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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Manually wound chronograph wristwatch · Switzerland

Omega Speedmaster (NASA-qualified, worn on Apollo missions)

Verified

Qualified by NASA in 1965 after documented environmental testing for use on manned spaceflights, and worn during Gemini and Apollo missions, including on the surface of the Moon.

Technical facts

Movement
Manually wound column-wheel chronograph calibre (calibre 321 in the qualification-era examples)
Case
Steel, screw-back with asymmetric chronograph pushers

Historical significance

  • Qualified by NASA in 1965 after documented environmental testing for use on manned spaceflights, and worn during Gemini and Apollo missions, including on the surface of the Moon.
  • Individual mission-flown examples have specific, separately documented provenance; general 'Moonwatch' marketing claims about the model line should not be conflated with the documented history of specific flown pieces without checking NASA and astronaut-collection provenance directly.

Sources & references

  1. Omega, published history of NASA qualification testing
  2. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, collection records

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.