these are probably the most involved productions that Hodinki puts on in the sense that, you know, camera crew, lighting setup, you know, that kind of thing where it can feel a little bit stiff for a second because you're you're sort of positioned in a place and there's three of you and you know I'd met them before so it wasn't the first time that we'd no interacted, but still like when when the camera starts rolling, you have to sort of start a conversation naturally, even though it can feel a bit unnatural. But to their credit, I mean they're both not only performers but actors, and they're just so used to this environment that they we when we got rolling, it was just like we were just chatting and the camera sort of floated away, to be honest. Yeah, it' |
| James Stacy | s fun because you could not not only can you tell when you're dealing with somebody who's not only super comfortable on camera, and that's fairly common across talking watches. A lot of the people are performers, celebrities, that sort of sort of thing. But you can definitely tell when it's someone who has watched other talking watches. This didn't come to them through a PR person. Right. They sat down, they kind of like, Why did this guy care so much about my watches? Or or like, do they know that I'm a so and so, or or that like that this isn't really what I'm about? Right. Don't they want to talk about the sport I do or or or whatever? And uh and you can see it come through immediately, like they knew the format. Not so much if it's somebody's first or not, but if they realize that um even the best interviews are generally pretty conversational. Yeah. And uh and I loved that they were they were always finding another little piece of data to add, a connection between the two of them, a callbacks to something from just a couple minutes ago. I mean, these aren't like feature length sort of videos. So to to have you have the ability to bounce back and forth on on what was said really makes it quite engaging. So I I guess I really only bring it up to commend them uh and you for what I think was a a really like charming and interactive take on on that format. And it's not always easy when there's two people as well. It was it |
| Danny Milton | it's that was think it was the first time we've ever done that, to be honest, was a a two person talking watches. And you can tell that they are so accustomed to sort of interacting with each other in that way that it felt like I was talking to sort of one unit. And you're right. Like, I mean, I even asked them a question about what their favorite talking watches was, and you would assume, of course, John Mayer is going to come up for everyone, but Goldberger was one that they went to first. You know, like that's how you know that you're pretty you're pretty deep. It's a goody. Uh like they're referencing the sort of knifing open the case back scene. Like that sure. That's how you know. And and the cool thing about about that shoot is we got to hang out, we shot that at Webster Hall, which is a venue in New York City, uh, which they sold out that night for their show, and we got to hang out backstage after we did the interview and we got to follow them up sort of behind the stage when they went out to perform and and watch the show sort of from off stage. And it was really um like the whole sort of evening and experience was great. And I think it was amazing that we got to capture so much of the concert footage on video and the way that our, you know, just a tremendous video team was able to get them wearing those watches on stage that we sort of, you know, picked, which was completely unexpected to me. That happened absolutely live on the spot when they asked me to choose what watch they should wear on stage. So for anybody who thought that was like uh a pre-planned or pre-scri |
| James Stacy | pted, absolutely not.. Well, that's great I I remember the day that you filmed that because I was coming in for some meetings in New York. Yep. And um I I thought I'd be able to catch a little bit of the show, just you know, kind of sneak in the back and and watch some. And uh and and as it turns out, you know, f flights did what flights do and I c got in very late and ended up having chicken wings with Will, uh who's the you know, kind of the the controlling architect of talking watches. |
| Danny Milton | I would have joined you, but my my mother in law had just uh come in town that night and I felt the longer I stayed at the show, the r more rude I was for not going home. So uh |
| James Stacy | yeah. Just hanging out with rock stars. Yeah in law. No, I get it for sure. Well look Danny, that's uh that's I think that's plenty on the Sea Master and uh and I think uh uh we should we should probably not uh not tread too far into the alley in AJ territory when we might be able to have them on the on on the show in the future. I think they'd make um for sure wonderful guests, so standing invite uh should they be keen and uh and yeah, other than that, uh, thanks so much, Danny, for uh coming back on and chit-chatting with the Seamaster. It's been on my mind since uh since I watched the week on the wrist. Anytime, James. All right, thanks so much for listening, everybody. And like I mentioned at the top, we are going on summer break. So we'll chat to you in about a month's time. |