Received my Noob 45.5mm CrPO on Friday and thought I'd write a review after having the watch for a few days now. This is my first rep outside of a real cheap $40 Omega I got off craigslist 8 years ago.
Service/Shipping:
Very quick replies from Toro, straightforward and overall great communication. Shipped early Monday morning in Shanghai, arrived near Toronto in Canada on Friday afternoon. No problems with customs, no import fees, very straightforward and easy. Price was $348USD + $25 EMS shipping (w/ 9% discount for using Western Union with Toro). Great experience overall, would highly recommend Toro Bravo.
First Impressions:
First impression of the watch after picking it up is whoah… this thing is very heavy. I'm used to the weight of my gen SMP 300m which I never thought was particularly light (it's the heaviest watch I've owned till now), but this watch feels 2 or 3 times heavier. It also stands up very high on the wrist, measuring at 16/17mm, whereas the SMP is about 10/11mm high. Otherwise my first impressions are simply that it's beautiful. I found myself just gawking at the watch endlessly during that first day. Looks beautiful on the wrist and in the mirror from a further distance.
Now I know black is the popular model of this PO but there's just something about the orange that strikes me… It's just beautiful and looks even more striking in the sunlight. I've warmed up more to the black bezel over time (and would just love to get a LMPO if it actually is having another release), but the orange is king for me. I don't think it's too flashy and it just blends very well with the silver/grey of the watch/bracelet, and also gives you a bit of a unique look outside of the usual black/blue Omega/Rolex diver.
Dial:
Everything looks very clean and precise. In the QC pics I wasn't sure if it was the lighting that was causing the 6 to look a bit brighter than the 12 and the 9 to look a bit darker, but Toro assured me it was and he/she (I saw long nails in the QC pics
so… female?) was right as all the numbers match in person -- they have a bit of a shine so they can look brighter or darker depending on how the light hits them. Datewheel looks great, raised numbers and it's nice to be able to change the date itself unlike on the SMP quartz. Lume placement on the markers is solid, although the 12 marker looks like it might have a little tiny excess (and not perfectly straight around all the edges) but it's extremely extremely minor and hard to notice even at close view. Lume shines very bright in the dark after exposure to the sun or a little flashlight charge -- very impressed with the brightness. Also love the contrast between the blue and green lume hands/markers on this 8500 model.
Bezel:
I knew going into it that (from what I heard at least), there are no ceramic orange bezels, even on the gen. When I asked, Toro said it was also ceramic (maybe referring to more than just the bezel idk) like the others but it's definitely not. Has a polished/brushed aluminum look. Not complaining at all since 1. it looks beautiful the way it is and 2. if the gen doesn't have ceramic then no one can complain about the rep not having it.
The orange is stunning, numbers look great, and I'm very happy with the pearl, lume and placement. Bezel lines up well, although I thought I noticed at times it was like ever so extremely slightly a tad to the right (like nitpicking to the extreme, mind you), but now it looks fine. The movement of the bezel feels and sounds quite different compared to the SMP and what I was expecting -- quieter and… I don't know, maybe a little rougher (but still decently smooth if you get me). Idk, personally I just love the SMP's bezel turn; it's a sharp and noisy click that you hear and feel very distinctly but it's also smooth as butter -- gives it a very luxurious feel and I prefer it over the CrPO's, but the CrPO is much easier to grip and turn due to the teeth on the bezel.
Bracelet and Clasp:
The bracelet is fantastic. Beautiful look of brushed aluminum, nothing to nitpick at at all for me. The clasp is very nice too. At first when deciding, I didn't like the new "Omega" 8500 clasps too much. Felt lacking something, whereas I loved the look of the "Omega Seamaster Professional Planet Ocean" on the 2500 model. But I really warmed up to this newer, smaller and refined clasp and just love it. Simple yet beautiful and sleek.
If I'm to really nitpick, I feel like the push buttons to open the clasp are a little rough. My SMP feels very clean when you push them and the buttons easily go in all the way, whereas the CrPO has some resistance like that of a cheaper feel. By that I mean you have to push the buttons harder and the movement of them just feels harder like they're rubbing against something and it's a bit rough -- hurts the tip of your thumb if you try to push them all the way in (more annoying/discomfort than pain). But honestly that's just hyperanalyzing as the clasp always opens easily without any problems.
