Back in the mid-twentieth century, before the Speedmaster and Seamaster became the flagship models for Omega, the Biel/Bienne brand’s best-known watch was the Constellation.
One of the most prestigious watches of the 1950s — Elvis famously wore one — the “Connie,” as it’s come to be known by collectors, was introduced in 1952 as Omega’s flagship and a celebration of the brand’s victories at chronometry competitions throughout the previous two decades.
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The Constellation was decidedly a dress watch, as most watches were in those days. While hundreds of references were produced over the decades, those 1950s examples are most prized for their handsome collection of unique design traits, which included convex “pie-pan” dials, dauphine hands, arrow markers, faceted crowns and, most sought-after, “dog-leg” lugs.
While Omega has sometimes revisited those other design traits — the current Constellation Globemaster features a pie-pan dial, for instance — the quirky angled lugs disappeared from the brand’s catalog sometime in the 1970s. Despite collectors’ love for the style, it seemed as if Omega’s dog-leg lugs would forever remain a thing of the past.
That is, until the Seamaster 37mm Milano Cortina 2026 came along.
