So, now that we’ve gotten to grips with the idea of the Swatch Group allowing its Swatch brand, renowned for affordable and colourful watches, to “remodel” some of the Swatch Group’s most iconic pieces, how are we feeling about it? Excited? Intrigued? A little bit sick at the back of the throat? If you’re a purist, then it might well be the last of those things, and part of me agrees, but let’s not write off the Omega × Swatch Speedmaster MoonSwatch 1965 just yet. It’s based on a real watch, the Omega Speedmaster which in 1965 passed all the tests required to make it the official timing equipment for NASA’s astronauts.
The new watch measures 42.00mm x 13.25mm and is made of Swatch’s “Bioceramic” material, which is a blend of ceramic and natural products, including castor oil. The case is 30m water resistant. The dial is white and has a tri-complex layout only found on the MoonSwatch watches, where the subdials expand over more of the dial rather than taking up the bottom half of the dial like on Omega’s Speedmaster Moonwatches. The white dial is trendy for the Speedmaster and so it makes sense for the MoonSwatch to take it up as well. It also features the same Omega logo and font used in 1965, of course with the Swatch logo there too.
You’ll notice that the subdial on the right at 2 O’clock has 65 instead of 60 on it. It’s perhaps a baffling choice for chronometry reasons, but when you shine a light on the dial at night, the luminescent numbers light up to spell out 1965. It’s a nice touch, but the chronograph hands are not luminescent, making this little more than a gimmick, but it’s a nice one, like I said.
Inside the watch is a quartz chronograph movement and, well, that’s about all we know as there don’t seem to be any published specs anywhere. The movement is hidden, anyway, behind a closed caseback with an image of the Moon on it.
The watch comes on a grey Velcro strap with a Bioceramic loop, and there’s also a quick change feature so you can swap in another strap if you so choose.
It’s hard to level much criticism at the MoonSwatch watches. Sure, they’re probably not made with the same precision as an Omega, and they don’t have the mechanical movement or the apparent prestige that goes with it. There’s also an argument to be had over whether this is damaging for the Omega name or whether this is a stepping stone to get people ‘in the door’ and then lead them up to buying an actual Omega. Either way, at $270 or £240 there isn’t much to complain about, and there’s a lot to like with this fun and quirky (and non-limited) model.