Sizing the Bracelet:
Can't stress how ridiculously easy this was. I've heard a lot about the original 2500 PO and how incredibly difficult it is to resize, but this 8500 model was a breeze. Initially before having the watch I thought I'd just take it to a watchsmith to resize it but saw the resizing tutorial topic here (which I didn't realize then was for the 2500, although it still works) and it seemed simple enough so I ordered that pin removal tool (after I ordered the watch) and it arrived in 2 days (Amazon Prime trial, yay!) and decided to do it myself when the watch arrived the next day or so.
All I needed was:
-Bracelet Pin Removal Tool (Paylak TSLK3)
-Flathead mini screw driver (from a small set)
Unlike the UPO, the CrPO (and I assume all 8500 models) have tiny screws at the end of the pin holes that you must remove first. I assume Omega realized the 2500 pins were a hassle and wanted to go the less friction route and just add screws to keep the pins in place, and I can say this was a great idea.
I put a cloth underneath the resizing tool and the watch so as not to scratch it and jumped right in. The screws remove very easily and the pins come out extremely easy -- once you push them partly out with the tool, just take out the tool and pull the pin out yourself. It's easy enough that when putting them back in you gotta be careful they don't slide right out before you put the screws back in. Just remember the screws are very small so don't be an idiot and be careful with them and make sure you have a good flat surface large enough to work on without losing anything. I put all remaining links/screws/spring bars in a little baggie the watch came with in case I need them later.
First I took out three full links to fit my 6.5" wrist. Now I like a loose fit but with the weight of the watch it felt a little bit too loose so I took out another full link (so 4 links out) and it felt decent. Tighter than my SMP but good for now. Wore it for a day or two and decided it was a bit too tight for my liking so I replaced one of the half links with a full link and now it feels just right. Not too tight that it sticks to my wrist that much and not too loose that it's all over my wrist.
(Sidenote comparing to SMP bracelet:
Sizing the CrPO bracelet was so simple that I decided to go at my gen SMP 300m as well. Long story short, this is my 2nd SMP 300m which I actually received very recently, and for some reason the clasp was on the wrong way (upside down so that "Omega" "Seamaster" "Professional" on the clasp are all facing down when wearing the watch. It's not so much that but the awkwardness of putting the watch on with the clasp on the other side and trying to close it like that -- just stupid. So I wanted to just remove that clasp and switch it to the other side (I've ordered the Bergeron spring bar tool to remove the full bracelet but it hasn't arrived yet and like I said, the PO experience so was simple so I dove right in here), but the experience was nowhere near as simple as the CrPO. I broke two bracelet removal tips and even got one of the tips stuck inside the bracelet while one of the watch's pins came about 3/4ths out but just wouldn't come out no matter what. Ducktaped plier tips (to not ruin the pin; had nothing else) weren't working as it just seemed totally lodged in there (whereas the CrPO pins slide right out!). Finally the next day I separated that section from the bracelet and put some WD40 in the pinholes and managed to pull it out much to my relief, and put the bracelet back together properly. Anyway I'm sidetracking a lot here, but my point is that the CrPO resizing was about as easy as I could possibly imagine.)
Movement:
Asian 2836-2, keeping good time so far. I synced up this CrPO and my gen SMP 300m to Apple's time (on my Macbook) at around 4pm on June 13th. About 24 hours later the CrPO was running just 2-3 seconds slower while the quartz SMP was about 5 seconds slower. Strange for that quartz because another 24 hours later (without touching either) it was still -5 seconds and the CrPO was about 5-6 seconds slow, keeping in line with -2/3 seconds a day, which I'm quite happy about.
Of course this version is the least accurate looking movement of the big three (Noob, BP, KW). BP movement only has some extra writing and I've heard the watch is known to have some issues here and there and just isn't up to the quality of the Noob, and the smoothness of the highbeat 28,800 bph vs the KW 21,600 Miyota was enough to outweigh the pretty decent looking movement of the Miyota, so I have no regrets (although tbqh a Miyota somewhere down the line might be interesting).
Overall Impressions:
Can't stress enough how beautiful this watch is. I have a smaller wrist (6.5") but I don't think 45mm is too big. Tbqh though, I think I can see why a lot of people flock to the 42 as the 45 is quite large and heavy. 42 is definitely a good size and I'll most likely get at least one 42mm PO (LMPO would be great), but I do like the size of the large watch. When I was in Montreal for the Canadian GP I saw a ton of other watches that made my 41mm SMP look a little small. I think when you're talking 50mm+ that's probably too big, but 45 is quite nice I think. But 42mm is definitely not small and a decent size so I'd like to see what a 42mm PO would look like on my wrist.
