Space. Astronauts. A wristwatch.

It was decided by NASA that Omega was to be the official watch for its space missions. This decision came about only after a series of rigorous tests of a variety of watches. One watch stood out. The Omega Speedmaster Professional; aka the moon watch.

Sized at 42mm, stainless steel case, shatter proof acrylic crystal, manual winding movement. The moon watch has had a long and proud history of space exploration and also being a watch that has been popular with the public since its lauch.

I decided to put this special watch up today, though I have not the time to take more satisfactory pictures. I will put up more pictures soon. Now lets zoom in to this special watch.

Featured here is the Omega Speedmaster 'Apollo 8 Mission' Chronograph.

Only 40 pieces of this example is being made and sold. A few them are currently on display at space museums in the US. This watch was made to commemorate the Apollo 8 space mission on December 21, 1968.

The Apollo 8 mission objective

To execute command and service module performance between Earth and the moon, and in the lunar-orbit environment

Evaluation of crew performance in a lunar-orbit mission

Communication and tracking at lunar distances

Photography of proposed Apollo landing areas and other specific places of interest to the science community

The Crew:

Frank Borman, Mission Commander
James A. Lovell Jr, Command Module Pilot
William A. Anders, Lunar Module Pilot

The Apollo 8 mission took 7 days and made 10 orbits round the moon in a loop fashion which represents a '8'. This contributed to the design of the missions patch as well. The mission was a very successful one, with all objectives met and the crew performance was examplary.

This is a beautiful watch with a excellent manual winding movement, timeless design and bears a piece of history of mankind's quest into space.