Made as a special edition for the 35th America’s Cup and Emirates Team New Zealand, the Omega X-33 Regatta is an evolved variant of Omega’s mold-breaking Speedmaster X-33. They say that specialization is for insects, and if true, the X-33 Regatta is nothing short of a Praying Mantis; highly specialized and comparatively alien – especially among the hallowed ranks of the Moonwatch.
While I’m nothing if not a fan of an outlier, the current X-33 is best understood with something of a brief history. The original Omega Speedmaster replica watches were launched in March of 1998 to a packed house at Johnson Space Center in Houston, and the event even included the first public live TV transmission from Mir space station. While the X-33 was undoubtedly a wild design, we can see the foundation of its functionality in the Omega Seamaster Multifunction from the mid-80s.
By the time 1998 came around and civilians got their first look at this wild new mission timer from Omega, the precise Omega fake watches had already been put to use in both military and extra-planetary roles. Originally seen as a Flightmaster X-33 in the mid-90s, Omega produced a series of prototypes and pre-production models that were designed with input from several astronauts and select pilots from the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds jet teams. Before being launched to the public, prototypes saw time on the ISS, Mir, and aeronautical applications, with one even surviving (along with the pilot) in the crash of a Mig 15.
From launch, Omega Speedmaster fake watches with mechanical movements were intended to be a mission-specific tool and the case had been designed to offer the highest possible volume for the audible sound of the alarm, with Omega claiming an impressive 80 dB output. Perhaps even more to the point, the X-33 was capable of measuring up to 999 days of “mission time” and displaying the value as either a countdown or as an elapsed total.
Eventually updated with a satin brushed bezel and a new crown in 2001, the X-33 was later discontinued for the public in 2006. Fast forward to December 2014 when Omega launches the third generation X-33 called, in full, the delicate Omega Speedmaster copy watches.
This new model forgoes the previous generation’s circular display for a more straightforward horizontal display with three segments, typically showing additional data (top), mode/function (at nine on the dial), and time or an active measure on the lower display. I won’t belabor the finer details of the X-33 as Jack wrote a hands-on story about a mostly similar X-33 back in 2015.