![]() ![]() A must-have selection would probably include a 1957 original with “broad arrow” hour hand, one of the models from 1965 that were the first to say “Professional” on the dial, a 1971 Speedmaster Mk III for variety, thanks to its “pilot’s case”, cross-shaped 60-minute chronograph hand and a 24-hour day/night indicator at 9 o’clock. ![]() It’s impossible to list the highlights because Omega rarely – if ever – puts a foot wrong with Omega Speedmaster Professional specials. Of late, the watch has been blacked out to create the rapturously-received Dark Side of the Moon and last years’ drop-dead gorgeous “CK2998”, paying homage to a 1959 variant with blue-on-white “panda” dial. Omega has, with total justification, used the Speedmaster Professional as the core of a family that has encompassed moon-phase models, the company’s Co-axial movement, cases made of assorted materials, an array of dials ranging from photorealistic images of celestial bodies and even the cartoon character Snoopy. NASA’s archives, however, show that only the Omega “passed with flying colours.” This ensured that the Speedmaster would grace the wrists of astronauts from then on, its first mission-qualified usage taking place on 23 March, 1965, for the Gemini Titan III launch. Any watch entering space would have to survive exposure to unfiltered sunlight, coping with temperatures of over 100 degrees Celsius and surviving the G-forces of take-off and re-entry.Ĭontroversy continues to this day about the political shenanigans of a certain American brand eager for the contract, while the “losers” remain defensive a half-century later. NASA’s specifications included chronograph functions, and the ability to work in a vacuum and in zero gravity. We’ll never know, but a watch that first appeared in 1957 fit the bill. One wonders what NASA might have designed if it had been given a blank sheet. Throughout a two-year testing period, the watch brands were unaware that NASA was testing their watches for space travel. The shopper, who apparently said nothing about being a NASA employee, purchased an off-the-shelf Omega Speedmaster and models from Longines, Rolex, Hamilton and others. It’s a tale told many times, but briefly, it goes like this: In 1961, NASA purchased a selection of chronographs from a watch store Houston, Texas. The obvious benefit would be unparalleled prestige. All the latter had to do was survive its tests. The space race wasn’t solely a competition between Russia and the USA: there was a fight back on earth to be the watch that the astronauts would wear as official issue.īecause NASA was not in the watchmaking business, it either commissioned sub-contractors for materiel, like powdered orange drinks and anti-gravity pens, or it would use something commercially available. What is indisputable, however, is its pre-eminence in space travel ever since it earned its place in history as the first timepiece to pass NASA’s stringent testing for mission certification.īefore the Speedmaster (yet to acquire its “Professional” suffix) achieved this, in the wake of Gagarin, the recently-deceased John Glenn had used a Heuer stopwatch when he piloted the first manned US orbital mission and Walter Schirra took a Bulova Accutron, a pre-approval Omega Speedmaster and a Breitling Cosmonaute into space in 1962. There was even a special “flight case” containing 23 Speedmasters issued in 1997, each watch’s dial bearing a different NASA mission patch on one of the counters, issued in a series of 50.īecause Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space – he probably wore a Shturmanskie when he orbited the earth in 1961 – the Speedmaster Professional cannot claim to have been the first watch to leave our atmosphere. As far as collector themes go, it’s a killer: the number of special editions exceeds 100. Omega’s Speedmaster Professional is that rare creation so rich with history – one could say mythology – that it has inspired at least three books and played a key role in a Hollywood blockbuster. For some, it’s the most famous wristwatch in history, certainly the highest flying. ![]()
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