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One of the most common questions we get when people start looking at the iconic Omega Speedmaster
MoonWatch is, what is the difference in all these different models?
Am i right?
That's right.
So I'm here to just discuss them a little bit with you and point out what the main differences
are; give you kind of a 30,000 foot flyover overview.
Great because I have no idea.
I mean these watches have an absolute cult following, and if you were to start looking
online you can find out that you can go down to some really deep rabbit holes about different
things about these watches.
The one you've got there, that is the iconic MoonWatch.
When we talk about the MoonWatch, the reason we call it that it's actually the Speedmaster
Professional but we call it the MoonWatch because this was the first and only watch
certified by NASA for space travel.
So this was actually the first watch worn on the moon.
I've been obsessed with this watch since I was a kid, I saw that ads for it in Popular
Mechanics going way back to the 70’s and 80’s.
I've wanted this watch since 1980, and for me it's just iconic.
It has a 42 millimeter case, it has a Hesalite crystal which is not Sapphire - it wouldn't
shatter if it were to impact something inside the spacecraft.
It's also, strangely enough in the world of modern chronographs, it's a hand wound mechanical.
So you're actually going to have your 30 seconds of intimacy with your watch every morning.
You're going to spend some time and wind it every day, and admire what a beautiful choice
you made buying your Omega Speedmaster MoonWatch.
I have a couple of manual wind watches, and they are my absolute favorite.
So, 42 millimeter case, Hesalite crystal, that's the classic MoonWatch.
This one is the Speedmaster Reduced.
If you notice it's a little bit smaller.
It's a thirty-nine millimeter case and when it first came out and that was still considered
a pretty big watch.
But nowadays, for a lot of guys, maybe they've got a smaller wrist or they just don't like
the giant watch trend, this one fits the bill really well.
What's different about this one is that it is an automatic winding mechanical movement,
so it will wind on the movement of your wrist.
It's not hand-wound, and we're going down from the 42 millimeter to 39.
Does that make sense?
I also noticed that the bracelet on the reduced is very similar to the previous generation
on the older versions of the MoonWatch as well, which is kind of nice.
You're right, one of the things that they've changed over the years.
I used to say that they had a fantastic watch on an okay bracelet, and the bracelets on
the previous models - like the one when you’ve got on there -
This one has the pop clasp, you really just reach behind it, grab it, and pull it out.
It doesn't have the side buttons to push and then release, which some people have certain
feelings about that.
The bracelets are just a little bit different, you can actually see the difference.
The new bracelet doesn't taper down, is small, and it also is just a much more heavy-duty
link.
The clasp here they really just stole it right off of the Seamaster.
It's got the two buttons to open it up and you can see how everything's milled real nicely.
It's definitely a heavier duty clasp, so if you're a purist you'll want the one you've
got on.
If you want really modern everyday function, probably the new one’s better.
So that's the kind of plain vanilla versions - it’s either the full size 42 millimeter
Speedmaster professional or the Speedmaster Reduced.
When you get into - there’s an entire genre out there of Speedmaster Vintage, and people
just go crazy about this Speedmaster Vintage watches.
I love them because of the patina, like the one I'm wearing now, it has the orangey-looking
indicators because the luminous faded over time because they were the old tritium style.
So they get this orangey-yellow patina to them, and they look amazing.
But you have to wait a long time to get that done.
Decades.
Decades, right.
Yeah this is probably an early 80’s model, we don't know an exact year on this, but this
is this is my favorite.
This one I've got on is from 1967.
So this is what's called a pre-moon Speedmaster.
If you look at the back of it, it doesn't have any of the normal verbiage about it being
the first and only watch worn on the moon that the later MoonWatches had.
Mine does.
Okay, yeah.
So that means it's definitely from the early seventies on.
This one has the famous 321 movement, it's one of the most famous watch movements in
all of watch history.
It was made by an outside company for Omega called Lemania, but Omega ended up buying
the company eventually, and they provide movements for Omega.
So that one you can see, it's got a lot of patina going, people love these distressed
leather straps.
A lot of the watch sites now, this is actually the first watch you see when you log on to
a lot of the watch sites.
So iconic.
Speedy Tuesday.
This one if you like the original bracelet, this is another premium, this one's from 1969
but you can see what the premium bracelet would have looked like.
