Month: December 2024

For most brands, leaks are the last thing that they want. But Omega has turned leaks into an art form. Two of our most read stories in the last year were Daniel Craig “spotted” wearing the unreleased white dial Speedmaster in New York and then an unreleased black dial Seamaster at the Paris Olympics. These were undoubtedly intentional placements (ones that, for the record, I was not prompted by Omega to cover), but boy, people got excited. But you can only use that trick so many times. Omega’s new Speedmaster Pilot replica watches for men was another leak that hit the brand. Except this time, the leak wasn’t intentional. But damn, was it cool.

This top UK fake watches leaked (in part) with a wristshot, too. Far from a celebrity product placement, this one flew under the radar for most people. Well, technically, it flew well above the radar – at 67,976 feet to be exact – on the wrist of a pilot in a United States Lockheed U-2 “Dragon Lady” spy plane, one of the most legendary, wild feats of aeronautical engineering of all time. The plane first flew in 1955 and is still in use to this day, having been piloted under the command of the U.S. Air Force, NASA, and even the CIA over the years (and even the Republic of China for a period of time). Pilots wear pressurized flight suits because of the altitude. And apparently, those flight suits have a spot where you can velcro on a makeshift bund strap and wear a watch that wasn’t available to the public until today.

I really didn’t clock this “leak” until a conversation with our friend Watches of Espionage a few months back where he mentioned a new “Flightmaster” that was floating around. Robert-Jan Broer (Speedmaster fan that he is) at Fratello covered it back in September after getting inundated with questions about the leak. He linked to the same OmegaForums post I ended up on during my conversation with WoE. That thread had a bunch of juicy details in it, which I’ll get to in a minute, but as the story goes, this was originally being sold to U.S. military winged aviators (fully-certified pilots), RIOs (radar intercept officers), and navigators. But now, a version is available for civilians, with a few changes.

I’ll break down all the details shortly, but the main change you can see above is that the 9 o’clock subdial (the running seconds on this Speedmaster) has an artificial horizon indicator-style design that was monochromatic on the pilot-worn watch and blue and black (like you’d find in cockpits) on the public release. Like the appeal of a Speedy Pro for its connection to space flight, there was something cool about opening a package from Omega, seeing this best replica watches for the first time, and putting it on my wrist. This is basically the same watch that could be flying over North Korea or somewhere in one of the most incredible planes ever built.

What the Heck Even Is The Speedmaster ‘Pilot’?

First of all, this isn’t a Flightmaster. That’s the name that was kicked occasionally after the leak. If that’s what you’re hoping for – and many people are hoping for a new Flightmaster – you might have to reset your expectations. There are a lot of visual similarities at first glance, and when I opened the box sent over by Omega, I immediately got excited to be holding a new Flightmaster. But then I realized I wasn’t.

Cole Pennington penned a great story back in 2022 that imagined what a modern Flightmaster might look like. But Omega already has done – as Cole put it – a modern spiritual successor to the Flightmaster in the Z-33. When Omega reached out about seeing a new AAA China copy watches, they were very clear that it was a Speedmaster, and the only thing they would tell me was that it wasn’t a new Speedy Pro. This is a Speedmaster Pilot, according to a press release they sent along later; as the dial says, it’s also flight-qualified.

One of the things shared on OmegaForums were screenshots of brochures sent to pilots as a part of the program. Above is the generic caseback for a U.S. Naval Aviator (and a picture of an F-18, I believe) with the military version of the perfect replica watches. Funny enough, the name engraved on the caseback edge is Charles Laevens, who is actually Head of Retail, Operations and Training in the U.S. for Omega.

Meanwhile, we also got the specs beforehand in the same fashion, which all check out with the civilian release. Above, you can see that this is a fully brushed stainless steel two-counter Speedmaster, measuring 40.85mm by 14.54mm thick, with a 49.6mm lug to lug. The military-issue watch came on a NATO strap, but the version I went hands-on with has a matching fully brushed bracelet (and micro-adjust as well). The luxury super clone watches has 100m of water resistance, upping this from the 50m of a Speedy Pro. The watch has a box-style sapphire (not Hesalite) crystal. And if you were wondering about the name on this caseback, Lt. Col. Patrick “Burbank” Connellan is, in fact, an accomplished pilot who – according to his bio – “flew the U-2, F-16, E-11, RQ-170, MQ-9, T-38, and T-34 with over 2,900 flying hours, including 1,000 combat and 300 combat support hours.” I hope Omega gave him a watch.

I think even if you had no idea the backstory (or the Flightmaster inspiration, which I’ll cover below) of this Swiss movements replica watches, you’d probably quickly clock it as having some aviation tie-in. The 9 o’clock subdial immediately elicits a connection to aviation. The dial is a grained matte-black, which, alongside the brushed steel case and high-visibility colors of the dial, reduces distracting reflections in the cockpit while increasing legibility. There are references to early Speedmaster Professionals as well, like a “dot-over-90” and “diagonal-to-70” (which is apparently a thing – one I didn’t know about) on the bezel.

You can see in other photos further below, but the 3 o’clock subdial is actually a 60-minute and 12-hour counter, with the orange 60-minute hand covering up an off-white 12-hour hand when the chronograph is set to zero. The orange marks around that counter also serve as a burn rate indicator for pilots who need to do quick math on the fly. The lugs on the case are straight, a callback to an earlier era (and one Omega seems to be more and more happy to come back to, which I find quite cool).

