If Earth Day celebrations are inspiring you to help save the planet — while you’re itching to add a new watch to your collection at the same time— Omega may have a timepiece that’s right in your wheelhouse: the new Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra “Goodplanet,” available in two versions at two sizes, and both featuring Omega’s Master Co-Axial Chronometer calibers.
A portion of the sales from these new watches — the latest to emerge from Omega’s partnership with the Goodplanet Foundation, first announced in 2011 — will go toward funding two new wildlife projects that the Foundation has established in the African nation of Botswana. (The previous Goodplanet watch, a Planet Ocean model, had a portion of its proceeds go toward preserving mangroves and seagrasses in Southeast Asia.)
Both new Aqua Terra watches have cases made from grade 5 titanium and feature white lacquered dials highlighted by blue elements inspired by the color of the ocean — diamond-polished blue applied hour indices, faceted blue hands, and applied blue Omega logo. The dials are also notable for their lack of the distinctive “teakwood” motif found on other Aqua Terra dials. Both watches come on blue-coated nylon fabric straps with white stitching and foldover clasps; the 43-mm watch is also available on a polished-and-brushed titanium bracelets (in Omega’s patented screw-and-pin style) with butterfly clasp. Both cases have nonreflective sapphire crystals and screw-down crowns embossed with an Omega symbol.
The larger of the Aqua Terra “Goodplanet” models (below, front and back) has a 43-mm case (14.45 mm thick) and contains Omega Master Co-Axial Caliber 8605. In addition to the blue hands indicating the hours, minutes, and seconds, its dial has a red-tipped GMT hand that the wearer can use to keep track of a second time zone on a 24-hour time-zone scale, and a date window at 6 o’clock. The movement is visible through a sapphire window in the caseback, which also includes the words “Goodplanet Foundation” in varnished blue type.
The other new timepiece (below, front and back) measures 38.5 mm in diameter and 12.84 mm thick. Its simpler dial layout features the blue hour markers and hands along with a date window at 3 o’clock. The movement, visible through a sapphire caseback, is Omega’s basic Caliber 8500. Like all of Omega’s Master Co-Axial movements — which, as of this year’s Baselworld, are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in all of Omega’s watch families — it features bidirectional automatic winding, a co-axial escapement, silicon balance spring, free-sprung balance, and extreme antimagnetic properties, resisting magnetic fields to over 15,000 Gauss. The calibers in the Aqua Terra Goodplanet watches — both meeting the strict standards of Omega’s “Master Chronometer” certification — have power reserves of 60 hours. The decorative finishes include “Arabesque” Geneva waves on the rotor and plate, rhodium plating, and a blackened finish on the screws, barrels, and balance wheel.
The Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra “Goodplanet” watches are presented in special bamboo collectors’ boxes and, like all Omega luxury watches uk , carry a four-year warranty. The 43-mm GMT watch costs $10,800 on a titanium bracelet and $10,100 on a nylon strap. The 38.5 mm model on the nylon strap goes for $8,400.
