Amida Introduces The Digitrend ‘NASA’ Tribute
A modern horological exercise in retro-futurism.
The original Amida Digitrend watches were the result of a particular confluence of circumstances in the history of watchmaking. When the originals were launched in 1976, they were an attempt to create, in an analog mechanical watch, an experience close to what you might get from the LED display digital watches with “casquette” cases which had been introduced just a few years earlier. (It is often said that they were designed as “driver’s watches” but this appears to be a modern horological urban legend, albeit a very persistent one, as any attempt to read the time on an ana-digi side-display watch will show you). They were something of a novelty item then, and they were only produced for a few years, with the company going bankrupt in 1979. However, the watches became a beloved, if niche, vintage collector fan favorite, and in 2024 the company was brought back to life. We reviewed the Sapphire Digitrend last year and found a lot to like, with the opened caseback giving new life to the design (and aiding considerably in legibility as well) and this year, Amida’s launching the latest Digitrend model: the NASA Tribute, which is a look back at an earlier era of crewed space flight.
The NASA Tribute model uses the closed caseback configuration of the earlier models and it is overall, a sort of thought experiment, in which we are invited to wonder what an Amida Digitrend designed during, and for, one of the peak eras of space exploration might have looked like. In terms of materials, the NASA Tribute uses an upper shell made of silicon dioxide ceramic, which is the same basic material NASA used for the thermal tiles on the Space Shuttle orbiters; the rest of the case is in DLC coated stainless steel. The numerals are in high contrast red, as is the famous NASA “worm” logo, located on the top plate of the watch.
The worm NASA logo was introduced by NASA in 1975, which is the same year that an Apollo spacecraft performed an orbital docking maneuver with a Soyuz spacecraft; it was the first joint space mission between two nations, and the first time crew were transferred between docked vehicles, and was the first step in the collaborative process which would eventually lead to the construction of the International Space Station.
This project, which was announced in 1993, received its first long term Expedition 1 crew in November of 2000. The logo was the successor to a NASA logo which had originally been developed in 1959, and which had been refined into the so-called “meatball” insignia, used until 1975. The worm logo was conceived of as a modernized take, and although the meatball was brought out of retirement in 1992 and is still used today, the worm logo was fondly and nostalgically remembered by many spaceflight enthusiasts, and was revived as a secondary logo in 2020 – a story with parallels to the rebirth of the Digitrend.
In addition to the materials and design shoutouts to NASA’s history in the watch case, the strap also has nods to crewed spaceflight. The quilted padding resembles the stitching found on spacesuits, and in particular, on the gauntlets used for the EMU (Extravehicular Maneuvering Unit) spacesuits used on the Shuttle.
And of course, the strap closure is Velcro. Thereby hangs a little bit of a tale, because there is a tie-in there to Swiss history; Velcro was invented by Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral, who received a patent for his “zipperless zipper” in 1955. Velcro, as no Omega fan will need to be told, was and is used to secure Speedmasters to wrists as well as EMU sleeves, and it was also used extensively to hold tools and personal items in place, and Velcro makes a famous appearance in the Kubrick classic, “2001: A Space Odyssey” where a Velcro carpet and slippers allow a flight attendant on a Pan Am space shuttle traveling to a gigantic space station (alas, Pan Am has not benefited, at least so far, from the nostalgia fueled revival enjoyed by the Digitrend or the NASA worm logo.
The caseback of the NASA Tribute carries the legend, “Per Ardua Ad Astra” – “through adversity, to the stars” and the history of crewed spaceflight certainly has had moments of extreme adversity, including the loss over its 30 years of service, of two orbiters and their crews.
But it’s also true that they gave us the ability to construct the ISS and launch the pioneering Hubble Space Telescope, and perhaps in its own small way, at a time when optimism and the spirit of international cooperation seem thin on the ground, the NASA Tribute can remind us that such successes don’t have to be the domain of nostalgia alone.
The Amida Digitrend NASA Edition: case, 39.6mm x 39mm x 15.6mm, 50M water resistance, with ceramic top sheel and 316L DLC stainless steel case. Movement, modified Soprod Newton P092 with jumping hour and scrolling minutes, automatic, running in 23 jewels at 28,800 vph. US price, $4,420; available now directly from Amida.
NASA does not charge licensing fees, or enter into exclusivity agreements; use of NASA logos is subject to approval by the NASA Office of Communications.