By Harlan Chapman-Green
Omega, sponsoring the Olympics and also for being the choice of the world’s greatest super-spy, James Bond, for a while now. But there is one thing that they are even more famous for, they engrave it on all of a certain line of watches like there’s no tomorrow and they are well used to making special editions of that particular lineup such as the Dark/Grey/White Side of the Moon and the Silver Snoopy Award lines. It is, of course, the Speedmaster lineup and this is the newest limited edition watch celebrating the first Omega watch ever to be worn into outer space.
The watch was worn by Wally Schirra, the astronaut on board the Mercury-Atlas 8 mission which went into space in 1962. Of course, we all should know by now that Wally wasn’t actually the first man ever in space. America was beaten in the space race by the Soviet Union twice, first by the Sputnik satellite, the first man-made object put into orbit around Earth, which went up in October 1957. Then in 1961 the Soviet Union had another success with Vostok 1 which carried a man who even today is still revered and even today is saluted in some Russian schools, Yuri Gagarin was the first ever Human to go into space. So, you’re probably confused now, well, Wally Schirra was one of what;s known as the Original Seven, that is, he was one of the seven astronauts in Project Mercury, the first American attempt to put a man into space. Wally wore an Omega timepiece on his wrist as he went into orbit, the design of this watch was brought back into production as Speedmaster “First Omega in Space” edition watch, and now it’s back.
Sedna gold is Omega’s answer to Rolex’s Everose gold, both are golden alloys which have been scientifically engineered so that they don’t suffer from the problem of normal rose gold, fading. Over time rose gold will lose colour due to the metals used to make it the colour that it is, both Everose and Sedna gold will never fade over time. For the “First Watch in Space” edition Sedna gold has been used for the case including chronograph pushers, the markers on the dial, the hands and the chronograph hands.
The dial of the watch is a very retro inspired design and is similar in colouration to the Paul Newman Rolex Daytona. The three chronograph subdials and the outer ring of the dial are black with the rest being white in colour. Like the Omega worn on the wrist of Wally, the limited edition piece does not have “Professional” written on the dial, it just has “Omega Speedmaster” written on it, as Omega added the word professional to the dial of its watches in 1966 after NASA selected them as the pieces of choice. The size of the case is 39.7mm diagonally and the date October 3, 1962” has been engraved into it. The Lemania made 1861 movement is the same reliable hand wound movement found in the Speedmaster Moonwatch range. The “First Omega in Space” remake watch isn’t a limited edition piece and will cost around $23,000.
For more info, please visit omegawatches.com
HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN – CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
A keen bass guitar player, Harlan enjoys all the perks modern watchmaking technologies the industry has to offer. Although you might catch him sampling Omegas or the Rolex, Harlan loves all things Haute Horology, with his three favourite brands being Breguet, A.Lange & Söhne and Vacheron Constantin. He hopes to study timekeeping more in depth someday and will never be able to thank his father enough for introducing him to the industry. Read his articles here.
