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Ohhhh.... how I would love to own 1....
saw a brand new piece selling in vietnam, makes me itchy to get one too...
Quote from: davidtth on April 17, 2013, 08:10:12 PMsaw a brand new piece selling in vietnam, makes me itchy to get one too...Brand new?IIRC, Omega doesn't sell direct to civilian anymore.They only supply to military by special order.
A Crash In The Desert: The Story Of A Record Breaking Pilot And His Indestructable Omega X-33INTRODUCTIONDr. Howard Torman lives an extraordinary life and enjoys extraordinary watches. As a medical doctor, test pilot, and former CBS News national medical correspondent, he has owned some rather interesting watches – and each of his watches tell an intriguing story about his life and constantly evolving passion to own the most functional and well-made timepieces ever produced.Hodinkee recently sat down with Dr. Torman to learn the story of his prototype Omega X-33 watches and his experiences as a pilot living on the edge in the 1990s. He has been flying since the age of 16, and eventually flew some of the most remarkable machines that have ever been put in the air: F-15s, F-16s, and two of the most famous Soviet jet fighters ever made, the MiG-15s and the MiG-21s. After being trained as a medical doctor at Stanford and teaching at Harvard for several years, his passion for flying continued to push him to the limits, resulting in two world speed records (set November 29, 1996) and a crash that nearly took his life.THE X-33 PROJECTBefore exploring the details of the crash, let’s look back at Torman’s involvement in the development of the Omega X-33. In 1995, Torman was visting Johnson Space Center and learned that General Tom Stafford was working with Omega (as Chairman of the Board for the US) to put together the perfect watch to replace the aging Speedmaster for the space program. Torman soon found himself involved in the testing phases of the new X-33 watch, possibly the only watch other than the original Speedmaster certified for extra vehicular activity (aka space walks). Interestingly, the X-33 was named after NASA’s now defunct X-33 project to develop a reusable spaceplane.The X-33 is a tool watch that defied convention and was made to answer the very specific needs of astronauts and later pilots. In Torman’s words:“Omega engaged in the X-33 watch project to design a watch that was analog but with digital subfunctions. The major display would be analog and to accommodate and to address all of the issues of the space shuttle program. For instance, the sound level on the middeck when they were in orbit is fairly high. So the alarm system on the X-33 was specifically designed to that - I think it’s 88 or 90 dB to get above the level of the background noise on the mid-deck of the ship. The reason you see these pictures of the guys wearing multiple watches is that they are constantly monitoring different experiments – so they’re monitoring alarms to remind them to perform specific tasks at specific times. The X-33 was designed to help eliminate the need for multiple watches. Also, they’re monitoring not only their local time but also mission elapsed time set from the instant of launch, because that’s how the whole timeline is set out for the shuttle missions. And they were literally timed down to the minute. Multiple alarms were also integrated within the watch to track multiple events at the same time. The X-33 was really well functionally designed for specific needs of the shuttle and any future programs.”The relationship that developed with Omega and several other astronauts was simple. They received the watch to wear in return for real world feedback on the X-33's performance to Omega. "On occasion, the watch would go back to them [Omega] and they would modify it and send it back," says Torman. "For some time, I was wearing my X-33 on a regular basis to fly. Actually, I was wearing it every day at that point, and my Rolex GMT which I bought new in 1968 for $245 went into a drawer for a while.”THE CRASHTorman wore his prototype X-33 (number 11/22) flight after flight. On October 16, 1997 the X-33 went through the ultimate test at Stead Field, Reno, Nevada while flying a MiG-15. Again, Torman recounts:“I was flying a MiG-15 that had some extensive work and modification done to it and I was taking it out for what’s called a functional check flight, basically to make sure everything is working on it. I was going to test everything on it, make sure that things still perform correctly and everything was working. So everything went fine, and I had the X-33 on as usual. I came back to the airport – it’s just north of Reno – and had some extra gas, so decided to shoot some touch-and-goes since you never outgrow your need to practice landings. I was ten feet off the