Omega and Swatch Created a More Affordable Version of the Watch Worn on the Moon

In 1962, Walter Schirra was the primary astronaut to put on an Omega chronograph watch in area through the Mercury-Atlas 8 mission. The firm’s watches have been additionally worn through the first spacewalks, however most notably, an Omega Speedmaster Professional was worn when astronauts took their first steps on the moon. It’s since turn into an iconic timepiece, and now Omega and Swatch have created a extra inexpensive model of the watch.

Space lovers desirous to strap on the identical watch worn by the Apollo astronauts they idolize must be able to spend a little bit dough. The Omega Speedmaster Professional is not at all the most costly watch in the marketplace (you possibly can simply spend near half one million {dollars} on a watch that’s barely there) however you possibly can anticipate to drop effectively north of $5,000 on one relying on whether or not you’re going new or used, and what situation it’s in. As a end result, the Speedmaster Professional is just not precisely an accessible piece of area memorabilia, however the brand new Omega × Swatch Speedmaster MoonSwatch adjustments that.

It’s not each day you see a revered model like Omega prepared to create an inexpensive and extra accessible different to one in all its most recognizable items, however the firm is owned by The Swatch Group, together with different watch manufacturers like Tissot, Hamilton, Rado, and Swatch—who’s made a reputation for itself through the years with high-quality but in addition extremely inexpensive timepieces that often nonetheless function true mechanical actions.

But Swatch and Omega didn’t simply make one model of their new Omega × Swatch Speedmaster MoonSwatch collaboration, they’re introducing 11 of them which can be every designed with completely different colours, graphics on the face, and customized arms. Each watch is themed after the celestial objects in our Solar System, together with the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and the Moon.

The Mission to the Moon model is the MoonSwatch that almost all intently resembles the Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch, however each model was really created with the very same dimensions as the unique: 42 millimeters in diameter, 13.58 millimeters tall, with 20-millimeter lugs. That being stated, the MoonSwatch watches aren’t excellent copies of Omega’s iconic Moonwatch.

The watch’s face options Omega x Swatch co-branding, with Speedmaster and MoonSwatch labels on both aspect. And in contrast to the Speedmaster Professional that’s powered by a wind-up mechanical motion, the MoonSwatch makes use of a battery and digital quartz motion. The greatest distinction between the 2 is that the MoonSwatch trades a steel case for one made from Swatch’s extremely sturdy and light-weight BioCeramic materials which itself is constructed from a mixture of ceramics and plastic derived from the castor plant. It’s not a luxurious timepiece precisely, nevertheless it positive appears to be like like one.

In lieu of a steel bracelet or leather-based strap, the entire MoonSwatches embrace an identical velcro strap which is what the astronauts would have really used to suit the Omega Speedmaster Professional across the wrists of their cumbersome spacesuits. (You can’t merely pull up your sleeve to verify the time on a spacewalk.) Users can simply swap in one other strap of their selecting, however the alternative of supplies means each MoonSwatch will promote for simply $260 as an alternative of 1000’s of {dollars}. That’s nonetheless not as low-cost as a fundamental Casio or Timex. But for anybody who’s drooled over an actual Omega Speedmaster Professional, these all appear to be a very nice and less expensive different.

The Omega × Swatch Speedmaster MoonSwatch shall be formally out there solely at choose Swatch shops world wide beginning on March 26.