![]() But when an Omega Speedmaster caught his eye, he sold the car to fund the watch purchase-and the start of his collection. When Robert-Jan Broer, the founder of watch magazine Fratello, was in college, he kept a car so that he could drive back and forth from school in the western part of the Netherlands to home, and his girlfriend, on the other side of the country. Rolex’s marketing, for instance, relies on the feats of prisoners of war who used their chronographs to escape, or on the woman who crossed the English channel while wearing a Rolex as evidence of its waterproofness. Vintage watches dripping with sentimentality are coveted in the vintage market. Around the arm of his puffed-up astronaut suit is a black band with a watch.īut watch purchases are often emotional-the stories they tell as potent as their technical ability. You can still find them: there’s White in the foreground, and earth’s surface in the way, way background. Three months later, on the Gemini 4 mission, Ed White became the first American to spacewalk and photographs of the achievement made it to the cover of Life magazine. Ragan first sent it up with the Gemini 3 crew in 1965, but the watch went unremarked upon. ![]() The Omega, on the other hand, passed all the tests, and was quickly cleared for space travel. That didn't stop some astronauts, like Apollo 14 crewmember Edgar Mitchell, from wearing their unsanctioned Rolex watches in space anyway.) ![]() (According to Gregory Kissling, Omega’s head of product management, many watch hands at that time were likely made of a combination of brass and steel and, because metals expand at different rates, that caused the Rolex and Longines to react screwy. The first test knocked out both Rolex and Longines. The first was the thermal vacuum, a chamber in which the temperature can be rapidly phased from 150º down to -150º. He put together a gauntlet of tests, all designed to approximate some calamity the pieces might encounter in space. So Ragan bought a Rolex, a Longines, and an Omega, and set about finding which ones were up to NASA’s standards. Ragan was tasked with finding one that could survive the trip. There would be a digital clock in the cabin of the Apollo Lunar Module, but the astronauts were all military men, accustomed to reading and working with mechanical watches. Kennedy had announced his mission of going to the moon before the end of the decade, and the newly-minted class of astronauts had requested wristwatches. ![]() When NASA engineer Jim Ragan rescued the Rolex from the thermal vacuum, he discovered the second hand had twisted closely against the minute hand like a vine climbing a tree. And what watch weaves a better yarn than one that went to the freaking moon? The watch market, both at retail and in the secondary market, is flourishing-in no small part thanks to customers obsession with things like honesty and storytelling and provenance. The one on my wrist is standard-issue stainless steel, but the back is engraved with the same phrase that's appeared on countless Speedmasters produced since 1969: “The First Watch Worn on the Moon.” Omega and its Speedmaster are proof that a watch brand-because collectors lap up mythical stories, red-white-and-blue-tinged nostalgia, and proven astronaut-grade quality-can be built largely on a single seven-word phrase. This year, Omega is selling 1,014 of those “Moonshine Gold” editions, the same amount sold 50 years ago. Create different looks for your timepiece this season and choose the OMEGA Speedmaster Moonwatch VELCRO® strap in black or white.Clooney’s is gold, modeled after the ones awarded during a victory-lap Houston dinner the Apollo 11 crew attended with the president to celebrate the successful moon mission in 1969. The strap is complete with a polished stainless-steel oval-shaped loop for a secure and comfortable fit when wearing, and it connects to your Speedmaster Moonwatch in one simple move. NASA’s famous planet-shaped insignia complements the strap in red, white and blue hues, it was released in 1959 which stylishly captured the space-age optimism of the mid-20th century. Highlights include the logo nicknamed the "meatball”, a design which incorporates references to different aspects of the mission of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 88311 OMEGA Speedmaster Moonwatch Two-Piece Black NASA VELCRO strap 200 200 GBP InStock /Watches /Watches/Gents Watches /Jewellery/Accessories 59 60 86 OMEGA Speedmaster Moonwatch Two-Piece Black NASA VELCRO strap To celebrate the shared history of the iconic global watchmaker and the famous American Space Agency, OMEGA and NASA have teamed up to create a range of VELCRO® straps with astronaut-friendly fixtures and bold branding a perfect alternative to the classic steel bracelet.
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