Face-Off : Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean XL vs Tudor Pelagos

The few e-mails that I received today were with regards to... where was the comparison between the Planet Ocean and Pelagos, that was mentioned in an earlier posting. Since the e-mails came from as near as Kuala Lumpur to as far as The States, I thought that I would do well to address the comparo in this post then.

Let's round up the contestants then - on the left, we have Tudor Pelagos and on the right, the Planet Ocean. The referee for today's match-up would be another heavyweight i.e. Citizen Depth Master from Baselworld 2014.

(And with Baselworld 2015 upon us, I wonder what eye candies we shall be getting this year around... but I digress.)

The Planet Ocean, at 45.5mm, was a huge watch with a larger wrist presence. Make no mistake, this baby attracts attention like a sugar-coated honeypot and its design had lots of blingy details that made it stood out from the usual crowd of 40mm Submariners.

And I simply adored the seahorse adorning the caseback of the Planet Ocean. I thought that it gave the watch more personality and depth, compared to just slapping on a sapphire crystal as per the norm that all other manufacturers seemed to be jumping on the bandwagon.

Placed next to each other, the 42mm Pelagos did not feel that much smaller compared to the 45.5mm Planet Ocean. Scrutinise the picture and you would see that it was largely due to the design of the bezel. Pelagos had a ceramic bezel that was all blacks, while Planet Ocean's had more details with a silver lining around the inner circle, that caused the illusion optics that it was smaller than it really was. Planet Ocean had a shiny stainless steel case and bracelet, while Pelagos had a dull silver due to the use of Grade 5 Titanium material.

The tangerine orange numerals were striking against the black dial, and that orange tip on the second hand was the icing on the cake. A very striking dial, no wonder James Bond make the stylish Planet Ocean his choice during his rounds to save the world.

If stylish was the word that defined Planet Ocean's dial, Pelagos' would best be defined as a strictly-business dial. Except for the snowflake hands that were inherited from Tudor Submariner of the yesteryears, the dial was designed almost not to attract attention. Very toolish and professional. The floating second hand was the icing of this cake.

Both bezels aligned directly to the 12 o'clock and with zero lag play. Pelagos used a faux pearl while Planet Ocean had the conventional pearl.

From the crown's side profile, we could gauge that the Planet Ocean had a thinner case (only true to the 2500D calibre, as the 8500 calibre caused the case to look like it was on steroids). The crown was signed with the Greek logo for Omega. The bracelet steel was rock solid and could hold the weight of the watch when placed in this position.

Pelagos case was thicker (but wore lighter due to the titanium), and the crown protector was handsomely-CNC-machined at an angle. The crown was signed with the Tudor shield, and the bracelet was very "soft" (as in easily-adaptable to one's wrist) and comfortable.

From the helium valve side, the difference was very clear- Planet Ocean had an external and very outstanding screwed helium valve while Pelagos' was integrated into the case. Different elements of design altogether and while I used to prefer the Planet Ocean's, I find myself liking the low profile manner utilised by Pelagos these days. It's there; but only those who knows that it's there, would see it there.

Both bracelets featured hidden diver extension links, being professional divers' watches instead of poser ones. Planet Ocean had nicely-inscribed Omega Seamaster Professional Planet Ocean on the press-down release buckle, while Pelagos had the spring-loaded GlideLock for micro adjustments on-the-fly and with double-locking mechanism.

The caseback had a clear winner in Planet Ocean with the details done in stylish and pristine thought-out manner. Pelagos' was clearly done the way that Rolex had done since time immemorial- plain and to-the-point.

So given a choice, which one would you add into your collection? The left or the right?

One thing's for sure- you won't go wrong with either choices. If you would like a professional diver watch that had the wow-factor, Planet Ocean would suit the occasion well. If you would prefer a professional diver watch that would simply lay low-profile while the limelight was on yourself only (and not the watch), you would have a no-brainer in the Pelagos.

