

“Early 90s Speedmasters,” Broer answers without hesitation. Where would Broer, someone who reels-off reference numbers, recommend new collectors start?
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It has just become a classic looking chronograph.”Ģ021 Omega Speedmaster Professional Master Chronometerįor the newcomer, there’s 65 years of minutiae to absorb before you can navigate confidently around the Moonwatch space. But, for a lot of people, it’s a classic like the Porsche 911, the shape is just classic with the lyre lugs and the monochromatic theme with the black dial and white printing, white baton hands. “But I don’t think it’s entirely timeless because it was designed in the 50s and the current one is based on one from the 60s, so there’s definitely a timestamp to the Moonwatch. “It’s a design that never went out of style,” says Robert-Jan Broer, founder of Fratello Watches, the #speedytuesday hashtag and the most influential voice on Omega outside of the brand itself. No other watch brand can lay claim to have contributed to such a monumental real-world event and Omega has certainly taken advantage of the fact, preserving its Moonwatch line since 1969, adding the Dark Side of the Moon ceramic watches in the 21st century and even extending its space legacy with the analogue-digital Speedmaster X-33, which has been the preferred choice of modern astronauts since launching in 1998.īut it’s the Moonwatch variants that continue to fascinate collectors. Two Apollo missions later, Omega’s Speedmaster wouldn’t just be involved in the missions to the moon, it would be instrumental in saving the stricken astronauts of Apollo 13, when astronaut Jack Swigert used his to time a crucial thruster burn to get the crew back to Earth. The procedure began with Rolex’s 6238 “Pre-Daytona”, Longines-Wittnauer’s 235T and Omega’s Speedmaster 105.003 being exposed to temperature extremes, humidity, oxygen rich environments, acceleration, pressure, decompression, shock, pressure, vibration and noise.Īldrin’s watch would later go missing en route to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, making it easily the most famous of the “lost” watches. Just four brands sent in watches - Omega, Longines-Wittnauer, Rolex and Hamilton - which clearly didn’t read the brief and sent in a pocket watch. In 1964, it was decided to test six chronographs and a call went out to 10 watch brands just one month ahead of testing. But NASA soon established official procurement and testing procedures for such equipment, with an eye on the forthcoming Gemini and Apollo missions, with a clear set of guidelines relating to the kind of performance necessary from any potential candidate. Schirra would go on to wear his watch during pre-Apollo Mercury and Gemini missions into space.Īt this point, Omega’s place in space had been entirely organic, based purely on the personal preference of two astronauts. While the Omega Speedmaster wouldn’t land on the Moon until 1969, the watch first arrived at America’s National Air and Space Administration ( NASA) in 1962, when astronauts Walter Schirra and Gordon Cooper purchased a couple of CK2998, the second proper Speedmaster reference. Neil Armstrong/Space Frontiers/Getty Images
