Original vintage 1960s Omega advertisement for the Swiss watch manufacturers Seamaster watch line, with oil field background to demostrate its claimed rugged nature - "Precision - where you most need it. The self-winding Omega Seamaster defies the elements. For its case is triple sealed and its automatic movement immune to the hazards of timekeeping - in desert heat and artic cold...even at 200 feet below the sea. Developed from the rugged wartime watches Omega was commissioned to design Britain's R.A.F., the Seamaster is today the leading precision sports watch...The Seamaster has dramatically proved itself on the wrists of engineers and explorers, athletes and divers. Some day you too will own one!”
Dimensions: Approximately 10 inches wide by 13.75 inches high.
Omega’s design of the first Seamaster, the 300, drew influence from older waterproof watches worn on the wrists of the British military during WWII. However, what would initially distinguish the first Seamaster from its other predecessor watches from Omega competitors was its rubber O-ring gasket, which separated the dive watch from other lead or shellac gaskets which were more susceptible to temperature changes. Instead, Omega’s rubber gasket prevented any water infiltration in severe temperature changes ranging between -40° C to 50° C.
In the 1950s, Omega engineers were so confident of the Seamaster’s durability, they attached one to the outside of an aircraft and flew it over the North Pole in 1956. The Seamaster 300 performed so well, in fact, that Jacques Cousteau’s team used it during experimental dives in 1963 and beyond.
Omega was officially founded in 1903, and its watches were the choice of NASA and the first watch on the Moon in 1969.
James Bond has worn it in films since 1995; other famous Omega wearers, past and present, including John F. Kennedy, the UK’s Prince William, George Clooney, and Astronaut Buzz Aldrin – and do we really need to note where Buzz wore his?
For the past 70+ years, Omega has produced a staggering array of Seamasters to suit a variety of needs; from solid gold dress watches to solid blocks of stainless steel used for dive watches, from soccer timers to world timers, the Seamaster has seen them all.
While other watch companies have various families to cater to various customers, Omega’s Seamaster is unique in its versatility: at one point or another there has been a Seamaster for just about everyone.
