Omega Speedmaster Returns to its Racing Roots With “Porsche Club of America” Limited Edition

Years before it rocketed into space to earn its place in timepiece history as the first watch worn on the moon, the Omega Speedmaster was engineered for more terrestrial pursuits, specifically as an instrument to time automobile races. With this recently released limited-edition model, produced in collaboration with Porsche Club of America, the Speedy revisits its motor racing history while adding a few distinctly modern elements.

Limited to just 99 pieces, the Omega Speedmaster Grey Side of the Moon Porsche Club of America Limited Edition can be regarded as a dual tribute piece, as both the Speedmaster watch model and the PCA mark their 60th anniversary in 2017. The watch channels not only some of the racing-inspired charm of its 1957 pre-Moonwatch debut, but also some unmistakably Porsche sports car DNA and even a few elements acknowledging the Speedmaster’s history of space exploration. The base model, in fact, is actually the Speedmaster Grey Side of the Moon, originally released in 2014, whose brushed gray ceramic case with plasma treatment and grade 5 titanium dial with ceramized finish is designed to evoke the look of the lunar surface. Gray ceramic, as it turns out, is also the material of choice for the brakes in high-performance sports cars; on Porsche sports cars, the visual calipers of these brakes are yellow. Hence the yellow details on the limited-edition timepiece, which can be found on the hands, indices, and tachymeter-scale bezel, as well as in the stitching of the gray leather strap. Incidentally, the ceramized titanium used for the dial is also used for the exhaust system of the Porsche 911 Turbo.

The watch is powered by Omega’s co-axial Caliber 9300, which powers the central hours and minutes display, small seconds at 9 o’clock, date display at 6 o’clock, and chronograph function with central counter hand and a combined 60-minute and 12-hour totalizer in the subdial at 3 o’clock. This classical bicompax layout, with the chronograph hours-and-minutes readout combined into one intuitively read subdial, is typical of the contemporary Speedmaster “Moonwatch.” The movement is self-winding and COSC chronometer-certified, with a 28,800-vph frequency and a 60-hour power reserve in two series-mounted barrels, and equipped with a column wheel to drive the chronograph. Like all modern Omega movements, Caliber 9300 features a co-axial escapement, a silicon balance spring, an Omega free-sprung balance, and luxurious finishes, including “Arabesque” Geneva waves on the bridges and rotor, and heat-blackened screws, barrels, and balance wheel. The movement can be viewed through a sapphire caseback adorned with the transferred PCA logo in yellow.

The Omega Speedmaster “Porsche Club of America” Limited Edition comes on a “driver-style” gray leather strap with micro-perforations of the kind one would find on leather driving gloves, with Porsche yellow contrast stitching; on the underside, you’ll find the opposite color scheme, with a layer of yellow rubber highlighted with gray stitching. The watch fastens to the wrist with a brushed and polished titanium buckle. The watch is packaged in a special presentation box with PCA livery and a certificate of authenticity. Priced at $12,911, this special edition can be ordered exclusively through the Porsche Club of America website, at www.pcatime.com.

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