Operating the watch for the first time is a daunting experience, but with practice, and much to my surprise, it becomes more or less second nature (though I’d always want to keep the manual handy). The crown allows you to give control inputs by pulling it out, pressing, pressing twice, or pressing and holding. The top pusher on the left is the “favorite function” button (for quick access to your beloved Phase Elapsed Time 2, for instance) and the lower left pusher can be used to activate the backlight, turn off an alarm, or enter and exit various programming modes. The two buttons on the right function, in chronograph mode, intuitively; the top is start/stop, and the lower, split time or reset to zero. In programming mode, the top button increases, and the lower decreases, the selected value. Once you have committed which button or crown does what, to muscle memory (which doesn’t take nearly as long as I thought; a couple of hours of fairly desultory playing around with the various settings did it for me) it’s actually a quite easy watch to use.
Hands-On The Omega Speedmaster X-33 ‘Skywalker’
