The Story of ‘The Moon Watch’; OMEGA Speed Master Professional

The Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch is one watch with one of the most famous story of all times. It was given the name ‘The Moonwatch’ because it was the first watch to be worn on space in the Apollo 11 Moon Walk mission. Today, it is still in production with various modern versions of the original Speedmaster; in both design, and movement wise.

Here is the ‘backstory’ behind the iconic watch:

The launch of the Soviet Sputnik 1 (Russian Satellite) triggered the space race known as the Amercian Sputnik crisis. The radio pulses of these metal spheres were detectable on Earth; and this elevated new technological and scientific developments. On a quieter part of the Earth, another game-changing creation of 1957 was born: The Omega Speedmaster. The Omega Speedmaster was at first designed for sports chronograph with a tachymeter bezel for calculating speed. Omega has already a growing name for events timing (such as the Olympic Games), but little will anyone suspect the kind of trail the Omega Speedmaster would have to withstand.

However, it was only in 1962 the paths of both NASA and Omega Speedmaster crossed. Following Kennedy’s inaugural promise to make an Amercian the frist man on the moon, NASA’s search for reliable watches for the space begins. Having the extreme space conditions in mind (the variation in temperature between -160°C to +120°C, vacuum, and high pressure), the “Qualification Test Procedures” puts the watches to a series of  tests. The test begins 3 years later and it was exhaustive and meddlesome such as temperature, near-vacum, humidity, PH value, Shock, acceleration, high-pressure tests.

In the same year, on March 18^th, news from Soviet Russia shocked the US; Alexey Leonoy completed the world’s first spacewalk outside his Voskhod 2 spacecraft successfully. It was found later that Leonov had some difficulty moving around in the 0 gravity conditions as his suit expanded under its own pressure (partly also from overheating in the vacuum of space), risking his life re-entering the capsule.

The race was truly on (as far as NASA was concerned), and a watch needs to be chosen urgently. Luckily, the test result was ready. The 3 finalist were Rolex’s Daytona, Longines’ Wittnauer and The Omega Speedmaster Professional. Rolex wavered during the humidity and high pressure test; Longine had a crystal blowout during both the test, while Omega only suffered a timing error during the acceleration test and decompression test. We have a winner; the Omega Speedmaster Professional was the chosen one from a selection of 13 other watches that includes Rolex Daytona, Longines Wittnauer, and Houston Jeweler.

This is where the Omega Speedmaster Professional adventure begins as its roles as NASA’s official watch. The missions started badly, with launch rehearsal in 1967 for Apollo 1 ending in tragedy. All three crew (Virgil ‘Gus’ Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffe) were killed in a cabin fire. Complications are foreseen as there were 113 incomplete refitting due on the CM-012 spacecraft when it had arrived at the Kennedy Space Centre. 

We quote Grissom’s interview about his concerns, and here is his response before the incident: "You sort of have to put that out of your mind. There's always a possibility that you can have a catastrophic failure, of course; this can happen on any flight. It can happen on the last one as well as the first one. So you just plan as best you can to take care of all these eventualities. You get a well-trained crew and you go fly."

This statement was inspirational and it was echoed in the continued efforts to get to the moon, despite the tragedy. In October 1968, Apollo 7 was launched. It was the next manned Apollo mission, where a full orbital test of the command and service modules was attempted. Just 2 months after, Apollo 8 took Frank Borman, James ‘Jim’ Lovell and William Anders to the moon and back again. The mission was supposed to be a low Earth orbit test of the lunar module, but it wasn’t ready in time. Instead of abolishing the mission, it was changed; cutting the astronaut’s training by 3 months and bringing the launch forward. As dangerous as it seems, it was mankind first visit to the ‘dark side of the moon’. 

In 1969, the Russians were fast to have beaten NASA again to the first lunar module test. Apollo 9 was finally launched 2 months after the Russians where the second docking of two manned spacecraft occurred. Followed by Apollo 10 that finalized the testing, with a lunar module flight that came within ten miles of the moon’s surface. Everything was set for Apollo 11, including the watches. And as it turned out, it seems like the most epic race of the century NASA have to win.  

On 20^th July 1969, at 18 minutes past 8, the lunar module of Apollo 11 set its feet upon the fine dust of the moon’s surface. But the landing was not a smooth one; an important instrument had failed and Neil Armstrong had to use his Omega Speedmaster in its place. This was the reason why he was not wearing the OMEGA was not worn in the world’s first steps on the moon. Instead, it was Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin who wore his Omega Speedmaster as he joined Armstrong on the lunar surface, making it the first watch ever worn on the moon. 

In the mission technical debrief, Neil Armstrong shared his experience: Our mission timer was out, and we decided we had better leave one wristwatch inside in case it got damaged. We would have at least one working watch to back up the mission timer or to use in place of the mission timer, in case we could not get it going again.

The entire mission was an immense accomplishment, considering that the first man-made satellite was sent into space less than 12 years earlier. This short time was all it took for Omega to develop an iconic watch like Omega Speedmaster, which was later known as ‘The Moon Watch’.