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In most cases, you'll get a personalized quote in seconds and your policy kicks in immediately.
Wherever you are on planet Earth, your watches are protected. Rest easy and travel safely.
If you suffer a covered loss, there's no deductible and no gimmicks. Ever.
Each of your watches is covered up to 150% of the insured value (up to the total value of the policy).
The fastest and most secure way to protect the watches you love.
We've minimized the paperwork and maximized protection, so you can stop worrying about your watches and focus on enjoying them.
In most cases, you'll get a personalized quote in seconds and your policy kicks in immediately.
Wherever you are on planet Earth, your watches are protected. Rest easy and travel safely.
If you suffer a covered loss, there's no deductible and no gimmicks. Ever.
Each of your watches is covered up to 150% of the insured value (up to the total value of the policy).
The fastest and most secure way to protect the watches you love.
We've minimized the paperwork and maximized protection, so you can stop worrying about your watches and focus on enjoying them.
In most cases, you'll get a personalized quote in seconds and your policy kicks in immediately.
Wherever you are on planet Earth, your watches are protected. Rest easy and travel safely.
If you suffer a covered loss, there's no deductible and no gimmicks. Ever.
Each of your watches is covered up to 150% of the insured value (up to the total value of the policy).
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The first Aqua Terra update in its anniversary year introduces 10 new flavors of the mid-size, all-occasion Aqua Terra.
Omega has kicked off the week with a bang. It's not even 8:00 AM in New York yet and the Swiss watchmaker has already dropped a hot refresh of the Speedmaster '57 as well as a totally new take on the Planet Ocean that builds on the record-breaking Ultra Deep dive watch, first seen in 2019. The final bit of Omega news we can share with you today isn't a major collection overhaul or an entirely new product – there are no broken records to discuss. But in terms of everyday-wear appeal, the latest additions to the Seamaster Aqua Terra might end up being today's most exciting release.
Omega is skipping over the Aqua Terra's recognizable horizontal "teak panel" dial decoration, instead bringing in a total of 10 new dial color variants to its intermediate Aqua Terra offerings; that means there are five new stainless-steel options to choose from in both the 34mm × 12mm and the 38mm × 13.2mm case sizes. I didn't wake up early for any standard dial swap – no, sir – Omega says that all 10 dial colors are the result of an individual vapor deposition process, either chemical (CVD) or physical (PVD), using technology the company did not have access to until recently.
Further, the dial colors – which feature names such as "Saffron," "Terracotta," and "Sandstone" – are meant to represent the transition between the two natural states that the Aqua Terra collection is intended to represent: Aqua, for water, and Terra, for earth/land. The 34mm and 38mm options will each now have a pair of dial colors that coordinate with "Aqua" and with "Terra," as well as a single transitionary model set between the two.
Take a look at the "Terracotta" dial on the 38mm Aqua Terra, pictured above. This shade of red has a unique metallic hue that's a result of the CVD technology. CVD is a process we don't typically see in watchmaking, but it's frequently found in the world of semiconductors and is also frequently used to grow synthetic diamonds. The brass dial of the above Aqua Terra receives a tangible, three-dimensional reddish coating before being decorated with a sun-brushed finish and a final transparent lacquer coating that adds a glossy effect. I haven't seen any of the dials in person, but the initial imagery supplied by Omega is enough to make me want to change that as soon as possible. Note – the Terracotta dial is the only Aqua Terra dial to use CVD technology, while the remaining nine new Aqua Terras use PVD technology to achieve their unique dial color.
The dials aren't the only new newness to highlight here. The cases of these 10 watches are practically identical to the current-gen 34mm and 38mm Aqua Terra options, each featuring screw-down crowns and 150 meters of water resistance, except that now the cases have an entirely polished exterior. The attached three-link, stainless steel bracelet has also undergone a soft redesign, now featuring rounded links.
All 10 of the new Aqua Terra models call on Omega's flagship self-winding caliber 8800. It is, as we've come to expect from Omega, certified by METAS as a Master Chronometer and offers up a high degree of antimagnetism, 55 hours of running autonomy, and a date aperture at six o'clock.
