In 1902, at the start of a defining era for women’s rights and equality, Omega debuted its very first watch for women. Since, the brand has added the Medicus in 1937, Ladymatic was in 1955, and secret jewelry watches in between. And now, Omega is adding another icon to its women’s timepiece roster—the Constellation Manhattan. The style, which pays homage to the brand’s heritage, was influenced by women from all diversities. Here, the brand’s ambassadors and inspiration behind the watch—Nicole Kidman, Cindy Crawford, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Liu Shishi—speak to the significance of watches, style, and time.
On watches…
Cindy: "We all know that no one needs to wear a watch anymore. A watch used to be essential, especially if you were in Manhattan and you had a meeting, you had to look at your watch. And then you had the gigantic cell phone that looked like a brick, and then the 80’s, there were the status watches. But now, no one needs a watch, so even more so, your watch is for your style, it’s an accessory, so I think, for women, it’s the same, that it’s part of your personal fashion. It’s an expression of who you are."
Lui: "A watch can accompany you on your life journey and make you cherish every moment. Watches are also good to match with different occasions. In my daily life, I will wear the 007 collection or Speedmaster collection, especially if I want to wear a unisex design which makes me feel very confident."
On style…
Nicole: "Style essentials for me come from health actually. I think good skin is really important for a good style just because if you have good skin, you can literally pull your hair back and put on some blush and some lip gloss and that’s gone. But I also love a black blazer and a white shirt, with jeans or men’s trousers, and a gorgeous watch."
Alessandra: "I love beauty products. I love wearing vitamin C serums. I use three different ones right now from three different dermatologists: one in the States, one in Brazil, and one from one of my facialists. So, it really depends when I’m working and who I’m with and then they just give me the serums to wear. Sunblock is always important. I also have a moisturizer and I love rose water from Madonna’s line, MDNA. I have one in my bag, so I’m always spraying rose water and you can actually do it in your hair too. It gives a nice texture to the hair. It has a nice smell and it keeps your face fresh. I use an eye cream every night. I like the La Mer for eye cream. It smells good and it’s very rich. I love my facialist Mimi Luzon and she has this mask that I wear sometimes, and you can do it at home too; they have the silver one, a gold one and, and an anti-wrinkle powder."
On time…
Cindy: "Time is our greatest luxury. It’s the one thing that you don’t get more of and the older you get, I think you appreciate every little minute, not that every minute can be happy in this over-inflated way, but I think it makes you much more discerning about how you spend your time. And my New Year’s resolution every year for five years was to say ‘no’ more, if I didn’t really want to be doing something, I just was like ‘wait, I don’t have to do this’. I also think we live in a multitasking world and I think that my focus is trying to be present and it’s hard to multitask that. You can’t really multitask being present, so it’s like if I’m sitting here with you guys, I really just want to enjoy this 20 minutes that we have together. I’m not worried about my phone, I just want to be here and then when I’m having dinner with my friends, that’s what I want to do and not try to be here but thinking about something else."
Alessandra: "When I was younger I didn’t want to sleep because I didn’t want to waste time in life. As you get older, you know that you need the beauty sleep, but it’s about choosing the right things, like what you want to ... time is important, and time is short and there is so much to do, so it’s choosing the things that make you interested, so you don’t waste time on unimportant things. All your focus and your time are into the things you love."
Nicole: "I obviously work hard but then when I'm off, I’m off. And Keith and I always say we’re very good at sort of immediately clicking off because we have a really good life in Nashville that’s very simple but it’s quiet and it’s very nourishing—we’ve made sure we’ve set it up like that. We’re pretty strict with the boundaries on what we allow in terms of work into our home. I used to have an office in my house and I just got the office out of my house. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. It was just like finally, I went, 'This is not a good thing.' But we don’t even have a TV in our bedroom, we’re that couple. I highly recommend that. And no computers in the bed."
Compared to its sister watches, the Constellation Manhattan features a slender bezel for a wider dial view and slimmer Constellation claws, as well as polished beveled edges and extendable bracelets up to 2mm. Available early 2019 in-store and on OmegaWatches.com, the collection ranges from $2,800 to $24,900.
