A Second Space Age Is Here. Here’s Why The Speedmaster Matters Now More Than Ever

The Omega Speedmaster Professional was launched in 1957 and although today, it’s known around the world as the Moonwatch, it was originally intended for car racing fans. The original Speedmaster used a classic, mid-20th century hand-wound chronograph movement, the caliber 321, which was based on the Lemania CH27 (and variants on that movement, with fine hand finishing, can be found in some of the most prestigious watches ever made, from companies like Vacheron Constantin and Patek Philippe).

The Speedmaster became the Moonwatch thanks to a request from Project Gemini and Project Apollo astronauts, in 1964 (Gemini and Apollo were programs run concurrently for much of the 1960s and a number of astronauts were involved in both programs. Several astronauts already owned Speedmasters but surprisingly enough, that didn’t affect the selection process, which got started when, at the request of the flight crews, Flight Crew Operations Director Deke Slayton passed on the request for an approved wristwatch to NASA engineer James Ragan, who in turn sent out a request for watches to test, to ten brands. Strangely enough, only four sent watches to be tested, and of the four submitted, only the Speedmaster passed a battery of tests that would challenge even many modern wristwatches.

With the Artemis translunar mission a resounding success, and with renewed interest in a permanent lunar base, we might be on the brink of a new Space Age. The Speedmaster was the watch of the first; here’s why it might be the watch of the next as well.

The NASA Tests That Qualified The Speedmaster

These tests were comprehensive, and punishing.

Resistance to temperature and pressure:

• High temperature tests, at 70º C (158º F) for 48 hours, followed by 93ºC (199.4ºFfor 30 minutes
• Low temperature test, at -18º C (-0.4ºF) for four hours
• Vacuum test, heated and cooled to -18º in a vacuum chamber
• Low Pressure test, at a 10^-6 atmosphere vacuum for 90 minutes at 70°C (160°F), immediately followed by 30 minutes at 93°C (200°F). That’s approximately the vacuum found at an altitude 95 kilometers, which is just below the 100 km Kárman line, the official boundary between the upper atmosphere and space itself

Resistance to humidity and corrosion:

• Humidity test, ten days at 95% humidity
• Corrosion test, in an oxygen atmosphere at 70º C for two days

Resistance to physical shocks: 

• Shock resistance test, with six shocks of 40 g in six axes
• Acceleration test, up to 7.25 g for five minutes and then to 16 g for 30 seconds, in three axes
• Sound test, 130 db, which is as loud as a military jet at takeoff and which can cause immediate hearing damage (at both low and high frequencies)

The tests were meant to make sure that any watch used by flight crews would be able to take the combination of severe changes in temperature, air pressure, and physical impact that a watch might encounter both inside and outside a spaceship. As incredible as it might sound, a mid-century chronograph with an absolutely traditional lateral clutch, column wheel chronograph movement passed with flying colors.

The Speedmaster would go on to be used in crewed space flight from 1965, right on up to the present day – that is 61 years of continuous service. Speedmasters were used for Apollo-Soyuz, the entire Space Shuttle program, and on board the ISS, where they can still be found today. That is a record of practical use of a mechanical chronograph which is unmatched by any other watch. And, of course, the Speedmaster won NASA’s Snoopy Award for its use on Apollo 13. One of the spacecraft’s oxygen tanks exploded, crippling it and forcing the crew to shut off all electrical systems to conserve power. The Speedmaster was used by the crew to time a critical 14 second engine burn to correct its return trajectory – saving the lives of three astronauts.

Today, the Speedmaster uses a movement which is directly descended from the caliber 321 used in the original, and the new movement makes the mechanical Speedmaster an even better watch for use both in space and on the ground, than ever before. Much of the current Moonwatch collection overall, is also Master Chronometer certified; for a closer look at what that means, check out our story on the certification process (it’s incredibly rigorous). Most notably, the Master Chronometer certification means the watch is unaffected by magnetic fields, even as strong as 15,000 gauss, which is the strength produced by an MRI machine. The standard also requires a precision of 0/+5 seconds per day, one of the highest precision standards in modern watchmaking.

The Range Of Modern Speedmasters

The Moonwatch will probably always be the most popular of all Speedmaster models, and with good reason – it’s part of a record six decades of use in crewed space flight. The Speedmaster is also available in an enormous variety of designs and with different technical features. Here are five that show off how far the Speedmaster’s come.

