Omega just added a new Speedmaster to its collection and barely told anyone about it. No hero campaign, no ambassador wearing it in a launch film, no lifestyle-video reveal, no PR-embargo release. The new reference simply appeared on the Omega website in July 2026: the Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional 42mm in 18K Moonshine gold with the green step dial, reference 310.60.42.50.10.002. A quiet drop, and honestly the best kind of drop, because the watch actually deserves the attention it's not being handed.
What's new versus the 2022 model
Omega already made a Moonshine-gold Speedmaster with a green step dial in 2022, reference 310.60.42.50.10.001. That watch has quietly sat in the top-tier catalogue for four years. The new .002 is not a re-release. It's a specification refresh that only reveals itself when you look closely.
- Subdials: the three registers at 3, 6 and 9 are now in Moonshine gold and carry a fine azurage radial pattern (concentric machined grooves radiating from centre). On the 2022 001 the subdials were finished in the same green as the dial with printed markings, so they sat visually flat. On the 002 the gold subdials sit visually raised against the green base, which is a much bigger design shift than the spec sheet suggests.
- Case thickness: 13.18mm on the 002 versus 13.60mm on the 001. Four-tenths of a millimetre is not nothing on the wrist when the whole watch is solid gold.
- Price: ¥7,348,000 (around $49,000 USD at current rates), roughly ¥242,000 cheaper than the 001 despite the more elaborate dial. Highly unusual for a follow-up gold reference.
The full specs
- Reference: 310.60.42.50.10.002
- Case: 42mm × 13.18mm × 47.46mm lug-to-lug, 18K Moonshine gold
- Bracelet: 18K Moonshine gold five-link with folding clasp, 20mm lug width
- Dial: sun-brushed green PVD step dial, Moonshine gold indices, Moonshine gold subdials with azurage pattern
- Bezel: green ceramic with Omega Ceragold tachymeter scale, dot over 90
- Crystal: domed sapphire front, sapphire caseback
- Movement: Omega Calibre 3861, hand-wound Co-Axial Master Chronometer, METAS-certified, 15,000 gauss anti-magnetic, 50-hour reserve
- Water resistance: 50m
- Caseback engraving: "FIRST WATCH WORN ON THE MOON"
- Retail: ¥7,348,000 JPY (approximately $49,000 USD)
- Launched: July 2026, no press release
Why the quiet release matters
Omega is one of the largest watchmakers in Switzerland and it has one of the most-active marketing departments in the industry (Craig, Kidman, Pelé, Bond, the moon, the Olympic Games). When a company that size lets a $49,000 gold reference land on its own website without a single accompanying press asset, it is a deliberate choice. Two reasonable reads:
- It's a specification tidy-up. The 001 was the Moonshine gold green-dial launch; the 002 is a cleaner execution of the same idea (Moonshine subdials, azurage texture, slightly thinner case, lower price). Omega may see this as an evolution of an existing reference rather than a genuinely new launch that deserves campaign spend.
- It's an under-the-radar collector reward. The kind of buyer who spots the .002 change and knows what it means is exactly the kind of buyer Omega wants to keep in the tent. No press release means no depreciation-inducing hype cycle. This is how you keep a reference clean and collectible.
Either way, the result is the same: a new top-tier Speedmaster that most of the watch press hasn't covered yet. If you like the piece, you're buying it before the general market has been told to.
The Ceragold bezel remains the technical star
Ceragold is Omega's patented process for physically fusing 18K gold into a ceramic bezel insert. The gold numerals and tachymeter markings on the green ceramic are not painted or printed but metallically embedded, so they wear at exactly the same rate as the ceramic around them. On a Speedmaster where the whole rest of the watch is solid gold, having a bezel with the gold physically bonded to the ceramic is the correct choice. Nothing on the watch is decorative in the paint-and-print sense; every gold surface is either metallic gold or Ceragold.
About the azurage subdials
The dial is the reason the .002 exists. On the 001 the three sub-registers were part of the green base, printed in white and gold. On the 002 those three registers are lifted out of the green base entirely: they're made in Moonshine gold, and instead of a flat brushed finish they get an azurage treatment (fine concentric machined grooves radiating from the centre of the subdial). Azurage is a classical high-end dial finish historically used on precision-astronomical dials for exactly this reason: it turns each register into a small textured object that catches light differently to the flat plane around it.
Here's the fun part. The specific radial pattern on these subdials has been read, first by ZENMAI Tokyo in their launch coverage, as a nod to the tread pattern on the sole of a golf spike. Look at a Footjoy or Adidas Tour spike from above and the resemblance is genuinely uncanny. Whether that's a deliberate wink from Omega toward the Masters-week crowd who already made the 001 an under-the-radar collector's favourite, or whether it's just how azurage naturally looks when you machine it that fine, is genuinely unclear. Either read makes the piece more interesting than the spec sheet suggests.
On the .002 the practical effect is depth without added colour, and the reason you notice this dial is different the moment sunlight hits it at an angle.
The movement stays the same, and that's fine
Omega Calibre 3861, hand-wound Master Chronometer, 50-hour reserve, 15,000 gauss anti-magnetic, silicon Si14 balance spring, Co-Axial escapement. Under the sapphire caseback the movement gets the special luxury finish common to all high-tier Speedmaster references: engraved bridges, gilt lettering, Moonshine-plated rotor components. Same movement Omega puts in every Speedmaster Pro since 2021. That's not a criticism; it's a very good movement and it makes sense for a gold reference to share the calibre with the steel version so servicing is standardised across the line.
Wearability
42mm × 13.18mm × 47.46mm lug-to-lug is the standard Speedmaster geometry, minus a fraction of a millimetre off the top thanks to whatever internal case-back adjustment Omega has made. It's still a Speedmaster; anyone who has worn a Moonwatch already knows the fit. The one thing to prepare for: an integrated 18K gold bracelet on a 42mm gold case comes in around 230-260 grams depending on wrist size. If you don't like heavy gold, you won't like this Speedmaster.
Should you buy it
Vs the 2022 001: the 002 is a straight upgrade. New subdial construction, slightly thinner case, cheaper. If you were already considering the 001, the 002 is the one to pick.
Vs a full-gold Rolex Daytona: the Speedmaster is around $47-49K, the full-gold Daytona is currently around $47K retail but effectively unavailable outside allocation. The Speedmaster you can walk into an Omega AD and buy. That single fact is the reason a lot of gold-chronograph budgets go to Omega.
Vs the standard steel Speedmaster Pro: the pitch here is emotional. You already know the standard Moonwatch is one of the greatest mechanical watches ever made. The 002 gives you all of that in gold, on a matching gold bracelet, with a Ceragold bezel and the new azurage subdials. If the emotional pitch works for you, the horological execution is genuinely excellent. If it doesn't, save the money.
Where it sits in the line-up
- 310.60.42.50.01.001 - 18K Sedna (rose) gold, black dial
- 310.60.42.50.02.001 - 18K Sedna gold, brown dial
- 310.60.42.50.10.001 - 18K Moonshine gold, green dial (2022, still catalogued)
- 310.60.42.50.10.002 - 18K Moonshine gold, green dial, new azurage Moonshine subdials (July 2026). Our subject.
- 310.63.42.50.01.001 - Canopus white gold
Omega has not confirmed whether the 001 will remain in production alongside the 002. Historically Omega has kept overlapping references in the catalogue for a period. If you want the flat-subdial 2022 dial before Omega decides, that window may be closing.
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