Either way, you know that you were stepping away from the executive crowd of the norm that was spotting a Submariner on their wrists. You were showing that you were confident enough to go the other route- albeit in a blingy manner or low-profile manner.

Let's all wear our watches in good health!

Tudor Pelagos with Tudor Straps

As per my earlier posting, I found the Tudor Pelagos bracelet to be a comfortable bracelet when adorning the wrist, and I particularly liked its version of the GlideLock system that adjust to one's wrist automatically throughout the day. Some day, more watch bracelets would be designed along that manner, I believe.

And if you were a sports fan, where rubber was your preferred choice, no worries there anyway as Tudor supplied a rubber strap along with a diver extension to complete the package. I have been an Isofrane fan so I had concerns that the Tudor rubber strap may be hard and unwieldy; but I was pleasantly surprised that it was rather comfortable too.

And I'm also a Nato strap fan. But for the Pelagos, rather than using the standard third parties' Nato straps with abundance of choices in the market, I decided to hunt for and use the Tudor Nato strap. This was an adjustable fabric strap with sophisticated weave; and best of all, the lug pin was slotted into the fabric so that the watch was lodged securely against the strap. And have I mentioned about that very masculine Tudor shield buckle? It's toolish and masculine at the same time.

I may try other straps in my collection in the future; but for now, I am staying true to the Tudor heritage by pairing it with its intended straps while it serves its duty of action. Let's wear our Tudors in good health as we revitalise this brand in the new horology world order.

Long Term Review : Tudor Pelagos

Readers would know that I flipped the Tudor Heritage Black Bay a while back but kept its sibling i.e. Tudor Pelagos Ti5. There must be a reason for keeping the Pelagos, right? There had been e-mails coming in with regards to queries on the Pelagos, which I had been answering from time to time; but there had not been an actual review. I see the Pelagos as a long-term keeper and therefore wanted to do a long-term review. Well, here it was.

Baselworld 2012 saw the release of Tudor Pelagos Ti5 and Tudor Heritage Black Bay Burgundy; while Baselworld 2013 saw the release of Tudor Monte Carlo Blue.

And all three models were models that I had an interest on, although the local ADs were not giving discounts (especially on the Pelagos Ti5) as the market was on an over-demand situation. Economics 101. Tip of the day was that you could sometimes get better pricing from overseas AD depending on availability and Forex. With my business travels, I could therefore sometimes net bargains this way.

Ultimately, the choice went towards a very worthy opponent i.e. the toolish and unassuming Tudor Pelagos.

Launched together with the Heritage Black Bay during Baselworld 2012, the Pelagos had many similarities and differences when compared to its more affordable sibling in the BB. The most obvious similarity was the usage of the Tudor-modified ETA 2824-2 caliber in Top Grade form. Essentially a known workhorse in the Swiss horology world, I had many Swiss watches using this ETA movement; but when Tudor modifies it, it's obviously more desirable and premium from the rest.

Both were cased in a 42mm format, which was a good size to many watch collectors although there was a current tendency towards watches bigger than 44mm these days. Both used the snowflake hand that Tudor Submariner of the past was famous for.

Both have precise bezel movements that Rolex was known for, with zero lag play. Very confidence-inspiring.

As for the differences, the Pelagos maintain the date cutout while BB did away with the date to maintain its heritage inspiration. For practicality, I would personally prefer the date function and I liked the way that Pelagos was designed such that it still looked symmetrical across the dial, with no Cyclops as per the Submariner.

The premium one pays for in the Pelagos goes towards the choice of material i.e. Grade 5 titanium, as opposed to stainless steel in the BB. Titanium obviously made it very light and my personal experience was that you could almost forgot that you had the Pelagos strapped on your wrist during the day.

Pelagos' matt grey case with the matt black dial made it a very unassuming and toolish watch, that would not attract unwarranted attention. BB on the other hand, was a very bling-bling watch, especially with that burgundy red bezel that would catch the public's attention easily.