The Traditionalist’s Favorite: The Classic Moonwatch

Classics are classics for a reason. Put this watch on and you’ll see on your wrist, exactly what astronauts have been seeing on theirs for decades. Updated with the c0-axial Master Chronometer certified caliber 3861, it’s the watch that most clearly carries forward the spirit of the Apollo era. See it here.

The Retro-Nostalgist’s Pick: The “First Omega In Space”

In 1962, astronaut Wally Schirra wore the first Omega Speedmaster to travel into space, on the Mercury Atlas 8 spacecraft – a tiny vehicle just big enough for one astronaut, but which completed six orbits around the Earth in nine hours before returning Schirra safely. His Speedmaster, the ref. 2998, has been re-produced in this version with lume plots colored to the shade taken on by aged tritium lume – the replacement for dangerous radium paint. A watch whose design is from the year – 1962 – when the Space Race and the Cuban Missile Crisis put mankind on the brink of both discovery and disaster. See it here. 

The Astronaut’s Reward: The Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional In Sedna Gold

For obvious reasons – it was after all launched as a tool watch rather than a luxury timepiece – Omega didn’t start making gold Speedmasters until 1969 and the gold Speedmaster is actually directly tied to the crewed space flight programs at NASA. The first gold Speedmasters were presented as gifts to astronauts at a special Astronaut Appreciation Dinner, held in Houston, Texas (the location of NASA Mission Control). Omega presented the watches to additional astronauts as the space program progressed, with just 1014 total made, and each one was engraved with the name of the recipient, their missions, and the words “To mark man’s conquest of space with time, through time, on time.” If the steel Moonwatch is the explorer’s tool, the gold Speedmaster is the hero’s prize. See it here. 

The Driver’s Friend: The Speedmaster ’57

Remember we said that the Speedmaster was not, at first, intended to be a pilot’s watch? Here’s a modern Speedmaster that looks back at the year the Speedmaster first came out, when the space program was in its infancy and the destiny of the Speedmaster had yet to be written by rockets. The engraved bezel with black numerals, and the handset are both shoutouts to the design that would go on to the Moon, with the original specs updated with a Master Chronometer certified automatic movement and date – the original driver’s watch that’s also an ideal daily driver.  See it here. 

And Last But Not Least, The High Tech Next-Gen Speedmaster

This is the Dark Side of the Moon Speedmaster and you can see how it comes by its name. The case isn’t steel – instead, it’s a high tech engineering ceramic, which is scratch proof, lightweight, biocompatible, and which is used in some of the most technically advanced watches in the world, including this one. (For more on why ceramic watch cases are so durable, check out our story, “Ceramics In Watchmaking: What They Are, Why They’re Used, And Why They’re Tougher Than You Think.”) And ceramic cases are completely resistant to corrosion, as well. Paired with a co-axial escapement equipped Master Chronometer self-winding movement, this is one of the most advanced Speedmasters yet – and the heir to the history of cutting edge technology in the space program that put the Speedmaster on the map in the 1960s. See it here.

The Future Of The Speedmaster In Space

One of the most remarkable Speedmasters is the quartz ana-digi X-33. This was a watch that was designed specifically for the needs of astronauts in space, and it has a slew of space exploration-specific features, including a Mission Elapsed Time function, and an extremely loud alarm. The kicker though is that you can’t get one unless you’re an astronaut; Omega doesn’t sell them to civilians.

However, they do sell a version of the X-33 to the general public, which is designed to go where no man has gone before: Mars.

The X-33 Mars Timer has all the capabilities of the original versions of the X-33, and, in addition, a Mars-specific feature: the ability to display the time on Mars, where a day – the Martian “sol” – is 39 minutes longer than an Earth solar day. There is only one snag. Like the original x-33, the Mars Timer has a two year battery life, and right now, the most plausible mission profile for getting astronauts to Mars, takes longer than that – almost three years total, and Omega doesn’t recommend trying to change the battery yourself (although if anyone could, it’s probably an astronaut; they have to be jacks of all trades to some extent).

That means that there’s still an argument for a mechanical Speedmaster on a Mars mission, and get this: to this day, the mechanical Speedmaster Moonwatch is the only watch NASA has ever approved for wearing on the outside of a spacesuit, on the lunar surface or during spacewalks. If it’s good enough for the Moon, the ISS, and the Shuttle, it ought to be good enough for Mars.

The 1916 Company is proud to be an authorized retailer for Omega watches, and for the Omega Speedmaster Professional.