Speedmaster Lunar Dust

It’s Speedy Tuesday! What else would you’ve expected us to write about than the new Speedmaster Lunar Dust? The brother (or fratello?) of the Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon that was introduced last year during BaselWorld came a bit as a surprise, but what a pleasant surprise it is!

First of all we’d like to stress that this Speedmaster Co-Axial Caliber 9300 Lunar Dust (reference 311.93.44.51.99.01) model won’t be on the market before end of this year. Both the newly introduced Speedmaster Lunar Dust watch and the new Speedmaster Professional X-33 are not on the Baselworld 2014 novelties page of the Omega website yet, as they were probably just finished in time to present to the press in Baselworld.

The Speedmaster Lunar Dust – or Lit Side of the Moon as it was quickly nick-named already – has the same dimensions and technical specifications as the previously introduced Omega Speedmaster DSotM (here). A 44.25mm case that will definitely appears to be smaller on the wrist than the specifications on paper would make you think it is. This is mainly due to the curved lugs and fact that the crown guard is not that far away from the bezel (it does not stick out much, if that makes sense to you).

Omega used white ceramics for the case of this watch, using plasma technology. This will give the entire case this grey tone, not only the surface of the watch case. If you would cut this watch case in two you’d see that it has the grey colour on the inside as well. The photo below shows the more or less the cases in the various steps of the process of cutting the ceramics and applying the plasma technology to it.

As you’ve probably heard or read by now, this Speedmaster Lunar Dust has a platinum dial inside. Just like the ceramic dial in the DSotM, this LSotM also has the abbreviation of the material engraved in the dial, just above the center pinion. You can read ‘Pt950’ – which stands for platinum – where the DSotM version has the ZrO2 marking (oxide ceramic zirconium oxide formula).

Just like the Rolex Yacht-Master 16622/116622, the platinum dial has the characteristic of being quite mesmerizing in the rays of the sun while it can look a bit ‘flat’ when you are inside a room with artificial light sources only. The tone of the platinum dial is quite light though, so it might even seem to be off-white when you are in such an environment. The nice grain in the platinum dial will immediately bright up the dial when sun rays hit it though. Make sure to ask your retailer if you can try the watch outside of the boutique (I assume he’d like to escort you when you are not a regular customer ; – ) ). The silver coloured hands and hour markers are easy to read on this dial and illuminate brightly as you can see on the photo below.

The photo below will clearly show the difference in colour of the case between the Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon and the Speedmaster Lunar Dust. The Dark Side of the Moon is much darker than then grey toned case of the Lunar Dust.

Although the hands seem to be black on the photo above, they are silver coloured. Both models have the Speedmaster written in red and feature a chronograph second-hand with red tip. Obviously, this contrasts a bit more on the black ceramic dial of the DSoTM than it does on the LSotM.

Instead of the textile soft strap that is used on the DSotM, the new Speedmaster Lunar Dust has a wonderful grey alligator strap attached to it. Altogether, we’d say that the new Speedmaster Lunar Dust is the watch that is more versatile than the Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon. Not only due to the leather strap, but also due to the grey toned case. The Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon is an all-black watch – and definitely a conversation piece – and perhaps would not suit a more formal occasion as well as the Lunar Dust Speedy. If we had to choose between these two watches it would be a tough job actually.

As we’ve explained earlier, the Speedmaster Lunar Dust 311.93.44.51.99.01 uses the same Co-Axial caliber 9300 chronograph movement that the Dark Side of the Moon uses.

We have zoomed in on this movement before in our Speedmaster Co-Axial Caliber 9300 review we did in 2011 (click here). This movement is also being used in the Speedmaster ’57 Caliber 9300 collection that Omega introduced in 2013 (we did an in-depth review of the Speedmaster ’57 here). We expect that Omega will be deploying their 15,000 gauss technology to the chronograph caliber 9300 in the next years to come, like they did on the caliber 8500 variations this year.

The Omega Speedmaster Lunar Dust list price is CHF 10.5K Swiss Francs, excluding VAT. This is approximately 500 Swiss Francs over the Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon list price.

We have to be patient, very patient.

More information on the other Omega novelties can be found here.