here at SwissWatchExpo we get asked a lot what the differences are between the generations of
Omega Seamaster 300Ms we're going to go over four generations with you this morning
Omega Seamaster is a watch that we love here at SwissWatchExpo we're big Omega fans I wear
an Omega every day vintage one from 1970 but one of the things that we find about the Seamaster is
that it is one of the best value watches for the dollar that we carry and therefore it tends to
be perennially one of the most popular watches here at SwissWatchExpo but we do get a lot of
questions about the generations the differences between them so we're going to do some comparison
here this morning I've got a few of them out here sort of driving Penny crazy with how many I asked
her to pull for today but it's a great watch with an excellent heritage the watch dates back
to 1948 so a lot of people argue that Omega was the originator of the original dive watch
a lot of people claim that that goes to Blancpain but not many people pin it on the Submariner from
Rolex but 1948 the 200m Seamaster came out it wasn't really intended to be a dive watch at the
time so I guess that's where some of the argument lies but they wanted to revamp the line and in
1993 it was this earthquake of launching the 300M the previous watches soon became known as the
pre-bond Seamasters because anything that we see now that has this sort of look where you've got
the Blue Bezel and the Blue Wave dial tends to be called a Bond watch well why is that the reason is
two years later in 1995 Pierce Brosnan wore it in Goldeneye and ever since then James Bond has worn
Omega Seamasters and so you'll see a different special edition pretty much with each new movie
that comes out but that was weird this got its name and its nickname was from that golden eye
movie in 1995. so the design that they came out with in '93 for this watch really has stood the
test of time they've tweaked it a lot there's a lot of little subtle changes but really you
know it's still recognizable as a Seamaster 300M no matter which generation you're looking at the
things that they incorporated into this were the skeletonized trapezoid hands for great legibility
the wave dial it's probably very subtle for you to see here on this video but if you look at our
website if you just type in Seamaster you'll see loads of them we have lots of them in stock all
the time at SwissWatchExpo.com and you can also always give us a call we can help you sort the
inventory but it has this really cool scalloped bezel the first generation here from 1993 has a
blue painted aluminum bezel insert and the the the indices are flat to the surface of the dial
and they were initially tritium so a lot of these you'll see over the years they have yellowed with
age they have a patina and so if you're a fan of the patina you can get a genuine patina on the
ones that were made before about '97 '98 because we tend to have them unpainted unrestored in the
original dial configuration and so they're starting to change color over the years but
you'll see one of the major design elements of the watch is this 10 o'clock helium sscape valve and
the only person that will ever need that is someone who's going to be involved in saturation
diving you're down a week at a time I think I've read recently that there are fewer than 250 people
in the entire United States who do this kind of diving so it's very very rare that you would be
the person that needs that so if you are you'll know who you are and if you're not don't worry
about it it's just one of the cool looks that distinguishes the Seamaster from everything else
out there but it does have nice big crown guards the crown is pretty easy to manipulate this the
crystals are all sapphire hese watches even though the movement that's in this generation is based on
a ETA movement it's an Omega 11 20 caliber it is a certified chronometer the ETA version that it's
based on is not Omega really raises the bar and ramps up that movement and decorates it with all
the the condition of striping and the Omega gold filled engraving and it's a really good looking
movement even though it started its life as an architecture done by ETA it's a great movement
it's considered one of those rock solid workhorse movements in the industry so I would never be at
all concerned about this being a great movement of course you've got the date aperture at 3 o'clock
and the layer shaped lugs just like you see on the Speedmaster so a lot of very Omega design
cues there this five link bracelet is the one that is typically called the Bond bracelet because this
is the one that you guessed it Pierce Brosnan wore and the clasp has the Omega logo and the Seamaster
Professional wording on it the double trigger release and a very nice machined inside clasp so
this was great they came out with the chronograph the next year and what made waves about this one
was that the pushers are self-sealing now this was a big change from say on a Rolex Daytona where you
have to unscrew the pushers to be able to use them and you better not use them underwater because of
course the Daytona it's a land speed watch it's for timing things on land but the Seamaster this
is fantastic because you get a chronograph built into a dive watch something that our friends over
at Rolex don't make and not only that they made it where you don't have to unscrew the pushers even
underwater you could push the pushers to time and reset something and and it would not have
water intruding though this one is from the second generation which came out in 2006. it's a lot like
the first generation from 1993 but the differences you'll see is that not only did they start using
the super luminova in about '97 '98 but in the 2006 version the indices are applied they're
raised from the surface of the dial and they sort of have a an outline and sort of a chrome material
