To mark the 50 years since the Speedmaster’s first space flight on the 1962 Sigma 7 mission, OMEGA came out in 2012 with an original model in the same style as the historic watch.
It was produced in a numbered but unlimited series.
In 1962, the Mercury astronaut Walter “Wally” Schirra wore his personal Speedmaster reference CK 2998 for his mission, as there was no official watch qualified as NASA equipment at that time. It is characterized by a symmetrical caseband, straight lugs, Alpha hands and a straight chronograph seconds hand.
These features were retained for the 2012 model although slightly adapted to give this evocative watch a modern touch.
OMEGA decided in particular to fit the modern version with a sapphire-crystal glass instead of the original’s hesalite glass. The small hands for the hours and minutes counters are different from the running seconds hand, which wasn’t the case in the original model. The text on the dial and the Ω logo are of the current typography and the caseback is specific.
It was the first time since the 1960s that a Speedmaster Moonwatch was made with the straight lugs and symmetrical caseband of the pre-Professional models.