Omega shoots for the moon and beyond

Just before midnight on April 1, the Artemis II rocket blasted off from Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

It reached the Earth’s orbit just a few short minutes later. Its capsule, called Orion, is now circling around somewhere above our heads for a couple of days before it departs for its sojourn around the moon.

Although there will be no moon landing this time around, Artemis II is NASA’s first crewed lunar mission in 50 years. According to NASA, its goal is to “establish long-term presence at the moon for science and exploration through Artemis.”

Omega confirmed to Watch Insider that all four astronauts (Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hanson) on the Artemis II mission are wearing a Speedmaster X-33 watch, reference 3291.50.00. The timepiece is made from grade two titanium and has an Omega 1666 quartz precision multifunction movement, which features several complications, including a GMT, alarm, chronograph, and a day-date function. There’s also an all-important Mission Elapsed Time meter to track the progress of Artemis II from the far reaches of space. What’s more, the X-33 features a titanium bracelet, a material that is roughly 45% lighter than steel, as well as being durable and highly corrosion-resistant. 

The Omega Speedmaster’s legacy is inextricably entwined with space exploration in general, and lunar missions in particular — the model has been part of every crewed lunar journey since 1969. 

Its story started in 1957, when the Swiss watchmaker launched a new line of chronographs for racing. The first Speedmaster worn in space was in 1962, by astronaut Walter Schirra during the Mercury Sigma 7 mission. In 1965, the chronograph was one of four watches submitted to NASA for rigorous testing — it was the only one qualified for space missions and space walks (called EVAs — ‘Extravehicular Activities’). To this day, it’s still the only watch qualified for EVAs. 

Then, in 1969, the Speedmaster was taken to the moon on the Apollo 11 mission, and worn by Buzz Aldrin for his moonwalk. Thereafter, the model adopted the moniker “Moonwatch” and accompanied every subsequent lunar mission. 

The first generation of the Omega Speedmaster Professional X-33 Calibre 1666, the model on the Artemis II mission, was launched in 1998. It was developed in collaboration with the European Space Agency, NASA astronauts and test pilots, and was originally dubbed the “Marswatch” — a tool for future human missions into space. 

The current iteration of the X-33 is the result of 60 years of innovation and engineering, and provides a tangible link between the original Apollo missions of the 1960s space race and their 21st century counterparts.