I purchased one of my own just several days after publishing the story because I couldn’t find it to give it back to the replica Omega. Soon it established itself in my collection as the go-to watch and took home the annual “Most Worn” title in 2016. At almost the halfway point in 2017, it seems that it will retain that title and the more time it spends on my wrist, the more I appreciate it. I enjoy it not just as a pure re-edition of this fake watch, however, as a Speedmaster with all of the line’s best attributes. 
It’s exactly because of these reasons that I’ve always had a bit of an uncomfortable relationship with another beloved “FOIS” edition – the “First Omega in Space” in Sedna Gold. There is no doubt that it is an amazing watch, a deluxe version of my own, but I’ve also thought of it as a big departure from the Speedmaster and one that I wasn’t sure I really felt comfortable with. Speedy enthusiasts mostly welcomed the watch when it was launched in 2017, and some have tried their hardest to convince me of its appeal, but for many reasons, I could not be unable to hear them.
To begin with, the very best and most defining attribute of the Speedmaster versus almost every other chronograph of the 1960s is its uniform black dial. The panda scheme is attractive, and the opaline dial and brown sub-dials of the Sedna Gold edition works particularly well, but it felt like Omega was encroaching into enemy territory – what I’ve learned since going hands-on with the Sedna Gold edition is that another model set this precedent 20 years ago. Secondly, the most important is, I’ve always found that putting the Speedmaster in precious metal was a bit of a bourgeois move. 
It’s a Speedmaster with a panda dial. What could you possibly have against it?
I was struck right away with how gorgeous the Sedna Gold FOIS is in person. It looks nothing like my replica watch, but it looks nice as well. One thing I’ve noticed taking photos of watches for many years is that the better looking the watch, the easier it is to photograph, and here the photos speak for themselves.
What has changed is pretty significant though. Omega has decided to work with gold, and not just any kind, preferring a unique and property combination of gold, copper, and palladium to achieve a warm tone that lies somewhere between red and pink gold. To complement it, Omega has created a brown ceramic bezel, which again offers a little more nuance than going with straight black ceramic.
Due to the color of gold, one of the most unsettling features of the watch, besides its distinct look, is its heft. As expected, the Sedna Gold version feels heavy on the wrist, and this isn’t something most Speedmaster owners will be used to. The great majority of these chronographs (and there are many variations) are made in stainless steel.
It would never be possible to say that one feature I miss in this present version is the distinction between the time-telling functions and the chronograph, which I thought was wisely done by using polished steel for the first, and painted batons for the second. For the Sedna Gold version, all of the hands (and the applied logo) are gold. Surely, the contrast between gold hands and white batons would have been too stark.