Indelibly associated with Nasa’s Apollo programme that put man on the moon, Omega’s Speedmaster is both an untouchable icon of pure functional design and a canvas for more creative interpretations, celebrating a feat of adventure that is only now being attempted again (the recent failure of Peregrine One making the scale of the challenge plain).
While collectors debate infinitesimal changes to what Omega now calls the Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional, the designers of the new Dark Side Of The Moon Apollo 8 had a much freer hand, using fabrication techniques to create a watch that gets to the heart of the story.
They reference the first mission to place humans in lunar orbit, forever remembered for the earthrise image taken by astronaut William A Anders after the crew were the first to see the dark side of the moon. Just as important, Apollo 8 proved the viability of the Saturn rocket technology after a series of failures had put the whole programme into jeopardy.
The Apollo 8 watch tells this story through a highly detailed, laser-ablated relief of the moon’s surface on the blackened main plate and bridges, which also form the dial – the dial side shows the moon’s surface as seen from Earth, while the reverse shows the dark side that only astronauts get to see. The visible mechanical parts are grey-coated or in black anodised aluminium. The Saturn rocket is reproduced as the continuous seconds hand in titanium, ‘turned’ and coloured by laser, which sits in contrast to the bright yellow chronograph indications, a colour repeated on the perforated strap.
Inside is a manual-wind, co-axial chronograph movement tested to Master Chronometer standard and on the reverse is the legend, ‘WE’LL SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE’ – the words spoken to ground control by Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, just before the Apollo 8 lost radio contact on passing behind the moon.
