As I’ve realised from the raft of bronze-cased watches over the past few years, I love the colour – or at least, I love the colour when it’s fresh. Depending on the alloy, it can take a few weeks, months or years, but eventually it will get a patina which I, controversially, am not a fan of.
I get enjoying a patina in a proper vintage watch. It’s deserved, a sign of a tick well tocked. Recently aged bronze on the other hand just comes across as dirty and makes you rethink just how oily your wrists are. It’s not particularly pleasant. Omega’s Bronze Gold on the other hand has a similar colour but is incredibly resistant to corrosion, like gold, keeping it looking fresher for longer. So thank God it’s been used in the shiny new Omega Seamaster Diver 300M in Bronze Gold and Burgundy.
First off, let’s get the inevitable downside of bronze gold out of the way: it’s a lot softer than your usual stainless-steel diver. That makes it a bit of an odd choice in something like the Seamaster Professional 300M, especially one riffing off 007’s more militaristic piece from No Time to Die. The recent monochromatic steel and titanium number is much more in line, practically speaking.
It’s also caused no end of headaches for Omega themselves. While they’re no stranger to a gold diving watch case, a full mesh bracelet on the other hand is another matter entirely. Every link in the mesh is under strain and yet it needs to stay solid for years – ideally decades – on the wrist. In fact, I have it on good authority (i.e. from Omega themselves) that the bracelet was by far the trickiest part of the watch. Then again, it’s the highlight of a watch that I’m grudgingly in love with. So, worth it.
Yes, gold divers with gold bracelets are world away from the most practical instruments for actual diving, but I’m not a diver. Deep water scares the living hell out of me. And if you take away the need to bounce off submerged rocks then the new Omega Seamaster Diver 300M is a winner.
First off, that bright, bronze coloured gold works incredibly well on the Seamaster Diver 300M’s ultra-faceted case. The mix of brushed and polished surfaces is so many rungs above your usual Submariner imitation that it can look down with the kind of elitist sneer reserved for, well, an all-gold diving watch. Granted the facets on the caseback are a little sharper than my delicate wrists would like (especially as they’re not generally visible) but that’s the nittiest of picks here.
That said, along with the under facets, the watch is as weighty as you’d expect from precious metal and the 42mm case wears slightly wider than you’d expect on the mesh. There’s very little give in this kind of bracelet so it juts out a little either side of my wrist. Anyone bigger though – which is most people – should be fine. And hey, you could probably bend the mesh to fit if you actually did own it.
The gorgeous bronze gold continues onto the bezel, paired with an equally gorgeous burgundy, filled with vintage beige lume. If there’s one word to describe the 120-click diving bezel, it’s rich. This is a watch that definitely would have made it off the Titanic.
That combination of beige lume and bronze gold makes the most of the dial too, with lumed circular indexes and the blocks at the cardinal points (two, of course, to help 12 o’clock stand out underwater) are all bordered in precious metal, sharp and matte. Omega could probably have opted for a bezel-matched burgundy dial too but instead they went for a more toned-down black sans the collection’s signature waves, for the higher contrast and therefore readability. And probably because all that bronze gold and burgundy would have taken the richness of the bezel to extremes that risk gout.
Despite all my naysaying about a gold diving watch, the Omega Seamaster Diver 300M Bronze Gold still lives up to its professional standards, with 300m water resistance and the collection’s signature helium escape valve at 10 o’clock. I still wouldn’t risk it – for a multitude of reasons – but you can.
Inside is the Master Co-Axial calibre 8806, the most modern take on George Daniel’s contribution to modern watchmaking, one that’s been put through its paces by METAS, the Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology. Fun fact, when they’re not testing watch movements, METAS is the government body responsible for making sure a litre at the pumps is indeed a litre and that all of Switzerland’s highway cameras are calibrated correctly. They’re busy people. The result is a movement that performs at beyond COSC standard, with a variance of no more than 0 /+5 seconds a day, magnetic resistance to at least 15,000 gauss and in this instance has a 55-hour power reserve.
To say that the Omega Seamaster Diver 300M is in the same ballpark as the recent monochrome silver or indeed the No Time to Die Bond watch feels like a stretch. At the same time, it shares a lot of the same looks and features. So perhaps its fairer to say that if the monochrome version is the production diver take, this is the desk diver version. And if you’re after something with the look of fresh bronze without the patina, look no further. Unless of course, you’re on a budget; this will set you back £26,400.
Price and Specs:
More details at Omega.
Apologies, a typo in my last post. The reference to the accuracy of the Bulova should have read 10 seconds per year. (Maybe I need a typist or proof reader).
Yawn, sorry, for the delay in making a comment since the review was originally conducted by Sam, – this is definitely not a reflection on Sam’s consistency in terms of providing a balanced report, but more so out of boredom of yet another release from Omega.
I’m on the same page as Sam in respect of a general dislike for bronze watches as they develop the typical patina that makes you want to polish them back to their original ‘as bought’ condition rather than wait years for the true (bronze statue esque) patina to develop.
So, to the latest Omega release. – no surprise that they are pushing their agenda on bronze gold, it is the answer to the resurrection in interest in gold watches to be achieved at a much lower price point than actual gold, but at £26k for this watch, you could argue this point. But a matching metal bracelet on a dive watch, what are they thinking (a pure guess on my part, but offering a more practical rubber or man-made fabric strap on a £26k watch would be a bit of a gamble), but for me the whole ensemble of this watch is too much bling and no subtlety, but there again, no real subtlety in the Seamaster range (unless you go back to the 1950’s / 1960’s when the Seamaster was an upgrade of their other ranges, and still basically a dress watch). Seamaster is now more a reflection of trying to emulate the Rolex sea dweller from the early bond movies.
Another small but important point, – the accuracy stated as + 5 seconds per day, impressive? – not so when you compare in to the Bulova Accutron ll, which has a (reported) accuracy of 20 seconds PER YEAR.
So Mr Bond, get a Bulova.