We have the Speedy Tuesday Ultraman, a tribute to the original so-called Ultraman Speedmaster as a follow up to last year’s Speedy Tuesday limited edition release from the replica Omega and Fratello Watches. The real Ultraman Speedmaster was identical to a standard Speedmaster, except for a distinctive orange center chronograph seconds hand. The model’s name is owing to its appearance on the TV show, “The Return of Ultraman,” which aired in 1971 – Ultraman himself was a highly popular TV character who actually appeared in 1966-67. The show is sometimes described as a kaiju show thanks to the inclusion of giant monsters in every episode (kaiju is Japanese for “strange beast”) which in turn is a subcategory of the tokusatsu (“special effects”) genre. Ultraman is a benevolent alien superbeing who co-inhabits the body of a human in the show, who has the ability to transform into the giant-sized, super-powered Ultraman to battle monsters threatening the Earth. The catch was that Ultraman could only fight for three minutes before his energy was depleted. 
The new Speedy Tuesday Ultraman Speedmaster is the second partnership between Omega and Fratello replica watches; the first Speedy Tuesday Speedmaster released in 2017. The Ultraman has been controversial in the past, with many Speedmaster aficionados expressing doubt that it was authentic – it would be an easy piece to fake by simply adding the center seconds hand from a Speedmaster Mark II to a standard Speedmaster. However, the fake Omega has confirmed that it is an authentic Speedmaster variant, though the company also says that “it is unknown how many genuine pieces still exist.”
Apart from the orange center seconds hand, the new Ultraman also has orange hour markers, and a black and orange tachymetric bezel; the word “Speedmaster” is in orange too. Another tribute to the original replica watch, and the TV series that inspired its name, is the hidden silhouette of Ultraman’s head in the small seconds subdial at 9:00. Shining a UV light on the dial will make the silhouette appear. A final nod to the original series is the minutes register – the first three minutes are marked in orange, reflecting the 3 minute time limit on Ultraman’s super powers.
There’s a shout-out to vintage Speedmaster enthusiasts in general as well – the bezel features a dot positioned above the number 90, in tribute to the “dot over 90” bezel used on pre-1970 Speedmasters. Omega has included both a black and orange NATO strap, and a leather strap with orange stitching. The first Speedy Tuesday Speedmaster sold out very quickly and by the time you read this, the Speedy Tuesday Ultraman will be gone – all the watches were reserved in exactly 1 hour, 53 minutes, and 17 seconds accord
While the numerous Speedmaster limited editions inevitably are the target of a certain amount of snark, and it’s also the fact that it’s a commercially savvy way for the replica Omega to keep the Speedmaster, in all its Moonwatch and non-Moonwatch iterations, part of the current narrative of the company, rather than part of its past.