Although the moon landing was years before I was even born, I always had an interest in the space race. The fact that the Omega Speedmaster Professional was the first watch worn on the moon, probably has a role as well in that interest. Last year, when we celebrated the 39th anniversary of the moon landing, I wrote an extensive blog post on the moon landing, NASA and the role Omega played in it with their Speedmaster Professional watches.

a Dutch (Rotterdam) newspaper from 21 july 2969 covering the moon landing

This year, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, Omega introduced the 40th anniversary Speedmaster Professional watch during the BaselWorld 2009 expo. After seeing it in the flesh, I wasn’t very enthusiastic to be honest. The red tip at the chronograph second hand is too loud to my taste. The sterling silver Apollo 11 patch in the 9 o’clock subregister is very nicely done though.

However, this is ofcourse not the watch that is similar to the one that landed on the moon in 1969. As written before, the Speedmaster Professional watches with reference numbers st105.003 (Aldrin), st105.012 (Armstrong) with serial number 24002981 and st145.012 (Collins) with serial number 26552506 were the first watches worn on the moon, all with movement caliber 321. If you want something modern but yet similar, I suggest you get the regular Speedmaster Professional watch with hesalite crystal and stainless steel caseback (not the transparent one that is), ref 3570.50. Milking out the moon landing to market a new limited edition Speedmaster every 5 years (and other limiteds in between) has become a bit sad, and I think I am not alone on this one.

If you are going to spend 3850 euro on the Speedmaster Professional 40th Anniversary edition, you can actually better spend it on a REAL moon watch, like the aforementioned 145.012, 105.003 or 105.012. These vintage beauties with movement caliber 321 (column wheel chronograph manufactured by Lemania) can be had for 2500-3000 Euro in good condition. Some years ago, I wrote this article about the different Speedmasters through the years (1957 till modern models) and how to identify them correctly. It might be useful when looking for a vintage Speedy.

My friend Chuck Maddox, has written excellent articles about these vintage Speedmasters and was an absolute space freak himself, one of the articles which is definately a classic is the one that tries to definatley answer the big ‘which watches have been worn on the moon’-question. You can read the entire article by clicking here.

Although I am not wearing my vintage Speedmaster Professional 145.012 on a daily basis anymore, it does get wrist time at times like these, to commemorate the moon landing in 1969. I also think this watch is one of the nicest chronographs around, even nicer than, let’s say, a Rolex Daytona for example. However, for the Rolex fans there is the GMT-Master ref.1675 that is known to be the favorite of astronauts in their private/spare time. As the Speedmaster watches were official NASA equipment and had to be returned, the Rolex GMT 1675 was the way to go for most astronauts.

The Speedmaster is one of the purest chronographs around in my opinion, an incredible readible dial, bulletproof handwound movement, a plastic crystal that magnifies the superb dial and – ofcourse – an incredible history. NASA did only choose official for the Omega Speedmaster Professional after running several exhaustive tests.

Oh yeah, if you want to take a peek at one of the most special Speedmasters around, make sure to check out the gold Speedmaster Professional that was produced between 1969 and 1972. Only 1014 pieces were ever made, with a box in the shape of a moon rock. The one below is owned by a friend of mine, who proudly wears it! I covered this rare Speedmaster in this article last year. The first 28 pieces were given to the president of the United States (Richard M. Nixon at the time, who received number 1), the vice-president and the active NASA astronauts.

To all Speedy owners, enjoy this day!

Just a few minutes before I have to catch my train and flight to Basel! Together with my friend Frank from Monochrome, I’ll be visiting a lot of brands and will give you quick updates from location. Make sure to keep an eye on Perpetuelle, the watch forum by Kyle Stults, who made it possible for Frank and me, to get so much appointments with all the big names.

My old love, Omega, has quite a few suprises this year! Besides the Omega Speedmaster Professional 40th anniversary edition (which I already have in pre-order at my friend Alon from Acejewelers.com), there is also the new PloProf (Plongeuer Professionnel) re-edition. To be honest, this re-edition looks mighty cool on the press pictures. The old one, dating 1971, is becoming scarce and prices are raising ever since the OmegaMania auction. The new Omega Seamaster PloProf will be water resistant up to 1200 meters and feature the inhouse Omega caliber 8500 movement.

Below you’ll find the press photo of the new PloProf and a picture of the Speedmaster Professional 40th Anniversary edition by James Dowling (Rolex Moderator at TZ).