That said, my next purchase is probably going to be an orange 45.5mm UPO, if I can manage to get once since they're apparently out of production (so maybe I'll settle for 42). You might wonder why the hell I'd do that as it's so similar to what I already have, but 1. I'm an Omega and PO freak (this is my first PO but I'll be getting several more) and 2. I like the different looking bezel (more grey around dial, watch looks bigger; I like the Noob bezel more, but the difference is cool), the closed case back is great, and I like the older "Planet Ocean" clasp, so that's enough variation for me. Would be nice to compare the two as well. Heard too many good things about the Noob CrPO (and I love the thicker colour bezel) so I had to get it, but I still love that older closed case back and orange is my favourite bezel of them all. Really the only drawback of this Noob is the visible movement -- and it's really not a big deal but I guess deep down in my mind it's kinda like "ehh…" whereas the closed case back would give that closer to genuine feel -- but I also really love the way that back looks with the Seamonster and the design on it so I really want an orange bezel (my fav) version of it.
I still plan to get a black 42mm LMPO, a blue 2 dial 9300 TiPO Chrono (w/ blue rubber strap), and a 3 dial 2500 chrono, probably black (but maybe orange, I don't know yet). Also plan to get an orange leather strap for the UPO in addition to the bracelet (that I could swap between the UPO and CrPO too). So far I just haven't really been drawn to other brands like Rolex or Panerai and I just love Omega, especially the PO. I've seen some good looking Speedmasters though, and there are some Tags that have caught my eye that I might purchase down the line, but so far I'm obsessed with the Planet Ocean and its variations. My gen SMP is enough to satisfy my SMP needs for now, although I do like the look of that post 1998 version with the black bezel and non-skeleton hands (dial kind of a mix of the SMP and PO).
Anyway that's it for now. If anyone is on the fence about this watch, I'd say go for it. The quality is outstanding and if you can deal with the non-gen looking movement being hidden on your wrist anyway, just about everything else is near perfect with this watch.
Service/Shipping:
Very quick replies from Toro, straightforward and overall great communication. Shipped early Monday morning in Shanghai, arrived near Toronto in Canada on Friday afternoon. No problems with customs, no import fees, very straightforward and easy. Price was $348USD + $25 EMS shipping (w/ 9% discount for using Western Union with Toro). Great experience overall, would highly recommend Toro Bravo.
First Impressions:
First impression of the watch after picking it up is whoah… this thing is very heavy. I'm used to the weight of my gen SMP 300m which I never thought was particularly light (it's the heaviest watch I've owned till now), but this watch feels 2 or 3 times heavier. It also stands up very high on the wrist, measuring at 16/17mm, whereas the SMP is about 10/11mm high. Otherwise my first impressions are simply that it's beautiful. I found myself just gawking at the watch endlessly during that first day. Looks beautiful on the wrist and in the mirror from a further distance.
Now I know black is the popular model of this PO but there's just something about the orange that strikes me… It's just beautiful and looks even more striking in the sunlight. I've warmed up more to the black bezel over time (and would just love to get a LMPO if it actually is having another release), but the orange is king for me. I don't think it's too flashy and it just blends very well with the silver/grey of the watch/bracelet, and also gives you a bit of a unique look outside of the usual black/blue Omega/Rolex diver.
Dial:
Everything looks very clean and precise. In the QC pics I wasn't sure if it was the lighting that was causing the 6 to look a bit brighter than the 12 and the 9 to look a bit darker, but Toro assured me it was and he/she (I saw long nails in the QC pics
so… female?) was right as all the numbers match in person -- they have a bit of a shine so they can look brighter or darker depending on how the light hits them. Datewheel looks great, raised numbers and it's nice to be able to change the date itself unlike on the SMP quartz. Lume placement on the markers is solid, although the 12 marker looks like it might have a little tiny excess (and not perfectly straight around all the edges) but it's extremely extremely minor and hard to notice even at close view. Lume shines very bright in the dark after exposure to the sun or a little flashlight charge -- very impressed with the brightness. Also love the contrast between the blue and green lume hands/markers on this 8500 model.
