La Dolce Vita Di Omega – The New Seamaster Edizione Venezia

What an unexpected but refreshing surprise… Clearly, dress watches are not Omega’s specialty – chronographs and dive watches are. In terms of elegant and dress timepieces, the brand’s offer usually comes up short. However, Omega has decided to prove us wrong, with an extremely elegant, perfectly proportioned and true-to-the-past watch, the new Seamaster Edizione Venezia, to be sold exclusively in Venice, Italy – a perfect excuse to bring your “bella ragazza” for a visit to the floating city.

A bit of history first… As most of you might know, the Omega Seamaster collection is defined by its emblem, the Seahorse. Since 1957, the logo has been engraved on the back of most of the Seamaster watches. However, few might know the origin of this logo and why Omega decided to use it. On a visit to the city of Venice, a member of Omega’s design department was struck by the famous gondolas and the beautifully sculpted representations of Neptune’s Seahorse on each side. Omega’s symbol for its Seamaster collection had been found. Today, the Biel-based brand is paying tribute to this story and to the entire  Seamaster collection with a watch that will be sold exclusively in Venice, and that shows a refined retro-inspiration.

At first, this new Omega Seamaster Edizione Venezia is surprising. Indeed, it doesn’t look and feel like the current watches of the collection, most of them being rugged and sporty dive watches – such as the Seamaster 300 or the Seamaster 600 Planet Ocean. However, when you look back at early Seamaster watches, with the exception of the 1957 CK2913, many of them were simple and sleek watches, quite elegant in fact – and thus, you can immediately see the inspiration for this Seamaster Edizione Venezia.

The Omega Seamaster Edizione Venezia shows the traditional “lyre” case – here showing brushed and polished surfaces, combined with a thin and polished bezel. The case measures “only” 39.5mm, a diameter that is both extremely reasonable for Omega and large enough for a nice presence on the wrist. The Venice theme extends to the spherical crown, which follows the shape of the dome of St Mark’s Basilica. Two versions will be available, one in 18K Sedna gold with a brown leather strap and the other in stainless steel with a black leather strap.

The dial of the Seamaster Edizione Venezia is also a nod to early Seamaster watches, with its domed profile, the triangular appliqués, the leaf hands and the applied Omega logo – on both versions, steel or gold, the hands and markers are gold, a combination that was regularly used in early Seamaster watches. Sleek, elegant and, in the end, very Omega in the style. Just like the recently unveiled Aqua Terra Railmaster, it seems that Omega is going back to its roots with models that perfectly embody the DNA of the brand.

Of course, you would expect the Seahorse emblem to be engraved on the back of this Seamaster Edizione Venezia. It is, however not on a solid metallic caseback, as in the past. Instead, the logo is laser engraved on the sapphire crystal that reveals the Calibre 8800, a Master Chronometer movement – meaning antimagnetic (15,000 Gauss), co-axial escapement, in-house developed and manufactured, silicon regulating organ and 55 hours power reserve.

The Omega Seamaster Edizione Venezia will be available only at the Omega Boutique in Venice, or at T Fondaco dei Tedeschi by DFS. Prices will be EUR 5,900 for the steel version and EUR 13,200 for the 18k Sedna Gold version. More details on www.omegawatches.com.