Watch Collector.
Bhaskar Eswaran.
I was born in South India and moved to Australia with my parents when I was five. Six months later, the Apollo 11 Moon landing took place. We returned to India in December 1972.
I began my career in IT before moving into telecommunications in Australia. After a successful five-year period with a major telecom provider, I struck out on my own and have now been an entrepreneur for more than 25 years.
My core business wound up several years ago, but I have remained involved in start-ups. I am currently involved with one in Milan and, just this week, formalized my involvement in a new AI start-up in Melbourne.
Around 2008, my business was doing well and I wanted to reward myself for this. I considered cars, and I enjoy motorcycles, but watches appealed to me more: they are small, personal objects you can really engage with.
At the time, the two Swiss brands that attracted me were Rolex and Omega. My experiences with their boutiques were very different. With Rolex, I always had the impression that they were doing me a favor by allowing me in, and watches were also virtually impossible to obtain, whereas with Omega I felt more welcome. Importantly, pieces were available and they also appealed to me aesthetically.
Coincidentally, the first four watches I bought were Omegas: two Seamasters, a Railmaster and a Speedmaster. When I bought the Speedmaster – the 1957 50th Anniversary edition – I noticed the lunar rover in the display and asked the salesperson about it. I don’t recall him explaining the extent of Omega’s role in the space program. I bought the watch simply because I liked it. I only discovered the significance of that connection a few years later.
I was in awe of space exploration. As a child, I never missed three TV shows : Star Trek, Lost in Space and Thunderbirds, so I was already fascinated by space.
After the Moon landing, the Apollo 11 astronauts visited Australia. Suddenly, the fictional heroes I had been watching on television were replaced by real people risking their lives to travel into space. From then on, I watched anything related to space on Australian television.
Two days after the Apollo 17 mission, my family moved back to India. Those years nevertheless left an indelible impression on me, one that much later found expression in my passion for watches.
Moving from India to Australia as a child was already an eye-opening experience. I arrived without speaking English and found myself in a completely different environment. Then I saw people travelling into space. It created an extraordinary sense of possibility, imagination and human capability.
To me, astronauts represent people pushing the boundaries of human endeavour. During the early space program, every mission involved enormous risk. Systems were continually being developed and tested, and each mission introduced something new.
They were exceptionally capable and highly trained people, able to remain calm under pressure and deal with situations nobody had faced before. That combination of courage, competence and composure is something I deeply admire.
As I mentioned, I bought my first Speedmaster in 2008 without really connecting it to the space program.
A few years later, after considerable success in business, I went through major setbacks in both my professional and personal life. I had just turned 50 and, in 2013, essentially had to start again. I spent a year reflecting on what I had done well, what I had done badly and how I could rebuild more effectively.
In November 2014, I decided that if I succeeded in rebuilding my life, alongside my responsibilities as a father, I wanted one passion project of my own. I did not yet know what it would be.
Then, in December 2014, I came across a Fratello article about Speedmasters. While browsing the site, I suddenly recognized the watch I owned. I started investigating, and that was the beginning of the deep dive – rather like Alice in Wonderland: once you go down the rabbit hole, you never know when you will come back up.
My approach has always been closer to the way I collected stamps and coins as a child. I was interested in identifying a series and understanding how the pieces fitted together, rather than immediately focusing on microscopic variations. Speedmasters lent themselves well to this because many limited editions have clear visual links to particular missions or anniversaries.
When I began collecting seriously around 2015, I had to decide where to start. I focused first on recently discontinued modern pieces, which seemed easier to find, while continuing to add new releases. From there, I worked backwards in time. The deeper I went, the more editions I discovered.
Older pieces became increasingly difficult to source, particularly from Australia, far from the main European collecting centres. I often had to buy internationally from photographs and rely on dealers’ descriptions. Sometimes a watch presented as a complete set turned out not to be one, so when I later found a genuinely complete example, I would replace or supplement it.
I was also drawn to precious-metal Speedmasters, which many traditional tool-watch collectors overlooked. At the time, discontinued examples could be relatively affordable compared with new precious-metal models, and they were often exceptionally well preserved because their owners had worn them carefully.
The collection grew organically. As I moved further back in time, I increasingly relied on specialists and reputable dealers, although experience taught me that not everyone lives up to that reputation.
