The Movement

The in-house-manufactured Master Chronometer Calibre 8800 movement instantly accelerates things into unprecedented realms of precision, performance and magnetic resistance. Seamaster devotees will know that the range has been host to several movements over the years, including the ETA-based Omega Caliber 1120 and, most recently, the 2500, which is essentially based on the same original movement though considerably modified by Omega to include its lubricant-free Co-Axial escapement.

With the new Seamaster 300M employing the Master Chronometer 8800, Omega is continuing its brand-wide programme phasing-out older movements in favour of its more cutting-edge in-house hardware, repositioning itself as a genuine, evenly equipped rival to Rolex, as it once was back in the day.

So what’s so cutting-edge about the 8800? Well, with the humble mechanical watch, magnetic fields are still Public Enemy No. 1 to the ferrous components ticking inside, sticking them together or sending them out of whack. According to international standard ISO 764, watches must resist exposition to a direct current magnetic field of 4,800 Amperes per metre – about the strength of the magnet in your fridge door.

The equivalent to 4,800 A/m is about 60 Gauss, which makes Omega’s ticking cocktail of clever alloys and silicon extraordinarily overqualified: its new certification by the Swiss metrology institute, METAS demands a resistance up from 60 to 15,000 (yes, 15,000) Gauss – enough to resist the influence of a neodymium magnet, the strongest permanent magnet commercially available, found everywhere from hard disks to MRI scanners. And laser-beam torture devices, presumably.

Dive in, chaps. The Seamaster has never felt finer.

Today’s Best Omega Seamaster 300 Models

Model Number: 212.30.41.20.03.001

As masculine as you’d expect from James Bond’s watch of choice, this does what few diving watches can manage in that it functions as a proper high-spec tool watch, while also being (just) smart enough for more dressed-up occasions. (Though not with the tuxedo. Really, 007.)