THE FIRST WATCH WORN ON THE MOON
Year 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most important events in the history of the twentieth century, namely the Moon Landing, which took place on July 20, 1969, thanks to the legendary American Apollo XI space mission.
In a context of such advanced technological research, it is certainly interesting to dwell on how an instrument which has always been linked to everyday use, had a crucial role in this case: the watch.
NASA's first request to equip astronauts with a wrist chronograph dates back to 1964, a watch capable of guaranteeing the precise time measurements needed to calculate several important variables (including fuel consumption depending on the navigation trajectory adopted).
The request was addressed to different manufacturers, and the watches were subjected to the strictest of tests. They had to be capable of withstanding fifteen temperature changes in rapid succession from 93° to -18° Celsius, extreme gravitational stresses, exposure to corrosive atmospheres with a rate of 93% humidity and 100% oxygen, and noises of up to 130 decibels... At the end of these grueling tests, only one watch survived: the Omega Speedmaster.
On July 21, 1969, at 2:56 GMT , six hours after the landing, Neil Armstrong was the first man to put his foot on a new world, making the Speedmaster the first watch to be worn on the Moon.
In autumn of the same year Omega, in order to celebrate this historic milestone, created a limited series of just 1,014 pieces of the iconic reference Speedmaster 145.022-69, which for the first time was produced in gold.
Of these, the first two pieces were presented to US President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew, who, however, according to policy, had to renounce the gift, donating the two pieces to the Omega Museum. Another 28 watches were presented to astronauts and other important members of the NASA team during a Gala dinner held in Houston on November 25, 1969. Each of these watches had the recipient's name engraved on the back.
The remaining pieces, personalized with the words “The first watch worn on the Moon”, were instead made available for purchase by the public: we will have the privilege of proposing one of them, number 826, at our next auction of watches which will be held on 21 October 2019. (by Alessio Coccioli)
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In a context of such advanced technological research, it is certainly interesting to dwell on how an instrument which has always been linked to everyday use, had a crucial role in this case: the watch.
NASA's first request to equip astronauts with a wrist chronograph dates back to 1964, a watch capable of guaranteeing the precise time measurements needed to calculate several important variables (including fuel consumption depending on the navigation trajectory adopted).
The request was addressed to different manufacturers, and the watches were subjected to the strictest of tests. They had to be capable of withstanding fifteen temperature changes in rapid succession from 93° to -18° Celsius, extreme gravitational stresses, exposure to corrosive atmospheres with a rate of 93% humidity and 100% oxygen, and noises of up to 130 decibels... At the end of these grueling tests, only one watch survived: the Omega Speedmaster.
On July 21, 1969, at 2:56 GMT , six hours after the landing, Neil Armstrong was the first man to put his foot on a new world, making the Speedmaster the first watch to be worn on the Moon.
In autumn of the same year Omega, in order to celebrate this historic milestone, created a limited series of just 1,014 pieces of the iconic reference Speedmaster 145.022-69, which for the first time was produced in gold.
Of these, the first two pieces were presented to US President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew, who, however, according to policy, had to renounce the gift, donating the two pieces to the Omega Museum. Another 28 watches were presented to astronauts and other important members of the NASA team during a Gala dinner held in Houston on November 25, 1969. Each of these watches had the recipient's name engraved on the back.
The remaining pieces, personalized with the words “The first watch worn on the Moon”, were instead made available for purchase by the public: we will have the privilege of proposing one of them, number 826, at our next auction of watches which will be held on 21 October 2019. (by Alessio Coccioli)
BROWSE THE AUCTION CATALOGUE