Why its taken me so long to do a daily drive review of the longest tenured watch in my collection is beyond me. But there is never a better (world)time than now! I am grateful, and very likely not grateful enough, that my tech job affords me the privilege of wearing casual outfits to the office, or in other words, the sort of outfits that the Omega Aquaterra Worldtimer blends in best with. No more time to waste! The experience beckons.
Steering Wheel Stunner
The day starts with me oversleeping and subsequently scrambling to get out the door. My company’s return-to-office policy hadn’t taken effect yet and I’d really just be the only one among my team in the office, but good habits never hurt anyone, right? So I unscrew the crown (painfully, this crown doesn’t like to be gripped), set the local time, fast-forward the jumping hour all the way to today’s date (no quick date), and slap it on the part of my wrist with the obvious watch tan.
Before I rolled off my driveway, however, I caught a glimpse of the Aqua Terra’s splendor shimmering in the morning sun, and simply had to pause my scrambling to admire it for a second. The AT Worldtimer has no peer when it comes to steering wheel shots. Depending on the angle of the light hitting the dial, the blue outer dial can range from a rich to a metallic blue, and don’t even get my knees weak about what happens to the laser-ablated titanium middle plate when the rays hit it.
But anyway, I had to eventually stop staring at my watch and get a move on.
Office Blues
The AT Worldtimer isn’t really a “GADA” or “do-it-all” watch like its non-worldtimer Aqua Terra kin, and this is especially true with it’s very blue presentation (or whatever colorway one opts it in). As a result it somewhat sticks out like a big ‘ole wine stain on a Real Madrid jersey, but if you have a flair for contrarianism like I do, consider this the same as making a statement. Imagine trying to make a Submariner just go with everything. It works, but oh my does it make me yawn.
After a period of industriousness, my typically early lunchtime suddenly sneaks up on me, so I grab my packed victuals and find a corner where I can take pictures of my watch in peace.
Again, it’s so fun doing light-play against the dial. It makes me enjoy photographing this wrist time-device so much that I almost forgot how silly I looked hunched over in a corner of my office paparazzi-ing this thing. The joys of being a “watch guy”! Oh, and take it from someone who has this on both the OEM strap and bracelet: skip the bracelet. It’s not very nice (as of writing), especially when compared to the strap. I’ll say it here: Omega makes the best deployant clasp straps (say that 3 times fast) in the industry.
Coffee Break
After chowing down my lunch, I realized that I had a some time to get a lil’ coffee and go for a short stroll around the office. I try to do this every time I do one of these daily reviews around the office, but the new Austin Omega boutique opened since the last time I did one and it just felt appropriate to get a pic of it in the background.
A few meetings and keyboard clickclacking sessions later, I found a window of time to drive back home to take care of a few things before rendezvousing with my friend for dinner. On approach to my front door, I suddenly had the idea to hang the worldtimer on a tree branch right outside my house, for no good reason other than a photo op, really. And then I noticed that 4:06pm CST was 8:06am in Beijing (your smart a** might be thinking, “dummy it says 7:06am on the watch!” but daylights savings kicked in 2 days before this and that means it was 8:06am, thank you) and Kacey Musgraves’s Slow Burn starting playing in my head.
My worldtimer’s ability to read the time in Beijing brought me joy that day by conjuring up music in my head. Can your Apple Watch evoke such joy? No, but it can play said music? Shut it, that’s not what I asked.
Dinner (Wrist)rolls
Sometimes I feel like I should get into the habit of showing up to a place 15 minutes late if I know for certain the person I’m meeting is also going to be. Anyway, I shouldn’t complain about being a punctual person. After all, it can afford a nice opportunity for an intimate golden hour mini-photoshoot with your watch. Cue Golden Hour – Kacey Musgraves.
That poor Via 313 didn’t stand a chance. Between satiating ourselves and good conversation, I briefly forgot about the tantalizing timepiece on my wrist. Gotta ask the Swatch Group for forgiveness for that one. But alas, the day was soon to be spent, and I still had some packing to do for a short stint out of town the next day.
Conclusion
But wait, there’s more! I simply can’t not do a lume review of a watch that has it. As displayed above, the AT Worldtimer has a nice blue lume, even if not in generous amounts. The quality of the lume I actually find rather nice and it stays nice and bright for a good while, but Omega really pinched some pennies here with the hour/minute/second hand lume.
The lume plot of the seconds hand looks nearly identical to that of the minute hand (and they’re both only at the tips), and the hour hand has only a thin sliver of lume. The whole train wreck makes it actually difficult to read the time, BUT I will say the lume ensemble if anything looks cool when activated. All in all no worries though. I’m in the camp that thinks the importance of lume is wildly exaggerated and am perfectly content with what the worldtimer shipped with.
So concludes a day in the life with the Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra Worldtimer. I personally think every watch person ought to at least aspire for a Co-Axial equipped Omega. Seriously, how have we as a species grown so indifferent to the ingenuity of the Co-Axial escapement? Anyway, I have mine in the form of the worldtimer’s Calibre 8938 (the see-thru caseback is fine, nothing jaw dropping) and I sleep well at night knowing I have a very, very special piece in the collection. So go ahead, do the world a favor and save a Rolex, ride an Omega.
Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra Worldtimer
Case Diameter: 43mm (Wears a bit smaller, especially on strap)
Case Material: Stainless Steel
Case Thickness: 14.1mm
Lug-to-lug length: 50.3mm
Weight: 121g (with deployant clasp), 163g on bracelet, full set
Lug Width: 21mm
Width at clasp: 18mm
Beat Rate: 25,200 vph/3.5Hz
Movement: Omega 8938