Watches, Stories, and Gear: The Speedmaster Edition

Yesterday, we saw the launch of the Omega Speedmaster Apollo 11 50th Anniversry LE commemorating both the 1969 moon landing and the iconic watch strapped to the wrists of the astronauts who took that first step. For this installment of Watches, Stories, and Gear, we thought it’d be fun to dig into our archives and pull up some of our past Speedy content for you to enjoy.  

This week’s installment is brought to you by the Windup Watch Shop.

Up For Auction: The Story of Nikolai Budarin’s Flown Omega Speedmaster Professional X-33

Last month, we wrote about Nikolai Budarin’s flown X-33, which was hitting the auction block at the time. Sure, it didn’t go to the moon, but Budarin’s X-33 still has some killer provenance. 

Read more here

Around The Web: Astronaut Donn Eisele’s Stolen Speedmaster Found After Nearly 30 Years Missing

Storied watches going missing are always a point of fascination for collectors. One such watch story revolves around the Speedmaster worn by NASA astronaut Donn Eisele, who flew on the Apollo 7 Mission. Eisele, like many other NASA astronauts, wore an issued Speedmaster on his wrist, and in 1989, two years after Eisele’s passing, the watch was stolen from a display at the Instituto Geográfico Militar in Quito, Ecuador (the watch was on loan from the Smithsonian). An investigation was launched, but the thief was never found. That is, until a few years back.

Read more here

Omega Speedmaster: The First 15 Years

The Speedmaster has an incredible and unrivaled history in the watch world, and this early Worn & Wound classic runs down those first 15 years that shaped the Speedmaster we all know and love.

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Watches On The Screen – The Omega Timepieces of First Man

The production team of First Man coordinated with Omega to produce “more than 10 period-specific Speedys, in two different references” for Ryan Gosling and the rest of the Apollo 11 team. Omega provided the film with four distinct models, some of them period-correct recreations you’ll only ever see in the film, and others pulled directly from Omega’s archives and loaned to the production.

Read about those watches here

GasGasBones – V207 NASA strap

The NASA velcro straps that cinched Speedmasters over space suits are stuff of legend at this point, so it’s no surprise that there are numerous options for recreations out there. One of the best comes from the UK’s GasGasBones, who builds his straps to original NASA spec. Because it’s a small operation, GasGasBones regularly closes shop to fulfill orders, so keep an eye on the site for when they’re taking orders again if you want to snag one.

£29.00 – shop here

NASA Graphics Standards Manual

Refresh your coffee table book selection with this beautifully printed manual. Over the course of 220 pages, the book documents the 1975 Graphics Standards Manual of NASA, which at the time was a daring rebrand of the agency. Included are scans from the original manual as well as reproductions of the original NASA 35mm slide presentation. This one is for all the NASA fans.

$79 – shop here