Post by timelessluxwatches on Nov 4, 2016 10:53:46 GMT -6
Omega Tresor Review
The Omega Tresor is one of the brand's dressiest watches, but it's even more special thanks to its 8511 movement, an extremely rare hand wound co-axial calibre.
I've been wanting to review the Tresor ever since it was announced because one of the most common concerns with Omega's 8500 powered watches is their thickness. That's acceptable in bulky dive watches, but in a dress watch the standards are different. Omega dealt with that problem in the simplest way possible: by removing the automatic winding system altogether.
But before we get to the movement, let's talk about aesthetics. I personally perceive the Tresor as a sort of counterpoint to the Globemaster. The Globemaster, like the Tresor, is a dedicated dress watch, but at the same time it's the flashier model, thanks to its fluted bezel but also to its pie pan dial. The Tresor is not only thinner, but more understated.
Although the dial is not ostentatious, it is nonetheless quite elaborate. This is due to its clous de paris texture, which although a shiny, silvery-white, gives the dial something of a matte finish from afar, thanks to the diffuse reflection of light.
The hands and markers appear to be simple gold sticks, but their reality is more complex. While the Tresor lacks the pie pan dial of the Globemaster, the dial is nonetheless a dome, and both the hands and the markers follow the curvature of the dial perfectly. In real life, this has a greater visual impact than you might think, due to the fact that each hand and marker is reflecting different areas of the room or wearer, although this is hard to represent in a photography studio. Despite being a very unique member of the 8500 family, the hour hand is still independent like most other versions of the movement.
The date has nice symmetry at 6:00. It lacks a frame, but it's nicely beveled and surprisingly deep, I suppose the inevitable product of a domed dial. Like the vast majority of 8500s, hand wound or not, the date is changed via the independent hour hand.
One of its more distinguishing features is its beautiful 40mm Sedna gold case, or rather, its 11 millimeter thickness. This is undoubtedly due to the hand wound movement, and while 11mm is fine, it's not the thinnest in its class. Still, it directly answers much of the criticism directed to contemporary Omegas and is a big step in the right direction.
As will surprise no one, the Tresor doesn't boast an especially great water resistance rating at just 30 meters, and the crown doesn't screw down. It's quite easy to predict, however, that 30 meters of water resistance is probably 29.9 meters more than the owner of a Tresor will actually attempt to use.
The Tresor is about 44.5mm from lug to lug, a rather demure figure that, when combined with its short and curvy lugs, make it quite comfortable. If anything, it wears a bit smaller than its 40mm dimension would suggest, which is not what I had expected from its large, white dial.
And now, finally, we can take a look at the 8511, which is, in my humble opinion, the prettiest mass produced movement that Omega has made in a long time. While it's a Master Coaxial, denoting extreme magnetic resistance, it isn't a Master Chronometer, a special rating that its intra-corporate competitor the Globemaster can claim. In the real world, however, the difference is primarily one of testing, not of performance.
As I mentioned in my last Globemaster review, the 8511 is what I call a "1" movement, meaning it features a gold balance bridge that is set off quite brilliantly against the rest of the movement. If you guessed that the 8511 was, more or less, an 8500 automatic without the automatic winding system, you'd be right. It simply boggles my mind that Omega isn't using this in more watches. It is, without a doubt, my single favorite mass produced Omega movement right now and I think it should be available in several models of the DeVille line.
Looking very closely, we can observe some of the special features that 8500 movements offer. Here we can see the free sprung balance wheel, accompanied by gold screws that allow a watchmaker to adjust both poise and rate. This feature is closely associated with high-end watchmaking and is the approach favored by Patek, Rolex and AP, to name a few. More special, however, is the silicon hairspring. You can even just barely see the co-axial escapement, which is one of the more aesthetically pleasing elements in movement design today.
Another interesting design choice is the double barrel mainspring layout, here made visible by those two black barrels. This allows Omega to achieve a 60 hour power reserve, or an impressive 50% more than the industry standard. Additionally, this particular implementation allows for greater stability as the watch winds down. While all 8500s are extraordinarily smooth during hand winding, with no perceptible "clicks" as the crown rotates, this is something you enjoy much more in a watch that must be manually wound often. It's so smooth that it actually takes some getting used to because, if you're new to 8500s, you won't even be sure you're winding the watch at all.
In French, Tresor means "treasure" and it's easy to see why Omega would have used that name here. The Tresor is almost certainly the classiest model the brand offers today, not merely in terms of aesthetics, but also dimensions, usurping some wonderful DeVilles and perhaps even the Globemaster in the process. As a name like "Treasure" would imply, the watch is currently available only in gold, although you can choose between several different colors. It would be wonderful, nonetheless, to see this in steel, but I think that's very unlikely.
It's a great watch, and a great counterpart to the Globemaster. If you've been looking at the Globemaster or even the Calatrava, the Tresor deserves a close look. It combines very understated, very traditional styling with one of the most sophisticated movements at any price. It's especially appealing to Omega fans who feel put off by this generation's thickness. It'd be great to see Omega drop the date in a future model to shave another tenth of a millimeter off, but I'd also really like to see Omega develop a next-gen ultra-thin movement, either automatic or hand wound. Until then, however, we're lucky to have the Tresor as an option. Visually, I think I lean towards the Globemaster, despite my subjective distaste for fluted bezels, but in terms of movement and size, the Tresor is an easy winner in my eyes.
