The racing catamaran of Swiss competitive sailing team Alinghi is the design hook for the latest Omega Speedmaster. The Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon Alinghi joins the Swiss brand’s popular ceramic chronograph series and is part of a partnership forged with the compatriot sailing team since 2019.
The watch’s most striking visual aesthetic is its skeletonized dial, similar to what Omega introduced on the Dark Side of the Moon Apollo 8 edition in 2018. The skeletonized manual-winding Caliber 1865 is based on the historical movement that powered the first Speedmaster on the moon in 1969, the hand-cranked Caliber 1861 (itself based on the Lemania 1873).
As mentioned earlier, the dial and the movement’s design is a hat tip to the Alinghi TF35 catamaran. Using laser ablation, the mainplate and barrel bridge have been given a honeycomb effect mirroring the interior of the boat’s carbon hull. Laser ablation has then been used to decorate all other bridges with a black carbon pattern, a nod to the use of carbon on the boat’s hull.
The watch’s color scheme – black, red, and white – reflects the sailing team’s colors too. The 44.25 mm wide case is made from black ceramic (zirconium oxide ceramic) and is similar to the other models in the Dark Side of the Moon series. This is not a diver’s watch, it is water-resistant to 50 meters only and the ceramic bezel has a tachymeter scale in SuperLuminova. The Alinghi logo in varnished red is seen on the stop/start pusher of the chronograph.
The chronograph minutes subdial at 3 o’ clock has a tactical time display - a 4-minute or 5-minute tactical time counter has been included in red, presumably to accurately time a race-related event. The traditional subdial design at 6 o’ clock has been replaced with a sandblasted and anodized aluminum disc, which features the team logo in red. This disc rotates on the dial when the chronograph function is used. The watch is paired with a perforated rubber strap and is priced at AED40٬950 (including VAT).
