Don't miss the next drop
The Omega Chronostop occupies one of the more underrated corners of vintage Omega collecting, and the Regatta variant is, in our opinion, the most graphically alive piece in the whole family. Twin crowns. A single orange center sweep that snaps from rest to full minute in one continuous arc. Blue and red countdown segments living on an inner rotating bezel that the wearer drives directly with a knurled crown at 10 o’clock. There is no quiet way to wear this watch. It announces itself the moment it clears a cuff, and it does so without any of the noise that a chronograph subdial layout would impose on the dial geometry. Everything on the Chronostop is built around one job, executed cleanly.
Omega launched the Chronostop line in 1966 as a deliberately accessible single-pusher chronograph, conceived for buyers who wanted timing functionality without the price of a full Speedmaster. The Regatta variant arrived a year later inside the Seamaster collection, and the 145.008 reference is the one that married the Chronostop layout to a high-water case rated to 120 meters. The yachting context was real. Inner countdown bezels driven by a secondary crown were the dominant pre-quartz approach to the sailing start sequence, and Omega’s interpretation here is unusually large and unusually legible, which is exactly what a sailor watching the final ten-minute window before a class start actually needs from the instrument on their wrist.
The caliber 865 inside this Omega Chronostop sits one branch over from the cal. 861 that powered the Speedmaster Professional through the late 1960s and into the 1970s. Both calibers trace back to the Lemania-derived architecture Omega used across its 1960s chronograph program, both beat at 21,600 vibrations per hour, and both share the warm copper-toned bridge finishing that gives Omega’s chronograph movements of this era their distinctive visual signature. Where the 861 carries a full three-register chronograph with running seconds and elapsed-minute counters, the 865 strips the layout to a single centrally-mounted chronostop seconds hand engaged and disengaged by the pusher at 2 o’clock. The complication is purpose-built, not budget-driven. A sailor counting down to a start does not need an elapsed-minute register; they need the central sweep to be unmissable. The orange hand on this dial answers that question in the loudest possible voice. The copper-plated bridges visible through the open caseback show that same warm tone you would expect on a period Speedmaster movement, with the column-wheel and chronostop levers laid out across the lower half of the plate.
The case is brushed stainless steel in the cushion silhouette that defined Omega’s sport line through the second half of the 1960s, measuring 41mm across with 47mm lug-to-lug and 22mm between the lugs. The flanks carry the original brushed finish with crisp definition through the lug shoulders, and the polished bevels along the lug tops separate the brushed surfaces cleanly. The crown at 3 o’clock is the original Omega-signed crown carrying the applied Ω logo. The pusher at 2 o’clock sits flush with the case flank and operates the chronostop. The second crown at 10 o’clock is the regatta crown, knurled and unsigned, rotating the inner bezel beneath the crystal. The screw-down caseback carries the Seamaster seahorse medallion at center, ringed by “SEAMASTER WATERPROOF TESTED 120m”. Open the caseback and the inner stamping reads, in vertically stacked all-caps, the Omega Watch Co triangle logo followed by “FAB. SUISSE / SWISS MADE / ACIER INOXYDABLE”, with the reference “145.008” stamped clearly below. A small additional service mark sits at the upper inner edge.
The matte black dial is in honest, well-preserved condition. Applied baton indices ring the hours with luminous plots that have aged into a soft cream tone, the warm tritium tone that period collectors recognize at a glance. The hour and minute hands are matching batons with cream-toned lume inserts that harmonize cleanly with the indices. The Omega applied logo and “CHRONOSTOP” printing sit at 12 o’clock under the Ω symbol, with the cursive “Seamaster” signature centered above 6 o’clock. The “T SWISS MADE T” designation at the very base of the dial confirms the tritium luminous compound original to the watch. The bright orange center chronostop hand is the star of the dial, undimmed by age, slicing across the black surface and the inner countdown ring with full vividness. The inner rotating ring carries the 60-second graduated track in white printing on grey, with the regatta countdown overlaid: blue segments from the 10 to the 5 marker, then red segments from the 5 down to the start arrow.
We are presenting this Chronostop on a black tropic-style rubber strap, the period-correct sport pairing for an Omega Seamaster from this era and the natural visual partner for the watch’s sporting purpose. The strap reads as honestly as the case does, and the all-black palette of case, dial, and strap lets the orange center sweep and the blue-and-red countdown carry the color load on their own.
Serviced in-house at OTTUHR and backed by our 2-year mechanical warranty, this Omega Chronostop Regatta is, to us, one of the more visually arresting and historically interesting sport pieces that came out of Omega’s late-1960s chronograph program. For the collector who values purpose over pageantry, who would rather wear a watch with one real job done exceptionally well than a chronograph cluttered with subdials they never use, this 145.008 is genuinely difficult to put down once it is on the wrist.
