Omega’s Mysterious Oscars Watch Teases a Big Change for the Brand

Here’s a glimpse behind the curtain of what it’s like to be a watch journalist during the Academy Awards. All night long, and into the next day, I am inundated with emails from brands showing off the watches they’ve lent out to stars to wear on the red carpet.

It all feels very inorganic and performative, and while I can’t speak for every watch journalist, these product placements generally feel pretty uninspired and uninteresting.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t exceptions. Michael B. Jordan, who took home the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in Sinners, wore a vintage Piaget. That’s interesting. Host Conan O’Brien, who is rarely seen without his trusty Omega Seamaster “No Time to Die” on his wrist, instead wore a stainless steel Land-Dweller from official Oscars partner and eternal Omega rival Rolex. That was pretty neat.

By far, the most interesting watch that came across my desk last night is one that isn’t actually out yet. In fact, it’s not even identified. It’s a mysterious Omega worn by Jordan’s Sinners 73-year-old co-star and Best Supporting Actor nominee, Delroy Lindo. And it may signal a big change for the brand.

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Scene-stealer

Buried in the middle of Omega’s Oscar watches email was this little nugget: “Actor and nominee Delroy Lindo wears an unreleased Omega Timepiece.”

We’ve seen Omega use this strategy of soft-launching watches in celebrities several times in recent years. First with James Bond himself, Daniel Craig, who wore the white-dial Speedmaster in 2023 and a pair of no-date Seamasters the following year. Last year, Omega branched out with brand ambassador Colman Domingo, who wore the then-unreleased “Speedy Reverse” in Moonshine Gold at last year’s Met Gala.

Omega using Delroy Lindo in this fashion is pretty surprising, given that I didn’t even know he was an ambassador for the brand (and maybe he isn’t!), but his wristwear was by far the most interesting thing I saw on the Oscars red carpet.

There are several photos of Lindo wearing the watch, and while none offer a clear look at the piece, there are clues as to what it might be. For starters, the case is clearly gold. As is the dial, and it’s on a dramatically tapered fine mesh gold bracelet. Those are the obvious things. What’s more interesting are the less obvious details.

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Take a look at the dial. It’s raised in the center, with the sharp applied indices forming angled points around it. In other words, this is the unmistakable shape of a pie-pan dial, a classic Omega style from the mid-twentieth century found on the most desirable vintage Constellation dress watches.

Next, we have the lugs. These are not the straight lugs seen on Omega’s De Ville, nor do they match the C-shaped case of the Globemaster — Omega’s two current dress watch lines. Instead, these are the kinked lug style known the “dog leg,” which Omega resurrected last year after a 50-year hiatus on a Milano-Cortina-edition Seamaster dress watch.

I called that Seamaster Omega’s best dress watch in half-a-century thanks largely to its dog-leg lugs, but if this watch Lindo was wearing is truly a full gold piece with a pie-pan dial, dog-leg lugs and that gorgeous thin mesh bracelet, then we’ll have a new champion — and by a healthy margin.

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Connie comeback?

We can also tell from the photos that there is no date on the watch, the hands appear to be dauphine style and there looks to be an applied star logo above 6:00. All of these details combined point to one watch from Omega’s history: the Constellation, with the closest match being the Constellation Calendar Grand Luxe from 1962, reference BA 368.0800.

Outside of the missing date window at 3:00, this mystery Omega shares a lot in common with its 1960s sibling. That watch was in full 18K yellow gold (Lindo’s, I assume, is in Omega’s proprietary yellow gold alloy, Moonshine Gold) with a thin mesh bracelet and featured a gold pie-pan dial, dog-leg lugs and dauphine hands. It is perhaps the ultimate Constellation, and the fact that Omega appears to be bringing it back in modern form is music to my ears.

Omega

The Constellation collection right now is very confused. Prior to the rise of the Speedmaster and Seamaster, it was Omega’s flagship line, but these days it’s an afterthought, caught in between continuing the lineage of the 1980s Constellation “Manhattan” integrated bracelet watch and honoring the dressier Connies of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.

As a result, we have two unrelated modern Constellation lines: the Constellation, which attempts to modernize the Manhattan but only partly succeeds because the Manhattan is such a hopelessly dated design, and the Constellation Globemaster, which combines elements from 1950s (pie-pan dial) and ’70s Connies (fluted bezel, C-shaped case) into a sort of mish-mash that isn’t terrible but comes across as too Rolex-y.

Omega

If Omega can reinvent the Constellation as a flagship dress watch by sticking with the 1950s design language but modernized, which is what Lindo appears to be wearing, then I think the line will become hot again — especially since retro, gold dress watches are all the rage right now (see: Cartier).

If the brand wants to take things further, they should split off the Manhattan from the Constellation to avoid confusion and just call it the Manhattan. Then they should redesign it by making it sharper and more angular, especially the bracelet, and ditching the dated Roman numerals on the bezel. Do that, and you’ve got yourself a true Land-Dweller competitor. (Omega, feel free to hit me up for more ideas.)

In the meantime, I await the announcement of what looks like an absolute killer Connie from Omega, and hope that it’s part of a larger rebrand for the once-proud line and not a one-off special edition.

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