This isn’t a manual-wind Speedmaster Professional. It’s also not the Chronoscope case or movement either. Instead, the case houses the automatic Co-Axial Master Chronometer Caliber 9900 automatic movement. That gives you 60 hours of power reserve. That makes the new Speedmaster Pilot noticeably thicker than a Speedmaster Professional – 14.85mm compared to just over 13mm for a Speedy Pro. On the wrist, you can feel the thickness, but whether or not it’s worth the trade-off for automatic movement is going to be up to personal preference.

I like how the brushed bracelet matches the case without any distracting little sections of tiny polished material that I certainly would end up scratching and dulling down anyway. It also includes a micro-adjust clasp like you’d find on the Chronoscope two-counter watches, though the bracelet is certainly not the same. Just like much of the rest of the fake watches online, it’s been pared down with no ribbing on the back of the clasp.

This is one of the most lume-heavy Omegas I’ve seen in recent memory, and it’s done to a pretty cool effect. With any short time in the light, the best quality replica watches will glow noticeably in a bit of shade. A large section of the hour and minute hands have SuperLuminova, and the hour markers (and two dots at 12 o’clock) are made of big three-dimensional blocks of the material as well. I have my guess as to who did this work (there’s really only one name in this game), but I can’t say for sure. If the lume is charged at all, legibility in the cockpit will be phenomenal.

Head to Head With The Beloved Flightmaster

There’s no denying that Omega went back to the Flightmaster for inspiration, so I also had to grab one to highlight some references in the watch and give a bit of a comparison breakdown. Luckily, Patrick Parrish was able to hook me up with a great example of the first generation of Flightmaster, the 145.013, with the civilian-style orange hands.

This was the golden era of tool chronographs and overbuilt design. Omega took shots at Rolex, trying to promote the GMT-Master as a pilots’ cheap 2024 copy watches while Omega had “more than a revolving bezel.” I personally love these sunburst-polished and slightly bulbous cases like you’d also find on things like the Speedmaster Mark II. The 145.013 case was slimmer than its successors, housing the caliber 910 movement. But it’s a statement all the same, with seven hands, three crowns, and two pushers. But equally captivating was the bold use of colors in the era that made the very monotone Speedmaster the “Moonwatch.”

You’ve got almost all the colors of the Flightmaster here (minus the green). The 145.013 had a chronograph with 30-minute and 12-hour counters at 3 and 6 o’clock, plus a 24-hour subdial at 9 o’clock. That seemed less useful to pilots than a running second that reassured them that their replica watches online site was still running (that led to the next version of the Flightmaster without the 24-hour dial and running seconds at 9 o’clock).

The Flightmaster also had large triangular hands for the counters and the chronograph. In most examples, these hands were orange, but models issued to professional pilots had yellow cadmium-coated hands for better in-cockpit legibility. There’s also a large blue independently set second 12-hour hand that was shaped like an airplane (or even a rocket ship) that can track a second time zone. It’s a purpose-built watch that is slightly a mess of design in the best possible way, as only the late 1960s and 1970s could give.

Well, you still have the touches of orange in the new China 1:1 fake Omega Speedmaster Pilot watches, though instead of on the entire chronograph hand, you get the same kind of plane-shaped orange tip that references the dual time hand on the Flightmaster but also was found on a few of the Mark-series Speedmasters and the Omega X-33. The hour counter has the same orange hands as those found on the Flightmaster. The touches of yellow also seem to be a reference to those cadmium yellow hands on the “professional” versions of the Flightmaster. And while the Speedmaster pilot doesn’t have the more hatched-style outer minute track of the Flightmaster and some Speedmaster racing models, there is a contrasting track. Maybe the most subtle is how the lume mimics the long strips of lume on the Flightmaster.

For any concerns about the thickness of the new Speedmaster Pilot, even the “slim” version of the Flightmaster was 15mm thick and those that love it don’t bat an eye. But that might be partially because of other quirks about the replica watches store that make it extra fun, like the way that the pushers and auxiliary crowns have color coding for their functions.

The caseback of the new Speedmaster Pilot features a hippocampus (a caseback that helps guarantee 100m of water resistance), while the Flightmaster had a DC-8 Super 61. But it’s also not so simple. If you ever see one of the military-only versions of the Speedmaster Pilot in person, you definitely should definitely flip it over to check the caseback. Omega has mocked up a number of different casebacks for different branches of the U.S. military, plus that U-2 caseback you saw above.

Little design nods aside, it really is apples and oranges. One option is a vintage watch that you can’t guarantee to its original 60-meter water resistance, has a manual-wind movement, and a lot of charm, but doesn’t come close to the modern level of finishing you get on the new Speedmaster Pilot. It has its own take on a travelers’ watch movement, automatic winding, and its own cool story.

If you’re someone who wanted a proper Flightmaster, I get it. I’m going to keep my fingers crossed for one as well, if nothing else, to see how the brand would execute an homage to such an anachronistic design. But as a gut check – and obviously without revealing this watch ahead of release – I spoke to a friend who is an avid Speedmaster collector (especially ones with provenance). While chatting about some other replica watches paypal, I innocuously asked him if he had seen these cool military pilot’s Speedmasters floating around. He said he had, and he was desperate to buy one off one of the pilots, but – “hell, maybe Omega will release one someday, and that will tide me over.” I think there will be plenty of people who will feel the same.