Omega Speedmaster 38 Milano Cortina 2026 // Watch of the Week Episode 264

In February 2026 the Olympic Winter Games are coming and, in anticipation, Omega has presented their latest Speedmaster, the Speedmaster Milano Cortina 2026. What seemed to be between gimmick and souvenir for armchair athletes has in fact the potential to become a staple in Speedyland, especially for people with slender wrists. So let's go over the specs. The Milano Cortina is an automatic chronograph with a case diameter of 38 mm, a length lug-to-lug of 45 mm and a height of 14.8 mm. The lug width is 18 mm. The watch has a sapphire crystal and is waterproof up to 100 meters. Then we have a ceramic bezel insert and an enamel dial. Movement is the coaxial caliber 3330 which offers 52 hours of power reserve. The watch comes on the metal bracelet and the price is indicated with 6600 Euros or 6800 US Dollars. So let's examine the dial first. Enamel, that means you have a super crisp super clean surface with some exquisite reflections. Then there is a subtle touch of modern art in blue on the dial which adds a nice depth, a nice decoration, but it's better not to read the side effects because it says that these blue marks represent the swipe of a finger. No, not for me, please. For me it's a subtle print of the Alps, not more. The sub-dials are finished with a special azurage technique that quote resembles a groomed ski slope unquote. That's of course a bit of nonsense because we find this pattern on sub-dials since the 30s, even on a bright summer day, but it shows again another quality of the enamel, this super fine grain there. By the way, the sub-dials show a 30-minute counter on the right, a 12-hour counter on position 6 and the seconds on the left. The date window you find also on the bottom and right now there is a very odd looking 26. Omega created this font for the Olympics and it's the only numeral on the date disc with that font. The other numerals look normal. And so despite me making a bit of fun about fingerprints and ski slopes, this dial is, in my opinion, a wonderful example how crisp and exciting the combination of white, blue and steel can look like. There's such a lively brightness on it, fresh and cold, but despite that I definitely can imagine this watch also in the summer together with a polo or even a suit because now we come to the case and the dimensions. I don't have every Speedy in mind, but I think that this diameter is very rare. The typical Moonwatch is 42, the typical reduced 39. Often with that painful lug width of 19. Here we have now 38 with 18 millimeter lug width which gives the watch a vintage touch that I find absolutely fascinating because of the sharp contrast to the modern looking dial. What must catch our attention though is the height of almost 15 millimeters, also very vintage-like. When you remember these old Speedmaster reduced with a is a legendary thing by the way, then you know what I mean. A movement like a tower with a very heavy rotor. So for a modern watch these 14.8 look too high, but numbers are not everything. The Speedmaster case is very rounded, also the crystal very curved. You can put them side by side with another watch with a more brutalistic case but same specs and you will see a massive difference. It wears more like 13 I would say and the height surely adds impact. I've collected quite some reduced over the years and found them always comfortable but very dominant on the wrist. Last point should be the price. The watch is not limited and we have that tag of 6600 euros or 6800 US dollars which is in these days for that brand rather, yes I will say it out loud, normal. Not modest, not unusual, it's normal. Please keep in mind that I'm only the messenger here and the messenger predicts that this thing will be a success despite this price tag. So that's all for this episode. Let me know in the comment section what do you think about the Omega Speedmaster Milano Cortina 2026, about the size and what do you think about the fingerprint that we wanted to forget, didn't we?