Does It Get Sexier Than Omega’s Latest Take on Its Most Iconic Watch?

lot of mileage out of this feat, habitually pumping out alternate versions of the watch made completely out of gold, with adorable little Snoopy cartoons, or with actual meteorite incorporated into the piece. However, the brand may have one-upped itself with its latest batch of new Speedmasters, which it announced this week..

The Speedmaster is best known as a hard-wearing stainless steel watch—the type of piece that can endure the turbulence, shifts in gravity, and high temperatures that may endanger astronauts. Luckily, most Omega customers not named Jeff Bezos won’t be traveling to space anytime soon. This frees the brand up to release two new Speedmasters in what it calls Moonshine Gold. KFC may have its secret blend of herbs and spices, but Omega has its proprietary metal, a mix of gold, silver, copper, and palladium designed to maintain the sheen of the metal for longer than straight-up 18-carat gold would.

The two new Moonshine Gold watches immediately rank as some of the nicest Speedmasters in existence. The first comes with a rich forest green dial and a bezel to match. But the true stunner of this new twosome, in my opinion, is the second, which bears a gold dial to match its gold case, black bezel, and black subdials. The black accents give the watch that attractive “Panda” effect, and some collectors have approvingly invoked the phrase “John Player Special,” the gold-and-black color scheme inspired by the paint job on ‘70s Lotus Formula 1 cars sponsored by the cigarette manufacturer of the same name. It’s a big deal whenever Omega decides to drop new Speedmasters, but it’s even better when the watches look this great.

Omega seems to be steering the Moonwatch in a new, fancier direction. The brand kicked off 2022 with a bang, putting out a Speedmaster made out of Canopus gold (Omega’s name for its white gold) with an $81,000 price tag attached. It follows that up with two more luxury versions of what is at its core a sport watch. After years of rugged sport watches dominating both the auction world and the majority of new releases, maybe collectors are ready to embrace something a little more precious.

New Speedmasters aren’t the only new watches Omega has on tap for 2022, though.