Even if you didn’t know any of its history, the Speedmaster would still be a highly desirable watch. In a world of hyperbolic marketing around luxury timepieces, here’s a watch that is literally otherworldly. Sure, like the Rolex Daytona, it combines a design that is both classic and contemporary with seriously impressive mechanics under the hood. It also looks and feels reliable, a watch you can trust to last.
However, what the Speedmaster has that few brands do (although many claim to), is space – or more specifically the Moon. In fact, 2019 marks 50 years since it first touched down. And that is just one of the things that takes this particular sports chronograph into another stratosphere.
The First Watch On The Moon
As a marketing tool it never gets old: “the first watch on the Moon”. It’s pretty much the ultimate horological pick-up line. If you want a watch that combines adventure, old-school masculinity and exacting technical standards, a NASA seal of approval is hard to beat – though even that didn’t stop the story getting a little embellishment. Until recently it was thought that a member of NASA went into a Houston jewellers to purchase watches to test, one of which being Omega.
The truth is more prosaic. The Speedmaster was known to NASA thanks to astronaut Wally Schirra, who wore a CK2998, the second iteration of the watch, on the Mercury Atlas 8 mission in 1962. When NASA decided it wanted to equip its astronauts for the Gemini programme with watches that were to act as a part of their tool kit, it appealed to brands to send in models for testing. Eventually only three watches were tested: a Rolex Cosmograph ref.6239, a Wittnauer (Longines) Genève Professional Chronograph 242T, and the Omega. Hamilton sent a pocket watch but because it didn’t match NASA’s criteria, it wasn’t submitted for testing.
As the watch was going to be worn outside of the space suit, the process had to be rigorous. It was tested at high temperature, spent four hours at -18°C, underwent temperature and pressure oscillation tests, as well as humidity, shock, oxygen atmosphere and acceleration checks. It was also subjected to decompression, high pressure and vibration.
After all this, the Rolex stopped running on two occasions; the crystal warped on the Longines and came loose during the high-pressure test; but all that happened to the Speedmaster was a gain of 21 minutes during the decompression test, a loss of 15 minutes in the acceleration test and a deterioration of luminescence on the hour markers. Duly certified, it was first issued as standard equipment for the inaugural Gemini flight.
But it was its selection for the Apollo programme that sealed its fate. On the wrist of Buzz Aldrin, not Neil Armstrong, who had to leave his in the lunar module due to a malfunction of one of the timekeeping instruments, it became the first-ever watch worn on the surface of the Moon.
What Makes It Tick?
Partly because of the watch’s history, the movement that keeps it ticking has itself attained legendary status, and Omega has been reluctant to tinker with it over the decades. That said, there have been three iterations of movement in the Speedmaster. The first was the Lemania-based Calibre 321, which has a column-wheel chronograph. As the Speedmaster became more popular Omega opted to up production and cut costs by changing the column-wheel to a cam-actuated chronograph, which is easier to make and maintain, for the also Lemania-based Calibre 861. Minor tweaks happened in 1997 and the Calibre 1861 took over.
“Collectors get very excited about the 321 but for me the 861 was an improvement,” says Chris Mann, host of popular watch podcast Time 4 A Pint. “The 321 [which was the calibre in the Moon watch] is harder to repair now because parts aren’t easy to come by.”
Yet the calibre 321 retains somewhat lauded status among Speedy collectors, partly because the column-wheel chronograph, which features a vertical clutch as opposed to a horizontally coupled chronograph, is a more technical way of operating this function, as opposed to the arms-and-levers construction of a cam, but also because it was only used for 11 years of the Speedmaster’s life making models that carry it extremely collectable.
