Omega And The Olympic Games (2016)

Hands On Review: Omega Rio 2016 Olympic Limited Edition Seamaster Diver 300m: [522.30.41.20.01.001]

Ever since 1932, Omega has been the Official Timekeeper of 26 Olympic Games. This Rio 2016 Limited Edition Seamaster, of only 3016 pieces, celebrates this rich heritage of Omega’s legacy by timing tens of thousands of Olympic athletes in their pursuit of new athletic records, both personal and international, at each Olympics, with exceptional accuracy from the start to finish line.

This Rio 2016 Limited Edition Seamaster, introduced at BaselWorld 2016, is different to the standard editions in that it’s a hint more colourful with the black bezels numeral’s being filled with red, green, yellow and blue lacquer, each representing the colours of the Olympic rings – which are in turn a representation of all the countries and nations that come together to compete in the Olympic games. It also features a new wave pattern on the dial inspired by Rio and a commemorative case back.

Buy this Omega Rio 2016 Olympic Limited Edition Seamaster Diver 300m 522.30.41.20.01.001 here from our shop.

Olympic Heritage With Omega

The partnership between Omega and the Olympics started 84 years ago with a single swiss watchmaker arriving in Los Angeles in 1932, with 30 split-second chronographs. Today decades of innovations have led to Olympic records being measured with equipment made by Omega, (the Quantum Timer is currently used), that has a maximum variation of only 1 second every 10,000,000 seconds, (which is 1 second every 115 days, 17 hours, 46 minutes, 40 seconds).

Throughout the years working as the Official Timekeeper for the Olympic games, Omega has been at the forefront of technological timing advancements.

• In the 1948 Olympic Winter Games, photoelectric cells began to outperform humans in terms of accuracy.
• 1952 was the year Omega won the Croix du Mérite Olympique award because of the OMEGA Time Recorder that was the first to use a quartz clock and print out the results: being accurate to 100th of a second.
• 1964 the Omegascope introduced the idea of superimposing times at the bottom of television screens in real-time.
• 1992 was the year that Omega used their Scan-O-Vision system to digitally measure times to the nearest thousandth of a second, for speed skaters at the Albertville Winter Games.
• And in the 2010 Vancouver Games Omega revolutionised the timing of races with an electronic flash gun, which replaced the traditional starting gun and pumps sound to each competitor individually for a fairer and more accurate race.

Omega Seamaster And The Olympics

This Omega Limited Edition Seamaster celebrates the rich history of Omega working at the Olympics as they embark on their 27th Olympic games at Rio 2016, being the first Olympic games to be hosted in Latin America.

This Seamaster takes design cues from both its Olympic past and this years hosting country.

Aesthetics

This Limited Edition Seamaster retains the excellent construction of the standard Seamaster Diver 300m Co-Axial Automatic 41mm. But with a few rather small changes which in isolation may seem small to an outsider to the horological world, whereas in the luxury watch world a change from a wavy dial to plain one causes shockwaves of commotion. This watch has four key differences:

• The dial’s pattern
• The bezel markings
• The case back
• And it being limited to 3016 pieces with each once being etched with their number.

Dial

By a first impression the wavy dial of this Rio 2016 Seamaster may seem like a throwback to the pre-2012 Seamasters with the wavy patterned dials: but, that is only part of the story. The transferred black wave pattern was inspired by the sidewalks of Copacabana beach and is fundamentally different. Each wave is thicker than on the old Seamasters and really does encapsulate the look of  Rio’s Copacaba sidewalks wonderfully.

The hour markers are the tried and tested stick and dot indexes, with an hour window by 3 o’clock. The hour and minute hands are both skeletonised in the usual Omega Seamaster fashion and are of course filled with luminescent fill for excellent dial visibility in low light environments.

Sat over the dial we have the usual domed sapphire crystal with an anti-reflective coating on both sides. A real must for every watch in this price category.

Case Construction

The iconic stainless steel casing for this Rio 2016 Olympic Seamaster has a 41mm case diameter making it neither a big nor a small men’s watch, but one that should fit the majority of watch buyers wrists just fine.

On the right side of the watch face is it’s screw-down crown that operates very smoothly, and when sealed gives the watch a 300m water-resistance to play with. This depth rating is suitable for everything – save world record-setting scuba diving attempts. So you’re more than okay to shower, swim, dive, and waterboard to your heart’s content with this watch on your wrist.

