De Ville Prestige Hand Wound 36.1 Chronograph Stainless Steel / Silver / Bracelet

In Context

At 36.1 mm it is classically proportioned: the size a dress watch was understood to be for most of the twentieth century, and small enough to sit under a cuff. The case back is closed, so the movement stays out of sight, and the sapphire crystal will resist everything short of deliberate abuse. Rated to 30 m, it is protected against rain and splashes and nothing beyond that.

The movement is hand-wound, so winding it becomes part of the day rather than something the watch does for you. 48 hours of reserve is enough to set it down on Friday evening and find it still running on Monday. At 21,600 vph the seconds hand advances 6 times a second, the slower and more audible rate of an older design.

4540.31.00 stands on its own in this catalogue — no other reference here shares its base number. It pairs a silver dial with a stainless steel case. Beyond the time it carries a chronograph.

The hand-wound chronograph caliber of the Speedmaster Professional. Based on the Lemania 1873, it descends directly from the caliber 861 that replaced the column-wheel 321 at the end of the 1960s; the 1861 is essentially that movement with rhodium plating, adopted in 1996. Its chronograph is cam-actuated rather than column-wheel operated — simpler to produce and to service, which is part of why the architecture survived largely unchanged for decades. Omega used it in the Moonwatch until the METAS-certified 3861 took over in 2021.

75 other watches in the library run the Omega 1861.

Omega

Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch Alaska Project

311.32.42.30.04.001 · 42 mm

Omega

Speedmaster Professional Missions Skylab 3

3597.23.00 · 42 mm

Omega

Speedmaster Professional Missions Apollo 12

3597.16.00 · 42 mm

Omega

Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch Albino

ST 345.0818 · 42 mm