By Tyler Reid
Picture this: You’re scrolling through Facebook marketplace late one night and you stumble upon a black wave dial Seamaster for a fairly good price compared to the other watches you’ve just dug into. This is your first $1k+ watch purchase and you definitely want to cross your T’s and dot your I’s before taking that price range leap. You like it so you ask the seller to meet at a jewelry store for verification with a wad of cash in your pocket. You throw out a little bit lower of a price after the jeweler verifies that everything is correct. The seller gladly accepts your offer and now you’re the brand new owner of a near mint 2254.50 Seamaster Professional!
It’s a story we all know either through experience or from watching it play out with others. But, as common as Seamasters are, why is this watch one that I just can’t seem to quit? For starters, it has a sleek design despite being released in 2006 and this makes it still highly sought after today. From the iconic sword hands, generous lume that still holds strong as ever even after the age behind it, the subtle but intriguing and under the radar wave dial, to the ties to Sir Peter Blake, the incredibly comfortable Speedmaster-ish bracelet, this piece is all around high class without the stratospheric price tag in comparison to many others on the market.
Ya know, I’ve had the newer style Omega Seamaster with the blue dial, no wave, Co-Axial movement which is also an outstanding piece (SMPc for the purists) but, it doesn’t come close to the allure that surrounds my Peter Blake. Something was missing from the non-wave that I can’t quite put my finger on in the time that I had it in my rotation. If you’ve read my Cohiba in Cuba article, you’ll know that my Casi-Oak GA-2100 is my go to all around beater watch but, on the other hand, the 2254.50 Seamaster is my do it all luxury watch. On the OEM band, it pairs nicely in jeans and a t-shirt while running errands but it’s also a looker in a sports coat and khakis at the Capital Grille in downtown Atlanta as well. The versatility really is what has me keeping it in my collection indefinitely now that I’ve owned it for three years. I’ve been known to throw it on a high end rubber strap and hit the waves in my hometown of Panama City Beach, or take it to the coast of Jamaica. I know many in the watch world are anti-leather on a dive watch but, if you throw one on this piece it adds a different kind of class as well. Whatever you throw on it or at it, it just makes sense without all the fuss.
If you ever get the opportunity to own one of these awesome pre-owned timepieces you won’t be disappointed. The latest and greatest is always worth considering, but when you find a piece that has some years behind it that you can continue to write the story for then you’ve grown as a watch enthusiast. What was it they said? Oh yes, “new isn’t always better.”‘
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