First Omega... just wow!

[acarriles]

Some of you may know me from posting in the Rolex section in the past.

Although I consider myself a collector, and having had a variety of brands in the past such as Rolex, JLC, Panerai, Glashutte, Vacheron, and even an obscure and vintage Nivada Depthomatic among others, I've never had an Omega.

My father had also a variety of watches when I was growing up, and I remember his Speedmaster. Beautiful watch. And while in the back of my head I knew that one day I would get one, there was always another watch that I had the itch to get. Until now.

The main thing that kept me from the Speedmaster was that I had little use for the Chrono, a cool feature nevertheless, and not having a date was also problematic for me. I have to travel very frequently across time zones, so a GMT -a true GMT- is always at the top of my list of preferences.

So you can imagine my surprise and delight while searching for GMT Chronos that I discovered a couple of Omegas that fit the bill perferctly: The new Aqua Terra GMT Chrono (the new 9300 with blue teak dial ), the Speedmaster Broad Arrow GMT (which I found out was now discontinued... ) and then... the HB-SIA Solar Impulse with Titanium case, carbon fiber dial and 44mm case!!!

Thanks to the comments from Fr. John in the forum (than you!!!) I called Jim to see if he could find a Broad Arrow by any luck, but when he told me that he could get me a great deal if I would be interested instead in the HB-SIA, I decided to take a chance. (Thank you Jim, FANTASTIC service, ultra-fast delivery and great conversation...)

I was worried that the carbon fiber dial would make this watch really busy, but in reality (see pic 3) the CF is really barely noticeable under normal lighting conditions. Only under harsh lights you can really see the patterns.

At first, the watch even with the Titanium bracelet felt light, really really light! Especially after wearing my Pam 320 as my daily wearer. But after one day without the PAM, I could notice the nice balanced weight of the Ti Speedy.

It has been on my wrist for the last 2 weeks, keeping PERFECT time. It will lose 1 second during the day, only to recover it overnight sleeping crown down. FANTASTIC!

And then i discovered Omega's new NATO straps. Yes, they are expensive, but they are well worth it. And when I found the orange/black that perfectly matched the orange accents on the watch, I decided to give it a try.

I really like the sporty elegance of this watch on the bracelet, but the NATO makes this watch really pop. WOW. I think this makes this almost like two completely different watches.

And now, this has become my daily trusted companion.

I would love to hear your comments!