I discovered MOONWATCH ONLY relatively late. My focus was initially more visual and historical than technical: Apollo 11, 13, 15, 16 and 17, for example, connected directly with my childhood fascination with the space program. Once I understood the book’s value, I acquired every edition I could as a reference.
I also gradually discovered the many market-specific editions produced for countries such as Italy, Japan, Germany and the United States. My collecting instinct inevitably turned each discovery into another watch to find.
Along the way, I began building small Speedmaster collections for my son and daughter as well, hoping that one day they would understand what I was trying to create.
Over time, I realized that collectors often fall into two groups: vintage collectors with a few modern watches, or modern collectors with a few vintage pieces. Without consciously planning it, I had built a collection spanning almost the entire history of the Speedmaster.
When I travelled to Hong Kong to collect a Missions case bought at Phillips, the head of sale asked how many Speedmasters I owned. When I told him, he smiled and said, ‘Bhaskar, do you realize you’re the world’s largest Speedmaster collector? People don’t publish this information, but we tend to know the major collectors.’
In 2019, I met Omega CEO Raynald Aeschlimann, who was fascinated by the way the collection had developed. He asked me a simple but important question: ‘What’s next?’ That made me realize that, although there would always be more watches to acquire, I wanted my next focus to be giving something back to the collector community.
Whenever I showed friends groups of watches from the collection, they were fascinated because they had rarely had the opportunity to see those pieces together. In July 2019, Omega gave me the opportunity to exhibit around 175 Speedmasters in its Sydney boutique – to my knowledge, the largest Speedmaster exhibition held up to that point.
In parallel, I had begun collecting space memorabilia. Combining the watches and memorabilia generated an extraordinary response, but it also prompted more questions about the missions themselves. That pushed me to study the history of human spaceflight in much greater depth.
Today, my focus is not only on exhibitions but also on long-form presentations that explain the space program and place the watches within that broader human story.
Bhaskar Eswaran and Astronaut Nicole Stott during an Omega event in Melbourne.
No. I would estimate that I have around 90-95% of the models I want, but several historically significant and limited-edition pieces are still missing.
I still do not own a 2915, although emotionally my strongest connection is with the 2998 onwards, beginning with the first Omega worn in space. There are also later country-specific and limited editions I would like to add. If the right opportunities arise, I will continue filling those gaps.
Speedmaster CK 2298-1 Tropical.
I own several flown watches. People naturally think first of Moonwatches, but many other Omega models have also travelled into space.
One is a Flightmaster flown by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Artyukhin. The watch was manufactured in 1972 and flown the following year, and is believed to be the first Omega worn in space by a Soviet cosmonaut. I later acquired a flown Speedmaster Professional and an X-33 Skywalker, also flown by Soviet cosmonauts.
I also have a first-generation X-33 from a small group of roughly 20 watches associated with NASA. After NASA tested an early batch, the watches were returned to Omega while the company was preparing the second generation. NASA nevertheless needed watches for upcoming Shuttle missions, resulting in this small group carrying NASA serial numbers. They are among the unusual categories of flown watches that later reached the public market.
Another interesting piece is a Mir 90 Days, one of only 10 watches taken aboard the Mir space station. Unless I am mistaken, I think the mission that was likely intended to bring the watches back to Earth was cancelled because of technical problems, delaying their return by roughly three months. In that sense, they might more accurately be called ‘Mir 175’, although the caseback says Mir 90.
Finally, I own the commemorative Speedmaster awarded to Apollo 17 Command Module Pilot Ron Evans. It is particularly meaningful to me because Evans was the last astronaut to perform a deep-space EVA.
Flightmaster flown by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Artyukhin.
Flown Omega Speedmaster X-33.
Flown Omega Speedmaster Skywalker.
Flown Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch.
Omega Speedmaster Professional MIR.
Omega Speedmaster Professional BA 145.022-69 from Astronaut Ronald E. Evans.
Alaska I Prototype Dial in Mark II case.
Omega Speedmaster Apollo-Soyuz.
When people ask me why the Speedmaster, I naturally talk about my passion for space. But another aspect is often overlooked.
A professional tool used on a space mission must perform reliably and accurately under extreme conditions. Usually, equipment sent into space is designed specifically for a mission or task. What makes the Speedmaster remarkable is that it began as a standard production watch.
