Half a century after man first stepped on the moon, Omega has marked the milestone with a new Speedmaster dedicated to the legacy of the Apollo 11 mission.
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the lunar surface on July 21, 1969. Their moonwalk lasted just two and a half hours, but their achievements left a defining footprint on the history of space exploration. Omega had launched the Speedmaster a decade earlier, with the timepiece quickly adopted by the U.S. Air Force.
Many of those jet jockeys wore their Speedmasters on subsequent space missions. After rounds of punishing tests, the Speedmaster was declared “Flight Qualified for all Manned Space Missions” in March 1965 and from that moment, Omega has been the only supplier of watches for NASA’s Human Space Flight Program.
The new Speedmaster Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Limited Edition watch celebrates this golden anniversary across just 1,014 pieces. Following the famous design of the Speedmaster BA145.022, this new chronograph has been crafted from an exclusive new 18-karat gold alloy and is powered by a brand-new manual-winding Master Chronometer calibre 3861.
The case, bracelet, dial, hour-markers and hour-minute hands have all been created in 18-karat Moonshine gold – a unique new alloy whose colour is inspired by the shining moonlight in a dark blue sky. In a paler hue than traditional 18-karat yellow gold, Moonshine gold offers high resistance to the fading of colour and lustre over time.
The new timepiece’s polished and brushed 42mm case features the asymmetrical caseband of the 4th generation Speedmaster. Around the wrist, the brushed-polished bracelet bears the five–arched-links-per-row design and a grooved clasp with an applied vintage Ω.
Remaining true to the historical piece of 1969, Omega has also included a burgundy bezel ring – this time in ceramic, according to a special patent pending process, with its tachymeter scale in Ceragold. Following the first generation of the Speedmaster tachymeter scale, which graduated to 500 units per hour, this new model features a marker dot above 90 (also known as “Dot Over 90” or “DON”).
The vertically brushed step dial is marked “Au750” for the use of solid gold and is enhanced by the facetted black onyx indexes set in the polished hour-markers, as well as the hour-minute hands filled with black varnish and the black varnished central chronograph seconds and subdial hands.
The outer caseback ring features mechanically engraved markings including “1969-2019” and the limited edition number highlighted in burgundy, as well as an uncoloured “Master Chronometer” notation while the inner decorative ring, also created in 18-karat Moonshine gold, has undergone two separate laser ablation processes, as well as two PVD (Physical Vapour Deposition) colour treatments in blue and black.
Finally, a domed lunar meteorite inlay representing the Moon has been delicately set into the cavity of the ring. Interestingly, the Earth and the Moon on the inner ring have been produced in true proportion (3.67: 1 in diameter).
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