Bezel:
I knew going into it that (from what I heard at least), there are no ceramic orange bezels, even on the gen. When I asked, Toro said it was also ceramic (maybe referring to more than just the bezel idk) like the others but it's definitely not. Has a polished/brushed aluminum look. Not complaining at all since 1. it looks beautiful the way it is and 2. if the gen doesn't have ceramic then no one can complain about the rep not having it.
The orange is stunning, numbers look great, and I'm very happy with the pearl, lume and placement. Bezel lines up well, although I thought I noticed at times it was like ever so extremely slightly a tad to the right (like nitpicking to the extreme, mind you), but now it looks fine. The movement of the bezel feels and sounds quite different compared to the SMP and what I was expecting -- quieter and… I don't know, maybe a little rougher (but still decently smooth if you get me). Idk, personally I just love the SMP's bezel turn; it's a sharp and noisy click that you hear and feel very distinctly but it's also smooth as butter -- gives it a very luxurious feel and I prefer it over the CrPO's, but the CrPO is much easier to grip and turn due to the teeth on the bezel.
Bracelet and Clasp:
The bracelet is fantastic. Beautiful look of brushed aluminum, nothing to nitpick at at all for me. The clasp is very nice too. At first when deciding, I didn't like the new "Omega" 8500 clasps too much. Felt lacking something, whereas I loved the look of the "Omega Seamaster Professional Planet Ocean" on the 2500 model. But I really warmed up to this newer, smaller and refined clasp and just love it. Simple yet beautiful and sleek.
If I'm to really nitpick, I feel like the push buttons to open the clasp are a little rough. My SMP feels very clean when you push them and the buttons easily go in all the way, whereas the CrPO has some resistance like that of a cheaper feel. By that I mean you have to push the buttons harder and the movement of them just feels harder like they're rubbing against something and it's a bit rough -- hurts the tip of your thumb if you try to push them all the way in (more annoying/discomfort than pain). But honestly that's just hyperanalyzing as the clasp always opens easily without any problems.
Sizing the Bracelet:
Can't stress how ridiculously easy this was. I've heard a lot about the original 2500 PO and how incredibly difficult it is to resize, but this 8500 model was a breeze. Initially before having the watch I thought I'd just take it to a watchsmith to resize it but saw the resizing tutorial topic here (which I didn't realize then was for the 2500, although it still works) and it seemed simple enough so I ordered that pin removal tool (after I ordered the watch) and it arrived in 2 days (Amazon Prime trial, yay!) and decided to do it myself when the watch arrived the next day or so.
All I needed was:
-Bracelet Pin Removal Tool (Paylak TSLK3)
-Flathead mini screw driver (from a small set)
Unlike the UPO, the CrPO (and I assume all 8500 models) have tiny screws at the end of the pin holes that you must remove first. I assume Omega realized the 2500 pins were a hassle and wanted to go the less friction route and just add screws to keep the pins in place, and I can say this was a great idea.
I put a cloth underneath the resizing tool and the watch so as not to scratch it and jumped right in. The screws remove very easily and the pins come out extremely easy -- once you push them partly out with the tool, just take out the tool and pull the pin out yourself. It's easy enough that when putting them back in you gotta be careful they don't slide right out before you put the screws back in. Just remember the screws are very small so don't be an idiot and be careful with them and make sure you have a good flat surface large enough to work on without losing anything. I put all remaining links/screws/spring bars in a little baggie the watch came with in case I need them later.
First I took out three full links to fit my 6.5" wrist. Now I like a loose fit but with the weight of the watch it felt a little bit too loose so I took out another full link (so 4 links out) and it felt decent. Tighter than my SMP but good for now. Wore it for a day or two and decided it was a bit too tight for my liking so I replaced one of the half links with a full link and now it feels just right. Not too tight that it sticks to my wrist that much and not too loose that it's all over my wrist.
