Juliana joins Richard and Lucy for Omega: It’s about time

For the first time in his life, Raynald Aeschlimann is barefoot at work. On the day’s to-do list as Omega’s CEO is the unveiling of the Seamaster Aqua Terra, and the job finds him in the Southern Tip of the Pamalican Islands where gentle waves and baby black reef sharks meet. Switzerland-based but always jetting off to somewhere and credited with keeping the luxury watchmaker up to speed with the dynamism of social media for the past year and a half, his holidays find him in a setting that isn’t so different from Amanpulo’s glass-like slice of Sulu Sea, white sand as powdery and fine as sugar, and uninterrupted sunshine that feels just as sweet. By sailboat, the journey is his destination. Away from it all is where he is able to recharge “the energy of the mind.” Like the Aqua Terra, an innovative and sleek evolution of the 70-year-old Seamaster, he has the best of both worlds.

The Seamaster Aqua Terra: Eddie Redmayne’s choice (left), and Alessandra Ambrosio’s(center).  40 models are offered  in four different sizes (41 mm, 38 mm, 35 mm and 28 mm) and certified as Master Chronometers. Fit for a queen: Vito Selma’s Raina chair(right)
 

At night, countless of stars and a glowing full moon hover above a party that dares to outshine them with a hundred more from around the region, dressed in their resort-formal best, many recognizable by just their first names. From Manila, Richard Gomez, Lucy Torres, Lovi Poe, and Heart Evangelista. Illuminated above gentle waves, on the wrists of a select few, tagged on the social media posts that lit up feeds with the hashtag #SeaMasterAquaTerra all of last week: Omega.

YSTYLE: Omega has introduced Presley and Kaia Gerber to join their mom Cindy Crawford as ambassadors. Locally, we have Richard Gomez being joined on this trip by his wife Lucy and daughter Juliana. This theme of passing something on to the next generation, why is it important to Omega?

Omega CEO Raynald Aeschlimann on Aqua Terra as a Master Chronometer: “I call it the incredible advantage of having the most precise watch on your wrist but you have it also because it’s a brand that you like.”

RAYNALD AESCHLIMANN: It’s like life. If you believe in emotion, if you believe in something special as much as we do, it’s normal that you want to share these values. To have Juliana and everyone here is a sign that we are very much talking to them. Everyone is talking about millennials but we are the brand that’s been talking to them.

I always say Cindy was probably the first influencer in the world. The world was not connected but we had Cindy in the billboard and in the stores. The new generation is also relating to Cindy but the younger people may even be more important than the first one because they want to share their values and who they are. I think Juliana and Kaia were raised with the brand and they are very happy to be here even if they’re also being invited to many many things. They like the value of their parents in that part and they wear the omega watch with great pride.

Anti-magnetism: The watch is subjected to a magnetic field of 15,000 gauss. While exposed to this field, the functioning of the  watch  is audibly  checked  using  a  microphone. Instead of protecting the movement with a traditional inner case,  the  new  Aqua  Terra made  use  of  selected  non-ferrous materials in the movement itself.

The Aqua Terra men and women. Eddie Redmayne and Alessandra Ambrosio. How would you define them?

We want to open our arms in a much bigger way and we’d like to share it with people that represent exactly our values of quality, hard work, achievement, but no arrogance. Just being close to the heart of people. Eddie is like that. When we started with Eddie, he was in the beginning of his career and we truly believe in him. He has been with us in the Olympics and he loves the watches. Alessandra is the same. We started in Rio and we literally felt we had the same values about being true and realizing our dreams. We brought them into a world they didn’t really know and they appreciate it very much.

The ASEAN connection: Thailand’s Wuttinan Thongnuadee, Oranicha “Proud”
Krinchai, and Napat Sutithon; Indonesia’s Richard Kyle; Thailand’s Tatjana Saphira; Indonesia’s Olivia Lazuardy, Ade Hartmann, Yusuf Hartoyo, and Anastasia Siantar, Omega Indonesia’s Novi Suharsono; and Thailand’s Daniel Saputra

Most watch brands concern themselves with features like smartphone connectivity while Omega has gone and upgraded the Seamaster Aqua Terra into Master Chronometers—and with such style. It’s going beyond   the COSC certification (by which all watches are usually measured) and doubling its certification with The Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology (METAS) standard, proving levels of precision, performance, and anti-magnetic resistance. Why was it important for Omega to go in this direction?

This is a great question because you could think it could be a paradox, having some brands go into the smart instruments and all these connectivity and we are spending on chronometers. But I think that luxury is about true fact. If it is not the right quality and the right process, and really the right precision, then you don’t want to buy a luxury good. I always say watches have soul. The people that create them give a lot of energy to the people that wear them, and they wear them not only because it gives time but because they want this to be time. It’s driving a Rolls Royce or a Bentley, but you are stuck in a traffic jam. You have the best engine in your car but you don’t use it. That is exactly what we call about luxury. Our mission in Omega is to be as high quality, as precise, as fantastic as people would think we are, so when they wear it, they feel it even though our watches are there to give time. Time--you can get it everywhere. I don’t even call it a paradox. I call it the incredible advantage of having the most precise watch on your wrist but you have it also because it’s a brand that you like. That’s why we are doing so much marketing to talk about master chronometer. It’s also about time. A company like us, one of the big three investing in the certification. Finally, you’re paying so much money for luxury goods but somewhere also you need this understanding that an independent certification in Switzerland from the government has tested it. It’s not only big words from communication and marketing.