A Helium escape valve is sat on the external of the watches casing by the 10 o’clock position, marked with its element symbol ‘He’. It is a feature that I frequently ponder how many of these (3016) watches will actually get to use this valve in their lifetime. 1 in 10, 1 in 100, 1 in 1000?  Whatever the true number is, it doesn’t really matter. In the world of Luxury watches, features are not really added for functionality per say, but rather as an art form. If I wanted to accurately get the time, most mass market quartz watches should tell the time more accurately than the majority of luxury mechanical watches. The reason why these mechanical watches are so valuable is because of all the research, development, refinement and obsessive detailing that goes into making these truly luxurious timepieces.

On the reverse side of the 41 mm special case back is the ‘Rio 2016’ Olympic games logo, in addition to the Limited Edition number out of 3016.

Movement

This Omega Rio 2016 Seamaster’s beating heart is in the form of the Co-Axial calibre 2500. It started life as the ETA calibre 2892-A2 that is used by Tudor (Rolex’s Sister brand), Panerai, Hamilton, Limes Pharo, Bell & Ross, Rado, Tissot, Baume & Mercier, and Longines. But with a number of Omega modifications that increases the jewel count up to 27, and ups the power reserve by 6 hours to a rated 48 hours.

Omega has also decreased the v/h from 28800 down to 25200 v/h; but, because of the nature of the co-axial escapement they can afford to do this. This is possibly one of the contributing reasons why Omega has increased their warranty period over the last few years, from 2 years to 3 and then 4. Dropping the beats per hour has meant that there is less wear on the internals, making the extended warranty period more affordable for Omega to pay for, and explains the longer servicing intervals.

Despite the escapement operating at a lower oscillating frequency than their competitors, the movement is still highly accurate and will easily achieve and pass the COSC standard of -4 to +6 seconds per day.

Bezel

This watch being a dive watch, the bezel is of significant importance – time is a most valuable asset, under water, and divers cannot afford to make timing mistakes. Timing errors such as overestimating oxygen remaining, or decompressing too rapidly can have deadly effects.

The bezel reliably only turns in one direction – clockwise, with 120 clicks. This resulting in the time left for a dive can only decrease, and not increase which would leave a diver without sufficient time to get back to civilisation.

Thankfully the Seamaster is both singularly accurate and reliable. This being part of the reasoning why so many members of the British Navy wear a Seamaster; and, why it was chosen by Lindy Hemming to be the new Bond watch in 1995’s GoldenEye 007 film.

The black ceramic bezel has a Super-LumiNova marker by the 0/60 marker, and a white diving scale with red, blue, yellow and green lacquer filled Arabic numerals reflecting the colours of the Olympic rings.

Strap And Bracelet

The Omega Seamaster has one of the more comfortable metal straps amongst their competitors. The bracelet has a 20mm lug width and is composed of both brushed and polished link parts. It’s machined push button folding clasp is of a solid construction. But lacks the adjustability of Rolex’s Glidelock Extension System found on their Submariner’s.

Box

The Omega Rio 2016 Limited Edition Seamaster’s [522.30.41.20.01.001] box, uses the standard white Omega box used for Olympic special and limited edition watches, from the last 10 years or so.

It’s also supplied with a certificate with its number out of 3016. And a red operational manual.

Verdict

This Rio 2016 Limited Edition Seamaster [522.30.41.20.01.001] of only 3016 pieces has some welcome additions to what was already an excellent watch. To make it a watch that celebrates and memorialises Omega’s involvement in the Olympic games as the Official Timekeeper. They being the people who will accurately and reliably, time all the new world records set by our Olympic athletes at this year’s 2016 Olympic summer games in Brazil Rio.

So then, this Omega watch is really made for the guy who loves both the Olympics and Omega’s heritage with them. They could be an avid sports fan or a professional athlete. This watch is not only a great diving watch, but a memorable of the 2016 Rio Olympics, and of all the sporting world records that will be broken through the pursuit of extraordinary human endeavour.

This watch is not just a great diving watch, but a memorable of the 2016 Rio Olympics, and of all the sporting world records that will be broken through the pursuit of extraordinary human endeavour.

Buy this Rio 2016 Limited Edition Seamaster [522.30.41.20.01.001] here.

Photo Gallery:

Watch [522.30.41.20.01.001] Specs:

Brand	Omega
Series	Seamaster Diver 300M
Model Number	522.30.41.20.01.001
Size	Mens
Case Material	Stainless Steel
Dial Color	Black And Grey Wave Pattern
Bracelet/Strap	Stainless Steel Brushed & Polished
Clasp	Push Button Folding Clasp
Movement	Automatic – Chronometer
Bezel	Uni-Directional Rotating
Screw-down Crown	Yes
Crystal	Anti-Reflective Scratch Resistant Sapphire
Case Back	Solid
Water Resistance	300m/1000ft
Diameter	41mm