(Sidenote comparing to SMP bracelet:
Sizing the CrPO bracelet was so simple that I decided to go at my gen SMP 300m as well. Long story short, this is my 2nd SMP 300m which I actually received very recently, and for some reason the clasp was on the wrong way (upside down so that "Omega" "Seamaster" "Professional" on the clasp are all facing down when wearing the watch. It's not so much that but the awkwardness of putting the watch on with the clasp on the other side and trying to close it like that -- just stupid. So I wanted to just remove that clasp and switch it to the other side (I've ordered the Bergeron spring bar tool to remove the full bracelet but it hasn't arrived yet and like I said, the PO experience so was simple so I dove right in here), but the experience was nowhere near as simple as the CrPO. I broke two bracelet removal tips and even got one of the tips stuck inside the bracelet while one of the watch's pins came about 3/4ths out but just wouldn't come out no matter what. Ducktaped plier tips (to not ruin the pin; had nothing else) weren't working as it just seemed totally lodged in there (whereas the CrPO pins slide right out!). Finally the next day I separated that section from the bracelet and put some WD40 in the pinholes and managed to pull it out much to my relief, and put the bracelet back together properly. Anyway I'm sidetracking a lot here, but my point is that the CrPO resizing was about as easy as I could possibly imagine.)
Movement:
Asian 2836-2, keeping good time so far. I synced up this CrPO and my gen SMP 300m to Apple's time (on my Macbook) at around 4pm on June 13th. About 24 hours later the CrPO was running just 2-3 seconds slower while the quartz SMP was about 5 seconds slower. Strange for that quartz because another 24 hours later (without touching either) it was still -5 seconds and the CrPO was about 5-6 seconds slow, keeping in line with -2/3 seconds a day, which I'm quite happy about.
Of course this version is the least accurate looking movement of the big three (Noob, BP, KW). BP movement only has some extra writing and I've heard the watch is known to have some issues here and there and just isn't up to the quality of the Noob, and the smoothness of the highbeat 28,800 bph vs the KW 21,600 Miyota was enough to outweigh the pretty decent looking movement of the Miyota, so I have no regrets (although tbqh a Miyota somewhere down the line might be interesting).
Overall Impressions:
Can't stress enough how beautiful this watch is. I have a smaller wrist (6.5") but I don't think 45mm is too big. Tbqh though, I think I can see why a lot of people flock to the 42 as the 45 is quite large and heavy. 42 is definitely a good size and I'll most likely get at least one 42mm PO (LMPO would be great), but I do like the size of the large watch. When I was in Montreal for the Canadian GP I saw a ton of other watches that made my 41mm SMP look a little small. I think when you're talking 50mm+ that's probably too big, but 45 is quite nice I think. But 42mm is definitely not small and a decent size so I'd like to see what a 42mm PO would look like on my wrist.
That said, my next purchase is probably going to be an orange 45.5mm UPO, if I can manage to get once since they're apparently out of production (so maybe I'll settle for 42). You might wonder why the hell I'd do that as it's so similar to what I already have, but 1. I'm an Omega and PO freak (this is my first PO but I'll be getting several more) and 2. I like the different looking bezel (more grey around dial, watch looks bigger; I like the Noob bezel more, but the difference is cool), the closed case back is great, and I like the older "Planet Ocean" clasp, so that's enough variation for me. Would be nice to compare the two as well. Heard too many good things about the Noob CrPO (and I love the thicker colour bezel) so I had to get it, but I still love that older closed case back and orange is my favourite bezel of them all. Really the only drawback of this Noob is the visible movement -- and it's really not a big deal but I guess deep down in my mind it's kinda like "ehh…" whereas the closed case back would give that closer to genuine feel -- but I also really love the way that back looks with the Seamonster and the design on it so I really want an orange bezel (my fav) version of it.
I still plan to get a black 42mm LMPO, a blue 2 dial 9300 TiPO Chrono (w/ blue rubber strap), and a 3 dial 2500 chrono, probably black (but maybe orange, I don't know yet). Also plan to get an orange leather strap for the UPO in addition to the bracelet (that I could swap between the UPO and CrPO too). So far I just haven't really been drawn to other brands like Rolex or Panerai and I just love Omega, especially the PO. I've seen some good looking Speedmasters though, and there are some Tags that have caught my eye that I might purchase down the line, but so far I'm obsessed with the Planet Ocean and its variations. My gen SMP is enough to satisfy my SMP needs for now, although I do like the look of that post 1998 version with the black bezel and non-skeleton hands (dial kind of a mix of the SMP and PO).
Anyway that's it for now. If anyone is on the fence about this watch, I'd say go for it. The quality is outstanding and if you can deal with the non-gen looking movement being hidden on your wrist anyway, just about everything else is near perfect with this watch.
