Brief Story of Omega Watches and NASA

Omega Watches and their association with NASA

Back in the 1960s, NASA had a problem: To keep track of time while bagging moon rocks, astronauts needed a wristwatch with otherworldly ruggedness. So, a young NASA engineer sneaky walked through a local watch dealer in Houston, Texas, and bought several “wrist chronographs” and used all these high-grade chronograph watches including Omega as base for a test process or can say all these watches were auditioned. After 3 years of testing, in 1965, the Omega Speedmaster was the only watch that succeeded all tests, and became the official space watch. The only watch that NASA astronauts trust with their lives is Omega Speedmaster.

And this is how Omega Speedmaster became the ‘Moonwatch’. 

Omega- The Moon Watch

Omega Speedmaster its particularly robust movement and had the right stuff. The watch has since been strapped to every astronaut’s wrist from Gemini and Apollo to Skylab and the shuttle. The mythic, iconic, timeless and unique Omega Speedmaster ‘Moonwatch‘ thus is a ST105.012, an asymmetrical edition, showing the ‘lyre lugs’, the 42mm case and the Calibre 321 which was later changed to calibre 861. This was replaced with an enhanced version when Omega introduced a high-grade rhodium-plated finish on the movement, resulting in calibre 1861 and the more embellished 1863, both of which are hand-wound. Today, the timepiece is powered by virtually the same hand-wound movement that powered the timepieces NASA’s astronauts wore on the Moon. Moreover, the Speedmaster was not originally designed for space exploration. Instead, it was introduced in 1957 as a sport and racing chronograph following on from the early chronographs of the 1920s and 1930s, including the Omega 28.9 chronograph, which was Omega's first small wrist chronograph, complementing Omega's position as the official timekeeper for the Olympic Games. However, now Omega has a unique place in the history of space exploration as the only piece of equipment used in all of NASA’s piloted space missions from Gemini to the current International Space Station program.

Omega is one of the world’s leading Swiss watch brand. Omega manufactured its first chronograph in 1898, and within 10 years, the timepieces had been used to measure time at more than 16 sporting competitions. After winning 1st place in all six categories at the 1931 Geneva Observatory trials, Omega’s reputation for accuracy led the International Olympic Committee to appoint Omega as the official timekeeper of the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. This was the first time in Olympic history that one brand had been given the responsibility to time all events. On the other hand, to celebrate the brand’s 100th anniversary Omega launched the Seamaster line in 1948 that makes it the oldest line in the current collection, which also includes the Speedmaster, Constellation and De Ville. The Seamaster was loosely based on the watches Omega made for the British military at the end of World War II. 

For this reason, Omega has its own spectacular creation into their beautiful watch design and foremost defining timepieces inspired completely updated and upgraded to include the brand’s innovative technology and materials.