Even today, collectors can own essentially the same references worn by Wally Schirra, Ed White, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, or Michael Collins – with the astronauts simply using longer straps when the watch had to be worn over a spacesuit.
No other watch, or even brand, can claim such a long and continuous association with one of the most demanding forms of human endeavour.
When the modern CK 2998 re-edition appeared in 2016 with its blue-and-white dial, I loved it immediately, but I waited too long. Australia received a very small allocation and the boutiques had sold out.
A few days before an overseas trip, I happened to pass an authorized dealer with one in the window and bought it immediately. I liked it so much that I decided I also wanted one for each of my children.
Soon afterwards, in Berlin, I was walking to a meeting when I spotted another CK 2998 in an Omega concession. I went in, bought it and took it to the meeting. On my way back, I saw another one in the same window. I asked how many they had.
The salesperson said, ‘We had four. You bought number three. That’s the last one.’ I said, ‘I’ll take it.’
Absolutely. What fascinates me, after studying the early crewed space programs in depth, is how much of the fundamental mathematics and science behind today’s programs was already developed 60 or 70 years ago.
Each successive NASA program has built on earlier technologies while increasing capability, crew size and payload. When you look at the Space Launch System used for Artemis, for example, you can see elements inherited from both Saturn V and the Space Shuttle era.
Artemis also reflects a different kind of international collaboration: the Orion spacecraft combines an American crew capsule with a service module developed by the European Space Agency. It illustrates how space programs progressively refine and recombine earlier technologies.
The broader objective is to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon, potentially supporting later missions to Mars. At the same time, a new space economy and renewed « space race » competition – this time between the United States and China – are focusing attention on the lunar south polar region, where water ice may be available. That resource could be crucial for a lunar base and potentially for producing oxygen and hydrogen that may be used as rocket fuel for future Mars missions.
Another major challenge is improving launch efficiency. The physics of launching rockets remains unforgiving: with Saturn V, roughly 90% of the launch mass was propellant and another 5-6% was structure, leaving less than 5% for payload. Reducing that burden remains fundamental to the future of space exploration.
I think it is absolutely vital. The contribution MOONWATCH ONLY has made to the Speedmaster community is difficult to overstate.
One of the great challenges in collecting older watches is determining exactly what is technically correct. Unfortunately, parts are sometimes swapped or watches altered, whether through ignorance or less ethical motives.
An authoritative, detailed reference allows collectors to educate themselves and assess what is correct. That benefits not only the collector community but also the brand. Omega, in particular, places great importance on collectors being well informed, although not every brand takes the same approach.
So I have to congratulate your team. It is a remarkable body of work.
There are still some current models I need to add, as well as pieces such as the Mir 365.
I have a fairly large collection of modern Seiko dive watches. I like them and they are affordable, although I have slowed down because there are simply so many new releases.
I also collect TAG Heuer Monaco models with the Calibre 11, particularly because of the Steve McQueen connection, the history and the distinctive case design. I am much less drawn to the Calibre 12.
I also own a number of IWC Big Pilots – despite their size on my wrist – as well as Seamaster dive watches and Bond-related models.
I have a small collection of motorcycles and enjoy riding them. I have never spent serious money on a car, although I might like a good vintage car one day.
The practical problem is that, for the space and money a car requires, I could add several more Speedmasters – and watches are much easier to store and maintain.
I also love travelling. Through both business and watches, I have had the opportunity to meet fascinating people around the world. Omega has generously invited me to present at brand events. I was the main presenter at Speedy Tuesday in Hong Kong in January 2026, and more recently worked with the brand in Melbourne during the Australian Financial Review Watch Weekend, where events included astronaut Nicole Stott. I exhibited watches and presented ‘From Apollo to Artemis’ to four collector groups. I greatly enjoy sharing these stories with the community.
I also mentor young people, helping to inspire and guide them professionally.
Finally, I enjoy advising start-up founders on strategic vision and priorities.
I am continuing to work on exhibitions and presentations, and there are other projects that are still too early to discuss.
I am also exploring ways of using technology to bring together information about the Speedmaster and, more importantly, the wider history of the space program. Ultimately, what interests me most is the human story connecting the two.
Over the next few years, I hope to develop further structured contributions to the Speedmaster collector community.
Bhaskar Eswaran.
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