Omega, an Official Partner of the PGA since 2011, used last year’s PGA Championship in Charlotte, NC, as the stage to launch its new-generation Aqua Terra Golf watches. The Swiss watchmaker followed suit this year at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, MO, unveiling its new Seamaster Aqua Terra Ryder Cup timepiece ahead of the start of competition in the 100th PGA Championship.
The watch features stylistic touches from the Ryder Cup, an international golf competition pitting teams from Europe and America against each other, for which Omega serves as Official Timekeeper whenever the biennial tournament takes place on American soil. While this year’s Ryder Cup, starting on September 28, will be played in Paris, Omega will remain involved, as the official watch of the U.S. team. In the spirit of last year’s revamped Aqua Terra Golf models, the Ryder Cup watch is housed in a 41-mm stainless steel case and sports a horizontal-striped “teakwood” motif on its silvered opaline dial, with the date display in a window at 6 o’clock. The distinctive hour and minute hands and wedge hour indices are blued and filled with Super-LumiNova. Yellow gold is used for the central seconds hand and Omega logo, while red makes a cameo as the color of the quarter-hour numerals on the minute track and of the cursive word “Seamaster.” Collectively, the color scheme evokes that of the Ryder Cup logo.
The movement, on display behind a clear sapphire caseback etched with a 24k gold Ryder Cup logo, is Omega’s co-axial Master Chronometer Caliber 8900, which meets both the official chronometer standards of the Swiss testing agency COSC and also the eight criteria set forth by Omega’s own METAS certification, including the ability to resist magnetic fields to a level of 15,000 gauss. This self-winding caliber, also equipped with the brand’s now-emblematic co-axial escapement and a rotor decorated with Geneva waves, also boasts a 60-hour power reserve in two series-connected spring barrels. The blue structured rubber strap is secured to the case lugs by an extra set of yellow-gold links, a feature not found on the previous Aqua Terra Golf watches, which were mounted on polyamide NATO straps.
The Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra “Ryder Cup” edition is packaged in a special presentation box, with an additional steel bracelet, a tool for switching out the bracelet and strap, and a customized pouch for the watch. Priced at $5,950, the watch is now available in U.S. boutiques.
Overwhelming.
Underwhelming.