When it comes to museums operated by watch brands, the Omega Replica Watches museum in Bienne is definitely one worth a visit. It is located just across from Omega HQ, admission is free, it’s open on Saturdays as well as during the week, and — best of all — you get to see hundreds of watches, clocks, movements, and instruments displaying more than a century of the brand’s fascinating historyOf course, among all these exhibits are quite a few dive watches, given the Omega watch brand’s rich history in manufacturing watches for underwater use.
Along with a comprehensive lineup of past and current Omega Seamaster Replica watches, we discovered four prototype watches on display at the museum that we felt were worthy of attention. Here they are, along with photos:
1. Super Compressor” case prototype

This “Super Compressor” case prototype from 1969 with a 52-mm diameter and a flexible caseback intended to be used in helium-saturated environments. Probably because the Omega Replica from that time was put “through our helium test […] This test showed that the 600 is one hundred times as air- and water-tight as the Apollo spacecraft.” Omega did not pursue the concept of a helium release valve further until the 1990s.
2. Omega Seamaster 1000 prototype

An Omega Replica Watches prototype with a very unique bezel inlay and an unusual dial/hand combination. The watch was used by COMEX during Janus II (two years before the cooperation with Rolex started), along with some specially marked Seamaster 600 “Ploprof” models, when “they spent eight days on the seabed, while setting up a new world deep-sea diving record.”
3. Seamaster 1000 prototyp

4. Omega Megaquartz Seamaster 1000

Last but not least, the rather extreme-looking Omega Megaquartz Seamaster 1000, with a rather unique evolution of the brand’s traditional orange “Plongeur” minute hand.All of which brings up another reason why you should visit the Omega museum: you are allowed to take pictures.

In the third chapter in our series of features articles on the 60th anniversary of the iconic Omega Speedmaster, going decade by decade, we present the five most noteworthy Speedmasters from the 1980s, including such Reagan-era milestone pieces as the first Cheap Omega Replica with an exhibition caseback and the first Speedy with a moon-phase.
1980: Omega Speedmaster Apollo 11, Omega’s first sapphire crystal caseback

Launched to celebrate the 1969 Apollo 11 mission — in which the Omega Speedmaster became the first watch worn on the moon — this yellow-gold model was the first to be outfitted with the 861L caliber. It was also the first Omega Replica timepiece to put its caliber on display, through a glazed sapphire caseback window. The watch was produced in a very small, numbered series of around 300 pieces; the “L” suffix at the end of the Caliber number “861” indicated that it was the “Luxury” version of that movement, with a higher level of decoration than was normally afforded.
1983: The first bi-color Speedmaster

The first Speedmaster model with a two-tone design, this 1983 model combined a steel case with a golden dial, silvered chronograph subdials, and a bracelet made from steel and 14K gold. It is unknown exactly how many of this reference that Omega Replica Watches produced, but very few are known to still exist.
1985: The first Speedmaster moon-phase model

“Twenty years after the Speedmaster began preparing to go to the moon,” Omega states in its press materials on the Speedmaster’s 60-year history, “the moon came to the Speedmaster.” The watch, nicknamed “Speedymoon,” was produced in a series of 1,300 pieces and was the first in the iconic series to include a moon-phase complication, whose disk was adorned with a painted moon and stars. There are even some rare Cheap Omega Replica models that feature a painted face on the moon’s surface.
1987: Speedmaster Automatic

Considered by many collectors as the “Holy Grail” of vintage Speedmasters, this was the first watch in the collection that combined an automatic movement with a “Moonwatch” case. Omega only produced the watch for two years, making it an extremely rare piece, sought out obsessively by the Speedy’s legions of fans and collectors. Design-wise, this Omega Replica case is slightly thicker than those of other Speedmasters to accommodate the automatic movement, and the chrono pushers and crown are closer fitting than those on the classic Moonwatch.
1987: A Speedmaster made especially for Italy

Limited to only 500 pieces, this timepiece was created for the Italian market. It featured a black dial with golden subdials, a yellow-gold bezel and yellow gold-plated crown and pushers. And it could be considered a tribute to the Speedmaster’s interesting but little-known historical connection with Italy. The Seahorse medallion that appears on the casebacks of many Omega Replica Watches models was, in fact, inspired by the Seahorse emblems found on the sides of gondolas in Venice.