ground or whatever, and the bottom just dropped out. The airplane didn’t stall, I was on speed and I was on centerline; all the numbers, all the parameters were dead on that time, and suddenly the thing just fell out of the sky. I tried futilely to recover, which was unsuccessful, and the airplane flipped over and ended up on its backside down the runway at 130 knots before skidding off the runway into the sagebrush.It became the first MiG-15 convertible - the crash actually took off the entire canopy structure, including the top part of the ejection seat, and the helmet that I was wearing at the time was scraped through the Kevlar to the liner and I was obviously knocked unconcious. The first thing I really remember was I was hanging upside down in the straps with dirt all around me and a broken airplane and someone from a paramedic crew talking to me, saying just to hang there and everything’s going to be fine and so forth. They started an IV while I was still in the jet. I broke my back and fractured it. That was not pleasant.The other thing I remember was how surreal it all seemed when I did regain consciousness. You know, you’re hanging upside down in a cockpit, eye level with sagebrush, and someone’s telling you it’s all going to be okay, which clearly it’s not. It’s dreamlike, but you know it’s not, [you know] that this is real. Two or three days after, the nurse came in my room with this little brown box going, ‘I got your watch. What would you like to do with it?’ The crystal was all scratched up and the watch was all banged up; there was dirt in the strap and whatnot. It was my X-33 and it was in infinitely better shape than I was; every function still worked on it.”AFTER THE CRASH, THE X-33 PROJECT CONTINUESWhen Dr. Torman shared the story with his friends at Omega, they asked if they could have the watch back. “Yes and I’d like another one," Dr. Torman told them. "The durability of the X-33 was spectacular. We had a G-meter in the airplane, but I know it was pegged - all G-meters go to ten, and it was pegged at ten. But it [the actual G forces] clearly exceeded that, at least on an instantaneous basis. Silly thing, just like the old Timex watches, takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”Omega accepted the watch from Torman (which can now be seen at the Omega Museum) and issued him another prototype X-33. Not much has been heard about the watch or the accident until a recently published Omega book titled 'Omega: Journey Through Time' was released. The book includes an image of Dr. Torman next to the crashed MiG along with the X-33 he was wearing. According to Torman, the information in the book regarding him and the watch is not entirely accurate. “For instance, the book says I was flying for a Navy demonstration squadron which was never the case. They even show a squadron patch in the book which I have no idea where it came from but was certainly not mine. Unfortunately, the crashed jet was!”Eventually the watches became commercially available, though Dr. Torman notes quire a few changes were made from the prototypes. "They thought that the cachet of having the same watch as the astronauts were wearing would sell the watch. So the marketing people obviously get involved at some point and I had no interaction with them. But the case of the prototype watch was really terrific in its simplicity and functionality with its fixed bezel. The marketing people ultimately changed the case design to something more modern and less functional and eventually called it the ‘Mars Watch.’. With the commercially available X-33s, Omega put a high polish on the bezel and they changed the pushers from functional round ones to these square ones, which, as an aside, they had problems with as soon as they started selling these things. With the prototypes, there was a real emphasis on function, real functionality, not someone’s imagined uninformed vision of what a pilot’s watch should be.”Today, Dr. Torman typically wears a recently made Rolex GMT-Master, though he is now a passionate and knowledgeable Patek Philippe collector as well. His next watch? A Patek Philippe white gold 3970. However, his Omega X-33s remain prized possessions that tell an incredible story in the history of aviation and horology.
Cool info ck....A video showing the X-33 being repaired in space...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkwTVxdE23A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TssbmY-GM&list=PLUaartJaon3LV-ZQ4J3bNQj4VNVG2ByIG&index=2
What's the diff between Gen 1 and Gen 2? Which is better?
Quote from: 1to12 on April 20, 2013, 07:46:25 PMWhat's the diff between Gen 1 and Gen 2? Which is better?Just some minor cosmetic changes from Gen 1 to Gen 2. Everything else I believe are identical. You cant go wrong with either. Both are great watches...