that's filled with with luminova for that bright lume shot that you're always looking for and then
they switched to an applied Omega logo and the Seamaster writing is in red you might not have
ever noticed it but on this first generation one the the logo is flush it's printed on the dial
it's not in red and the indices are are flush as well so this one it's got a little bit more of a
three-dimensional look to the dial because the everything's applied and I do like that splash
of color with the word Seamaster these are both by the way 41-millimeter and 41 and a half for
the chronograph that's kind of the standard size that we saw on these which again for 1993 that was
a very robust size when you compare it to all the professional series Rolex models that were
40-millimeter so then um the Next Generation came out in 2012 and it really made quite a splash as
well the biggest change in the movement was that it went from the 1120 that we talked about from an
ETA base to the 2500 and this was all of a sudden the Co-Axial movement is still
a certified chronometer but the sizes stayed the same 41-millimeter and 41 and a half for
the chronograph but the bezels went to ceramic so instead of being the painted aluminum inserts that
can scratch and fade in time with the color they really stayed the same oh a note about the color
these were available in Black dials as well as blue and there were loads of special editions that
have been made about the Seamaster so I'm trying to just cover the the main generations and not all
those little rabbit holes if you want different colors there's Olympic editions there are James
Bond editions there's all kinds of anniversaries and specials and limited editions so if you wanted
one with a red bezel it's out there we've got it on our website it's a Olympics Edition lots
of different choices out there for color but I'm just kind of showing you some samples here
but the interesting thing about this generation and I think this is Blake's favorite is that it
does not have the wave dial it is a lacquered glossy dial in either blue or black and the
bezel is ceramic the sizes are still 41 41 and a half and they did go to that Co-Axial movement so
you can read up on the Co-Axial movement it was a huge step forward only Omega has the ownership of
the technology to make it but it increases the efficiency of the movement essentially removes
friction from the escapement and allows much longer service intervals between so um then in
2012 they gave us a fully updated watch for the 25th anniversary what you see here is they they
made the watches a little bit bigger the time and date only model went to 42 millimeter the bezel is
still ceramic the dial is also ceramic and it's laser cut with the waves I love this white dial
because again it's so different from everything over at Rolex and it really sets it apart but you
can get lots of different colors and special editions the main colors are black blue and
white and again we have the the word Seamaster in red the tip of the second hand in red the applied
Omega logo but they added something completely different on the movement this time that for the
first time we had the sapphire back on the case so that we can see that beautiful movement it's a
completely in-house movement this time Omega just like everybody else there's pressure on them to
make everything in-house and even though they're part of the bigger Swatch group that owns ETA and
so you could sort of argue that even these ETA based movements are from our in-house for Omega
this is completely Omega with no overlap with their other stable mates and the 8800 movement
it has the cotton genevanera mask it's got the double barrel it has the Silicon hairspring so
it's resistant to up to 15 000 gauss they've essentially taken all of the complaints that
people used to have about mechanical watches of them being sensitive to shocks temperature
changes magnetic fields accuracy needing routine maintenance and gotten rid of all of that so it's
a phenomenal movement a double barrel it's got a real long power reserve of 55 hours and just
a gorgeous watch that might be my favorite Penny says it's hers the chronograph on these went from
41.5 millimeter to 44 sort of ignore the red pusher and the countdown timer on this one
this is another one of those special editions this one's in America's Cup special edition
with a countdown timer for the Regatta but it's the same size and dimensions and same look as
the regular chronograph so I just wanted to show you there's the red on it it's the the
larger the 44-millimeter version with the laser engraved ceramic dial again with the
exhibition case back this one's a little bit domed it's the 9900 caliber which is their kind of
Premier and latest chronograph movement and it's again got all the bells and whistles the double
barrel the Silicon balance wheel the resistant 15 000 gauss these are METAS-certified as master
chronometers so they've taken everything to a notch higher again you can look that up the meta
certification for master chronometer they test it for real life wear and tear and and what sorts of
things that you might actually encounter in real life with a watch but again these have just such
strong design they're great performers the value for the dollar is just off the chart definitely
one of the best watches we sell I'm always excited when people call me up and they want to talk about
a Seamaster and which one's right for them they are a variety of prices of course the
oldest ones are the the lowest price so if you're looking something for something that's going to be
a really good budget-friendly version then go with one of these if you want something that's
really different you can get the one that does not have the wave dial and then if you want the latest
greatest version we've got them in stock ready to go just give us a call or visit SwissWatchExpo.com