The reduced sizing, clean, uncluttered black matte-finish varnished dial, Moonwatch-style five-link bracelet, and much-improved black aluminum bezel bring to mind the classic Speedmaster Reduced from the late 1980s. A friend of mine has a Reduced, and I have coveted it for years as, when I see it, it always looks the perfect size on the wrist.
Launched in 1988, the Speedmaster Reduced had an ideal 38.5-mm case size, rather than the 38 mm in this new model. Other subtle differences include the crown position on the Reduced, which is lower and visibly offset from the pushers, and the bezel doesn’t have the Dot-Over-Ninety, either.
The biggest giveaway that this is not a faithful reissue of the Reduced is that the subdials are in different positions. On the Reduced, the layout was running seconds at 3, 12-hour totalizer at 6, and 30-minute totalizer at 9. On this 38 mm, it’s reversed, with the 30-minute totalizer at 3, and running seconds at 9, just as on the larger Moonwatch.
So perhaps it’s best to think of this enticingly sized new 38-mm black Speedy as a “mini Moonwatch,” as it shares more design cues with the iconic Speedmaster, even if its diminutive dimensions conjure up memories of the Reduced models from the ’80s. Either way, the 38-mm’s price makes it the cheapest black-dial “Moonwatch” Speedmaster now available, which is most welcome—and it’s a rare thing indeed to be rewarded for having skinny wrists.