The Aqua Terra was introduced 20 years ago as an everyday-wear alternative for Omega, in a similar vein to the Datejust and Oyster Perpetual lines at Rolex. Alongside the Planet Ocean dive watch, which followed a few years later, the Aqua Terra is Omega's big 21st century success story. Although I don't own one (yet – I've long considered it), I think of myself as a bigger supporter of the Aqua Terra than most, simply because you can't tell the story of Omega in the new millennium without it.
The Aqua Terra's appeal is simple. It's a hybrid dress/sport watch that taps into the original ethos of the Seamaster line (before it went on dive-watch duty) and bridges the gap between the tool-watch nature of the Speedmaster chronographs and Seamaster dive watches and the dressier Constellation and De Ville families. Omega has a genuinely insane number of watch variants in current production (its U.S. website currently lists over 350 Aqua Terras, not counting today's introductions) – so it can be easy for a new release to get lost, which is why I think these new dial color variants are smart: they catch your eye and don't let it go.
The Aqua Terra, by its very nature, is a low-profile watch meant to be worn all the time. It's not flashy. But these new releases change that remit, just a little bit. There's still all the technical bona fides and wearability you might associate with the mid-size Aqua Terra, but there's now also a bit of fun pop appeal via the Crayola-esque dial colors named "Saffron" and "Terracotta."
I'll admit that I quite like all the new colors based on what I can tell from the supplied images, even more so than last year's Aqua Terra additions with small seconds. I was, however, disappointed to notice the date aperture at six o'clock. It's not the functionality that bums me out, it's the use of a basic white background. I've always appreciated how most of the rest of the standard Aqua Terra models contain a color-matched date complication (examples, here and here), but that goes out the window on today's releases. I assume Omega was unable to apply the same PVD/CVD finish to the date wheel as it does on the dial, but the stark contrast is hard to miss.
I do expect these dials to read somewhat differently in person than they do in this article's images, so I'm genuinely looking forward to trying them on for myself. I also hope this isn't the last we see of the Aqua Terra in 2022. It's been an anchor for the Seamaster collection for 20 years now and has seen some serious releases in that time. (Remember – the Aqua Terra was the first Omega watch to feature a movement with an antimagnetic rating up to 15,000 gauss, a feature that's now standard across Omega's four major families.)
I think it's definitely possible Omega is gearing up for a larger Aqua Terra refresh later this year. The last major overhaul took place in 2017, when the Aqua Terra turned 15 and its "teak panel" dial pattern was swapped from a vertical to a horizontal finish and the caliber 8800/8900 was introduced as standard across the line.
So will Omega rock the Aqua Terra boat with more than some – admittedly quite cool – new dial color options? We'll have to wait and see.
Brand: Omega Model: Seamaster Co-Axial Master Chronometer Aqua Terra Diameter: 38mm; 34mm Thickness: 13.2mm; 12mm Case Material: Stainless steel Dial Color: 38mm: Saffron, Terracotta, Sandstone, Atlantic Blue, Bay Green; 34mm: Sea Blue, Lagoon Green, Sandstone, Shell Pink, Lavender Indexes: 38mm, applied trapezoidal hour markers; 34mm, applied, shaped like hull of sailboat Lume: Yes, Super-LumiNova Water Resistance: 150 meters Strap/Bracelet: New three-link stainless steel bracelet, polished
Caliber: 8800 Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, date Diameter: 26mm Thickness: 4.6mm Power Reserve: 55 hours Winding: Automatic Frequency: 3.5 Hz / 25,200 vph Jewels: 35 Chronometer Certified: METAS Master Chronometer certification Additional Details: Co-axial escapement; free-sprung balance wheel; Si14 silicon balance spring; magnetic resistance to 15,000 gauss; bidirectional winding; rhodium plated; Geneva waves in Arabesque decoration
Price: Starting at $5,700, in both 38mm and 34mm options Availability: Via Omega and Omega Authorized Dealers Limited Edition: N/A
The HODINKEE Shop is an Authorized Retailer of OMEGA watches – you can register your interest in the updated Aqua Terra 38mm models and explore our entire selection right here.
The HODINKEE Shop also carries a selection of pre-owned and vintage OMEGA watches.
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