Omega has had strong ties with NASA since 1965, when it became chosen as the official timepiece of the Space Program. Since then, the Swiss brand’s watches — in particular, the Speedmaster — have accompanied hundreds of astronauts in their space endeavors, including the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 where the Speedy became the first watch on the Moon. As much recognition as this voyage has gotten, and for good reason, we seem to forget about the very important Apollo 8 mission that happened a year before when astronauts James Lovell Jr, Frank Borman II, and William Anders became the first men in history to reach the Moon (and, thus, see the “dark side” of it), orbiting ten times before coming home. Today, Omega has updated the model that commemorates the famed trip, just five years after it debuted. But before we get into the new timepiece, let’s look at what made the previous iteration so special.
In 2018, Omega decided to honor the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission with an “Apollo 8” edition of its Dark Side of the Moon watch — an all-black ceramic take on the iconic Speedmaster chronograph. Sharing the same dimensions as previous DSOTM models, this watch had a semi-skeletonized dial with a laser illustration of the Moon’s surface. The movement itself swapped out the typical Co-Axial 9300 for a legacy Caliber 1861 hand-wound chronograph movement.
The updated version that was just introduced shares a lot of these same specs, including the yellow accents and the 44.25mm ceramic case, but is 0.8mm thinner and sports yet another new movement in the Caliber 3869, whose main plate and bridges have been decorated to look like the Moon surface, just like the front of the watch. For the first time, this movement is also METAS-certified. While the triple totalizers return, the hand on the small seconds subdial has been shaped to look like NASA’s Saturn V rocket by laser-turning a piece of grade 5 titanium.
Another change here has been the price. Where the previous Apollo 8 watch was around nine grand, the updated version of the Dark Side of the Moon Speedmaster is priced at $14,300. Head over to Omega’s website to learn more.