Just like the one that Creed has on, it has a just a pop clasp there and it's not milled
as heavy duty as the current one.
But again for the purist this is the one.
It does have a little bit of flex side-to-side, that's natural.
It's a little bit - it's not as heavy as the newer version, and to me it's a little bit
more comfortable in some ways.
I know that's a little odd because you would think that having something that's as old
and older technology wouldn't seem that way, but I actually kind of prefer it.
Okay, interesting.
One of the things that people asked for, and Omega responded with was the desire for an
exhibition case back so that they could see that beautiful movement.
When they changed to the exhibition case back, Omega decided to dress up the movement - it
came out with a new caliber number, 1863 - but it's essentially an improvement on the 321.
The watchmakers that I know, when I asked them about this, they say the 1863 is actually
a better movement.
We could get mired down in the details, there's a whole bunch of different versions of this
movement.
We're not going to get mired down in the details because of the craziness that goes on with
that.
What I will point out is that this particular movement is all gold.
It has the gilding all over it where some only have partially gilded, and then others
don't have any gilding at all.
So there's several different versions of that.
Right.
There's also a version that has the Hesalite crystal on top and the Sapphire crystal on
back so you can see the movement.
There's yet another version that has Sapphire on top and Sapphire on back, that one's called
the Sapphire sandwich.
Omega really went nuts doing lots of crazy commemorative versions of this watch.
So if you're interested in something that's a little bit different from the plain vanilla
original MoonWatch, you could seek out something that maybe is an interesting moon mission,
an interesting commemorative event for you, and that might be the one to make you pull
the trigger.
This one for example it says on the back Apollo 11, so it's a commemorative of Apollo 11.
This one has an X on the back, it has the verbiage that says “The last man on the
moon, December 14, 1972.
Apollo 17 40th anniversary.”
This is an interesting dial on this watch.
That is a really interesting dial.
I feel like this one's fairly polarizing.
People either absolutely love it or they think “What in the world where they thinking?”
It looks like a coin on the inside so it sort of got that quorumesque feel to it, with the
coin-like imprintation, but then also it still has the sub-dials so it still has everything
that the normal MoonWatch does.
It just looks more fancy.
it's really interesting.
It reminds me a lot of the coin that comes with a lot of the, it's not really a coin,
it's more of a medallion, that comes with a lot of the Speedmaster Professionals.
This one you can see this has a blue dial and a blue bezel with the silver sub dials.
Is that the Gemini edition?
It is, and when you look at this one, we got a lot of color on the case back, it says “Gemini
4, first spacewalk,” and it has the names of the astronauts who did it, McDivitt and
White.
I actually have a picture of an astronaut in the middle of a space walk.
There's lots and lots of commemorative editions.
I've seen the ones that were safety awards that have Snoopy on the dial.
Extremely hard to find.
There are really commemoratives for every Apollo and Gemini mission that I think that
we're done.
The moon, Mars, and Earth edition is another one.
Right.
They actually have the planets real large on the dial.
Really fascinating.
You could probably spend an entire collection lifetime just collecting Speedmasters.
But hopefully this gives you an overview of the idea of whether you would want to tend
towards a vintage or something commemorative or the original straight-up MoonWatch.
Fun fact about what we call the Gemini, if you go back and look at NASA tapes, they actually
call it “jiminy.”
I noticed that before and I've heard that it's because it means “twin,” and that
that this was the mission where they were first experimenting with having two astronauts
in the capsule instead of just one, so they would be controlling the spacecraft in tandem
and that's why it was called “jiminy,” but you're right.
Thank you, Norm.
There we go.
I had no idea that these things exist in the world.
So I am like you, it's one of my favorite watches the Speedmaster, the Speedy Tuesday,
#speedyTuesday, is a huge thing.
Every single Tuesday you see just a plethora of pictures of the Speedmaster, because if
not everybody has one, everybody has one plus three.
So if you don't have one, that's something that needs to be in your collection.
Definitely the bedrock of a collection.
Some people just collect Breitling, or just collect Rolex.
But if you were going to collect the iconic watches from each company, this would be the
first Omega for you to get.
And if you're a car guy or lady, this is definitely the watch for you because any car show has
at least five or ten people out of twelve that have a Speedy on, of some version.
Alright, ‘til next time.
SwissWatchExpo.
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