Oh yeah, the introduction of the Speedy 40th Anniversary edition will be done by the astronauts who have walked on the Moon – Buzz Aldrin, Charles Duke, Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan – and another, Thomas Stafford, who has orbited it. This impressive line-up will also include Gerald Griffin, one of the lead flight directors for the Apollo missions and Jim Ragan, the aerospace engineer who was responsible for the chronograph tests which led to the selection of the Speedmaster as the only watch qualified for every manned space flight.

Enough with the everlasting enthusiasm, I have to go… Keep an eye on us for more BaselWorld 2009 Omega news.

Omega has this almost irritating habit of introducing Limited Edition Speedmasters for about every event. However, try to get a NASA patch model (such as the Snoopy Award edition or any of the Apollo 11 editions) and you probably feel stupid for not see that one coming

Speedmasters are, besides being linked to the NASA programme, also connected to racing. Initially, the Speedmaster was created as the watch for car drivers, as you can see on the picture below (pre-NASA programme).

In 1968, Omega even produced a Speedmaster Professional with a so called ‘racing’-dial. Not to be confused with the later 1970s Speedmaster Professional Mark II with racing dial. This 145.012 (1968) model is printed in the Time Capsule (by Imai) book and in the Omega Journey Through Time book (page 604 in the English version). I found a low-quality picture of this particular model somewhere on the web, so forgive me for being unable to credit and being unable to provide you with a better picture:

This was the first and last Omega Speedmaster Professional with a racing dial. Later on, as I wrote before, a Speedmaster Mark II was equipped with a racing dial and muchos later on, Omega introduced the Speedmaster Reduced series. These series were focussed on Racing as well. Just recently, when the Omega – Schumacher connection was established, Omega started to create some ‘Racing’ / Schumacher Legend models with caliber 3303 (Broad Arrow caliber). However, non of these are marked as a ‘Professional’ model.

In 2004, Omega produced a limited number of 2004 Speedmaster Professional (ref. 3570.40.00) watches with a racing dial. Compared to the original 145.012 with racing dial, the hands are ‘inverted’. The hour and minute hands are orange of the Japanese model, as where the original model’s hour and minute hands are white and the chronograph hand is orange. The same goes for the hands of the chronograph subregisters.

Pictures by JK.

If you are a Speedmaster collector, this piece might be missing in your collection, as I think 2004 pieces are really limited. I wonder how many actually left Japan, as Japan is a Speedmaster-collectors country. There is currently one for sale on Chrono24, for approx 3000 euro.

I hope you don’t get tired of my Speedmaster posts and rants..

The Omega Speedmaster Professional is the watch that seems to be the back bone of my watch collection and interest in mechanical wrist watches. It is the watch that started the whole madness for me. That’s probably why it is in the header picture of this website anyway I have to admit though, that there are periods that I almost never wear mine and that it gets almost no attention at all. However, with the slightest trigger the whole obsession with this watch start all over again. The latest trigger has been a small GTG with a few long time watch friends. One of the guys was wearing this very rare Speedmaster Professional ref. BA 145.022. He also brought the original box which is a relief “Lunar surface” box which is probably even more rare. Although this watch is not considered to be Omega’s holy grail Speedmaster, it is highly sought after.

In 1969, after the moon landing, Omega created a gold version of the Speedmaster Professional (caliber 861) to commemorate this spectacular event. This watch has been produced in only small numbers (1014 in total), from august 1969 till somewhere in 1972. The first 28 pieces were given to the president of the United States (Richard M. Nixon at the time, who received number 1), the vice-president and the active NASA astronauts. According to Omega’s Journey through Time book, Richard Nixon refused the watch because it was a gift of too high a value. I guess the White House had a Compliance department in 1969 already.

The first 28 pieces had the following inscription in its caseback: “to mark man’s conquest of space with time, through time, on time”. Including the number of the watch and the name of the recipient. The other watches had the “the first watch worn on the moon” text (horizontally) engraved.

During a gala dinner on the 25th of November 1969, at the Hotel Warwick in Houston, approximately 26 pieces were offered to the NASA astronauts. The number 1 and 2 watch, offered to the president and the vice-president (Spiro Agnew), is on display in the Omega Museum since 1999.

Last saturday I had the opportunity to observe one of these 1014 special time pieces, and its original box. Please see the pictures below. This model has the “First watch worn on the Moon” engraving, filled with the maroon color. The first time pieces with this engraving, had a smaller font type and were only engraved (not filled-in).

The owner of this watch wants to remain anonymous. Inquiries are not appreciated.