Post by timelessluxwatches on Dec 9, 2016 15:48:18 GMT -6
Omega Dark Side of the Moon Sedna Black Review
The Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon collection is comprised of many of the coolest chronographs in the world, all of which possess highly scratch resistant ceramic cases.
The Dark Side of the Moon group of watches deserves a lot of credit for popularizing the ceramic case. Ceramic cases and case components have been with us for a long time now, but it seems that the Dark Side models have played a big role in putting it back in the spotlight. Why is ceramic such a big deal? Well, it's much, much more scratch resistant than steel, so that's a plus, but for Omega, I suspect it had more to do with the color. One of the strong points of ceramic cases is that the color runs all the way through, unlike a PVD/DLC coated case. Thus, you can have a very black watch like this one and not worry about scratching through the surface and seeing steel underneath.
There is already a nice variety of Dark Side of the Moon watches. We've taken a look at the original Dark Side, as well as my personal favorite, the Grey Side, in addition to the Vintage Black version but this one is a relatively novel take on the formula. Basically, it puts Sedna gold in the mix for some super high-contrast accents against the grey and black backdrop.
Some of the Dark Side watches can be a bit tricky to read, due to their dark accents on black dials, but the Sedna Black is actually quite legible. The Sedna gold stands out against the matte grey dial about as well as anything would. Like the rest of the Dark Side collection, it employs a bi-compax layout, which contributes to a clean, symmetrical look.
The dial itself is a very dark gray with a slightly rough texture to it. It looks great, but I should point out that in real life, outside of these bright lamps, the dial appears a bit darker.
Even the date is painted to match the gold.
My favorite thing about the dial, however, is that the writing and indices are raised. It's fairly subtle, but it's a really nice touch when you look closely.
The Sedna gold accents gives this watch a very unique look in low light, where, seemingly by magic, the hands and bezel keep reflecting light long after the case and dial have faded into darkness. It looks Photoshopped, but other than cropping/resizing and removing the background it isn't. That's the original color and brightness of the lume and Sedna gold accents as they came out of the camera. Amazing.
Of course, the raison d'etre is the case, for which the Sedna Black model is aptly named.
Most notably, of course, the 44.25mm case is made almost entirely from ceramics, a material that has become very popular lately due not only to its scratch resistance, but also to the fact that the coloration, in this case black, unlike coatings, will never be removed.
But the Sedna Black is even more special than other Dark Sides because it melds Sedna gold for a warm touch. Sedna gold is Omega's proprietary rose gold alloy, so this case is pretty special indeed. The crown doesn't screw down, but as usual, this is my personal preference. As you might expect, divers are best advised to check out the Planet Ocean chronographs as the Speedmaster is rated for 50 meters of water resistance.
The 49.6mm lug to lug dimension helps keep it reasonably small on the wrist, although it's a bit thick at 16.4 millimeters. Nonetheless, when you look at the watch in person, you can see that probably a full 4mm of that thickness is dedicated to the cool, but tall, box sapphires on both front and back.
The Speedmaster uses the very sophisticated in-house 9300, Omega's cutting edge chronograph. For simplicity, this is often said to be in the 8500 family, but that isn't strictly true. The 9300 is not an 8500 with a module. Rather, it's an integrated chronograph with huge differences from its 3 and 4 hand 8500 cousins. What's an integrated chronograph? Well, it basically means the chronograph complication's components share much of the same space as the timekeeping parts of the movement. Another way of putting it is that it's a movement that was designed from the ground up to have a chronograph complication.
This is surprisingly rare in the contemporary watch industry. Instead, many companies use a modular chronograph, which basically takes an ordinary 3 hand movement and adds a chronograph layer to the "bottom" of it (the dial side). Integrated chronographs, like this one, are the more desirable design because it's intrinsically thinner and because it lets you see the chronograph components from the back. For instance, here we can see the column wheel, which you can actually observe operating as you hit the pushers.
The 9300's escapement is the most sophisticated Omega makes. As with most other current-generation Omega movements, it uses the famous co-axial escapement, as well as more conventional high-end watchmaking techniques, like a free sprung balance. Far less conventional is Omega's use of a silicon hairspring here. The escapement marks a big, but hard to spot, difference between the 9300 and 8500: the 9300 beats at the ordinary 28,800 BPH but the 8500 operates at a slightly slower, and very unusual, 25,200 BPH.
Another interesting aspect of the 9300, as well as most other current-gen Omega movements, is the use of dual mainsprings. These give the 9300 a 60 hour power reserve, 50% more than the industry average, and their unique design may actually increase the accuracy of the watch throughout the day.
However, you don't need to know anything about free sprung balances or co-axial escapements to appreciate how great this movement looks. I also really love looking at it through the box sapphire in the back. It does appreciably add to the thickness, but it just looks fantastic.
So that's the Sedna Black Dark Side of the Moon. It is, more or less, what it says it is: a DSotM with gold accents. It's not the most provocative of the DSotMs, an honor that probably goes to the new meteorite dial (or, perhaps, the White Side if you'd count it), but it's definitely a little less stealthy than most of its siblings.
While I still think my personal favorite DSotM is the Grey Side (if you can even count that as a Dark Side), it's great that, like most other sub-collections at Omega, you're given a really wide variety of choice. While Omega is one of the most mainstream and popular brands of luxury watches, due to its dizzying collection diversity, you're unlikely to ever run into someone wearing the same model, much less the same variant. Furthermore, there are so many options, even within this niche ceramic Speedmaster group, that you're almost certainly going to find one that suits you.
