Time Machines: How OMEGA’s Speedmaster Professional Became the ‘Moonwatch’

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In the beginning, God created the cosmos, Earth, and mankind – with an unsatiable spirit of exploration – to go beyond our planet’s polar ends and reach the skies above. Taking flight in the ‘60s, spacemen Wally Schirra, Edward White, Neil Armstrong, and many more, strived into the celestial void, famously wearing a common timepiece. This is the story of that timepiece – the ‘Moonwatch’ – how OMEGA’s Speedmaster Professional ‘accidentally’ became the first watch on the moon.

From Racetrack to Launchpad

Firing up our horlogerie time machine, we’re rewinding to the Space Race. Post the Second World War, America and the Soviets employed Germany’s rocket engineers, in a conquest to prove space-tech dominance. The Soviets took the initial lead by sending orbiting satellites and even cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space in ’61. Lagging, and on the clock, the Americans made a desperate yet bold announcement to the world of sending a man to the moon by the end of the decade. In 1964, as NASA’s procurement and contracts division prepped for mankind’s greatest leap, they began sourcing reliable space gear for their Apollo astronauts. On their ‘moon-trip’ checklist was a chronograph, which needed to be capable of withstanding space extremities. Hence, they sent out a request for proposal to 10-15 Swiss watch manufacturers in the US. Only four responded, and after rigorous temperature, shock, impact, and pressure tests, just one survived: the Speedmaster.

Predating the Space Race by a mere decade, OMEGA’s racetrack-bred Speedmaster made its debut in 1957. Designed for measuring lap times in professional racing with a triple sub-dial chronograph and tachymeter, it was revered as a Bastian of horlogerie ergonomics, accuracy, and technicality.

The Moonwatch – Reporting for Duty

Finally, in 1965, NASA declared the OMEGA Speedmaster as “flight-qualified for all manned space missions” and will be a wristwear staple for every astronaut orbiting the Earth. A title earned amidst a daunting space exploration battle with the Soviet Union, hastily measures, and a prayer-bound leap to the skies. NASA’s Gemini 4 mission crewmate Edward White wore the Speedmaster on America’s first spacewalk. Four years later, Sir Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the lunar surface – this spaceflight dawned a new legacy for the OMEGA Speedmaster, cementing its name as the ‘Moonwatch’. To reflect this historical feat, OMEGA Speedmaster casebacks proudly engrave “Flight-Qualified By NASA” and “The First Watch Worn On The Moon” to this day.

Speedmaster Lineage

However, all glory traces back to the manual-wound, chronograph calibre 321 borne by the Ref. CK 2915 – the earliest generation of the Speedmaster (1957). With a soft iron core and heavy shock resistance, it earned itself quite a reputation for durability, standing as a testament to how resilient a movement this was at the time. This was interestingly launched alongside the first-gen Seamaster 300 and the lesser-known OMEGA Railmaster – which, all together, were regarded as the holy trinity of OMEGAs.

In form and function, the Ref. CK 2915 laid the blueprint for the Speedmaster’s evolution, and in 1964, the world saw the first ‘Professional’. The same silhouette, calibre, and mission, just refined in a few cosmetic sensibilities with an anodised tachymeter and Lume-tipped seconds’ hand. Notably, it was this very model worn by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. The Speedmaster worn by Micheal Collins during Apollo 11 was a later version, introduced in ’68 (Ref 145.012) due to him receiving a later batch of Speedmasters as compared to the rest of the astronauts. The only notable difference was the caseback.

“Houston, We Have a Problem”

OMEGA’s space ventures with NASA don’t end here – in 1970, it was an OMEGA that saved the Apollo 13 mission and its astronauts from a fatal engine disaster. Nearly 320,000 miles away from home and 56 hours into the mission, the crew reports their spacecraft’s oxygen tank has exploded alongside an electric power loss – “Houston, we’ve had a problem” famously exclaimed one of the astronauts.

After aborting the Lunar landing mission, they turned back home – however, to safely re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft needed to precisely accelerate and decelerate. With timekeeping playing a critical role here, the astronauts instinctively ditched their digital gear and went acoustic – using their Speedmaster. These critical fourteen seconds of re-entry earned OMEGA a Silver Snoopy Award. The Space Race with the Soviet Union came to a close in 1975, as the Apollo rocket rocked with Soyuz in space. During this historic handshake, all astronauts wore Speedmasters.

Present-Day Icon – OMEGA Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional

After decades of service as a space-wear chronograph, the Speedmaster still retains its signature form and technological brilliance. In its most contemporary quintessential outfit, the Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional slates in at 42 millimetres in diameter and 47.5 millimetres, lug-to-lug, cased in Stainless Steel. The black, anodised aluminium tachymeter bezel monochromatically compliments the dial. Its space engine is a Co-Axial Master Chronometer, manual-wound, Calibre 3861 which delivers a 50-hour power reserve. (Ref: 310.30.42.50.01.002)