Amazing Replica Omega Speedmaster X-33 Regatta
The replica Omega X-33 Regatta is an upgrading variant of Omega’s mold-breaking Speedmaster X-33, which has been made as a unique edition for the 35th America’s Cup and Emirates Team New Zealand, They say that the uniqueness is for insects, and if true, the X-33 Regatta is nothing short of a Praying Mantis; highly specialized and comparatively alien – particularly among the hallowed ranks of the Moonwatch.
Actually, I am not a fan of an outlier, and the current X-33 is best understood with something of a brief history. The original Speedmaster Professional X-33 was released in March of 1998 to a packed house at Johnson Space Center in Houston, and the event even included the first public live TV transmission from Mir space station. While the X-33 was totally a wild design, we can see the foundation of its functionality in the fake Omega Seamaster Multifunction from the mid-80s. 
Coming with the year 1988 and civilians got their first look at this wild new mission timer from the Omega, the replica watch had already been put to use in both military and extra-planetary roles. Originally seen as a Flightmaster X-33 in the mid-90s, the Omega produced a series of prototypes and pre-production models that were designed with input from several astronauts and select pilots from the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds jet teams. Before being released to the public, prototypes saw time on the ISS, Mir, and aeronautical applications, with one even surviving (along with the pilot) in the crash of a Mig 15.
The X-33 was intended to be a mission-specific tool and the case had been designed to offer the highest possible volume for the audible sound of the alarm, with the Omega claiming an impressive 80 dB output. Perhaps even more to the point, the X-33 was capable of measuring up to 999 days of “mission time” and displaying the value as either a countdown or as an elapsed total.
Eventually updated with a satin-brushed bezel and a new crown in 2001, the X-33 was later discontinued for the public in 2006. Fast forward to December 2014 when the Omega releases the third generation X-33 called, in full, the Omega Speedmaster Skywalker X-33.
Apart from a limited run of 2017 units and some blue and red coloring denoting its connection to the Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) sailing team, the main difference between a standard X-33 and the X-33 Regatta is in the better way that the Omega replica has customized the functionality for America’s Cup racing. While the standard X-33 offers a Mission Elapsed Timer and a customizable alarm system based on passed time to notify of particular stages in a mission (called the Phase Elapsed Time), the X-33 Regatta allows for the specific timing and recording of the various stages of a regatta. 
The X-33 Regatta will automatically transition to Race mode once the countdown measure has finished, where the fake watch will measure and record each phase of the race, requiring only single button presses by the sailor to transition through a maximum of up to 12 recorded phases of the race. The sailor need only press the Race button once to record the time and transition to the next measure at the passage of each buoy. At the end of the race, the Race button is pressed twice to end the measure and then held to store the data in the X-33’s logbook. For the visual learners among us, the fake Omega consists of the following helpful diagram in the user manual for the X-33 Regatta.
