There are number of small watchmakers out there hoping to get taken seriously in the watch industry, and many of them have a number of interesting takes on the wristwatch, but in trying to be interesting they ended up being pretty much the same.  They follow trends rather than invent them, and after a while it all gets a little boring…

Well if you remember, about a year or so ago a small Swiss watch company called Romain Jerome came out with the unusual wristwatch that DOESN”T tell the time, and that was a huge hit, completely out of left field, and if you were reading you would remember that I have praised this watch as a move of marketing genius.  A watch that misses the primary mark entirely.

Well I’m delighted to say that they have done it again!

Yes Omega has a watch WORN on the moon, but this watch actually has parts of the moon on it.

Ye s this is Romain Jerome’s “Moon” watch, and unlike any other watch bathed in gold and platinum, this watch has pieces of the moon on it, and here it is:

I have to say that on a marketing and branding level, it’s just brilliant, it’s like a car company that makes a car that doesn’t go anywhere.  It’s so fresh and so unexpected, and what’s more is that you can claim to have part of a celestial body on your wrist.

I love the angle this company is taking, and I hear that they’ll even have a watch with steel from the RMS Titanic.  That will be a very special watch indeed.

A few years ago this Rolex was the hot item of the year:

Rolex Oyster Perpetual Date GMT-Master II Mens Watch 116710-BKSO

And to me it’s not hard to see why.  This model introduced a lot of innovations that were long overdue.  First being a clasp that actually felt as though it were not made of tin foil, polished center links, and most importantly, a ceramic bezel.  Ceramic being much harder than stainless steel, its ability to resist scratches was much better than steel and thus the watch looked new even over time.

Now I love Omega, but the truth is that Omega is usually considered as a cheaper alternative to a Rolex, a Hamburger in a land of steaks.

I, however, think that is a reputation that is undeserved, I tend to consider Omega somewhat similarly to a Japanese car company, they take ideas and improve them in a more practical and more affordable package.  Their co-axial movement increased the service intervals of a mechanical watch, their dept ratings are higher, and they have helium escape valves on almost all of their diving watches (even though they may never be needed.)

I, to this day, consider my old Omega Seamaster the most comfortable watch I’ve ever owned.

And now, they’ve come up with something even better than the Rolex offered, and here it is:

Being a limited edition of the fairly new Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean, the bezel takes the idea of the ceramic bezel in the Rolex to a new level.  Using a combination of what they call “Liquidmetal” and ceramic they made this new diving bezel that is supposed to be three times as hard and corrosion resistant as steel.

Yes it is another limited edition to commerate something silly, such as a staff member’s birthday, but I think this idea is ingenious, although its influence may be a little bit too obvious.