And one must mention the bracelet when it comes to Tudor. If I thought that the BB's bracelet was comfortable when worn, Pelagos took it a notch higher and its version of the GlideLock system made it all the more comfortable when one's wrist expands or contracts throughout the day. After wearing the Pelagos bracelet, I am definitely spoilt for choice and felt that other bracelets were inferior to the Pelagos'.

Pelagos' bracelet also had a hidden diver extension link as it was good for 500m, as opposed to BB's 200mm WR. The Pelagos was a professional diver watch comparable to my Omega Seamaster Professional Planet Ocean with 600m WR. I did a pictorial comparison between both watches in this posting @ Face-Off : P vs P.

The Pelagos lume was truly a marvel at night and could last throughout the night when charged under the sun for the day.

And being an Isofrane fan, I obviously had high standards when it came to rubber straps; but I am glad to report that Tudor's rubber strap was rather soft and comfortable to wear, and the buckle was designed to look like its shield in true Tudor fashion. There was even a diver extension rubber strap included in its package. And check out the end link included in the package too.

All in all, I found the Pelagos to be a good professional watch that aimed to be toolish and unassuming, albeit very low-profile. You could wear it all day long and it would not look out of place anywhere and anytime. It's definitely one of my fave go-to watches.

I could see this watch attaining cult status as that of the DSSD, in time. And compared to the re-release of Pelagos v2 launched in March 2015, which no longer have the lume bit at the date (less symmetrical to me) and had the crowded 5-liner on the dial (compared to only 2-liner on Pelagos v1), I could see collectors making a bee-line towards v1. That was, of course, just my 2 sen's worth.

"Is your Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean XL from its Professional series?"

After I posted on my Omega Seamaster Professional Planet Ocean XL (apparently, the Professional bit was very significant as I had a couple of e-mails that asked if my Planet Ocean was from the Professional series- I mean, ummm, aren't all Planet Ocean from the Seamaster Professional series?), I had a number of queries with regards to the said watch.

In the meantime, I have taken the watch out of the winder on Wednesday and took some pictures of it while I was bored on the flight. You judge for yourselves if its condition was truly remarkable.

Let's all wear our watches in good health!

Re-visited : Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 45.5mm

Quite a few parties asked about the brand new RRP pricing of the Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean, and a few informed that they saw 2 sets of different pricing at the Omega Authorised Dealer for the same watch.

I doubt that the ADs would have typos on the very important pricing, so I would take a guess and believe that the watches were actually 42mm and 45.5mm ones. From the glass cases, they may looked similar so the readers could have got mixed up in that regards. To prevent the misunderstanding, you could march to the AD and asked for the regular PO or the PO XL The latter is slightly costlier compared to the regular version, while additional premium is placed on the PO XL James Bond Edition.

The below screen prints were from grey retailers, so their prices had been discounted downwards. Expect to pay circa 10-15% premium for Omega authorised sets from the ADs, but you do get the additional peace of mind of Omega manufacturer warranty. For me, when one buys a luxurious timepiece, I would prefer to buy from the AD (check the warranty card and papers) for the peace of mind plus the fact that I would be assured that it's a genuine timepiece.

42mm, 2500D caliber, stainless steel caseback with engravings.

45.5mm, 2500D caliber, stainless steel casebook with engravings.

45.5mm, 2500D caliber, stainless steel casebook with engravings.

45.5mm, 8500 caliber, sapphire crystal caseback.

Personally, I prefer the 2500D movement (currently used in Omega Seamaster Professional 300m Co-Axial with Ceramic Bezel) as per below :

This caliber is thinner and easier to service (if you should opt to service it vide watch smiths outside of The Swatch Group); so for a huge 45.5mm watch, the thinner profile would ensure a better fit on one's wrist.

In any case, I always find the Planet Ocean to be a handsome watch and with its features, you'd be hard-pressed to find another professional diving watch with 600m WR, helium escape valve, chronometer certified, solid links, and with great wrist presence, in its price range.