Rolex have been the king of watchmaking for a few reasons and one of those is their Superlative Chronometer certification that’s accurate up to +/-2 seconds per day. An impressive figure and something Omega’s own Master Chronometer certification hasn’t been able to achieve with an accuracy of 0/+5. However, Omega’s new Spirate System has closed the gap providing a 0/+2 accuracy per day, and this new system will debut with Omega’s new watch, the Speedmaster Super Racing. 

Omega utilises a fine-tuner on top of the balance bridge using their own specialised tool in order to regulate the bridge in increments of 0.01 seconds. The “revolutionary new patent-pending spiral that allows for ultra-fine rate adjustments,” to quote Omega, is a “one-of-a-kind mechanism” that is responsible for achieving such accuracy. This allows a watchmaker to “act on the stiffness of the hairspring’s attachment point through an eccentric adjustment mechanism located on the balance bridge.” 

That’s a lot of technical talk, but it all boils down to having created a new tool able to regulate higher accuracy. The benefit is that before this, adjusting a free-sprung balance in a boutique wasn’t usually possible, the tool changes that, allowing regulation in a boutique plus greater accuracy. The architecture of the Spirate System along with this tool allows for fine-tuning to one screw without affecting the other. 

Listen to that. “The tool,” “this tool,” it sounds like a cult. All praise “the tool!”

This also means that servicing your Omega might take less time as micro-regulation of a free-sprung balance can take days. That isn’t including the transit times and service queues you have to deal with to send it to the repair facility. 

This all sounds great but unfortunately, most of us are going to have to wait a while to experience it as the Spirate System will only launch on the new Omega Speedmaster Super Racing. The Super Racing is also launching with a new movement, the Co-Axial Master Chronometer 9920 calibre. 

The reason for this is that all Omega’s previous movements are not able to utilise the Spirate System. New calibres have to be developed to use the System and accommodate various case sizes. According to Omega, their next generation of watches will include the Spirate System. For now, it will be limited to watches specifically designed to house it.