The NASA tests: The story of how the OMEGA Speedmaster became the Moonwatch – the only wristwatch approved by NASA for all manned space flights – has been re-told often enough that it is sometimes difficult to determine where the history ends and where the myth begins.

April 6th 2009

The true story, without embellishment, is so remarkable that it’s worth a trip back to the 1960s to re-examine how the Speedmaster came to be considered in the first place, the nature of the strenuous tests to which it and four other chronographs were subjected and finally, how it was chosen over its competitors to accompany every manned space flight since the launch of the Gordon Cooper’s Faith 7 mission as part of the Mercury program on May 15th, 1963.

Chosen to compete
It all began in the early 1960s when two NASA officials anonymously visited several Houston jewellery stores, including Corrigan’s, which at the time was the city’s best-known watch and jewellery retailer.

The men from NASA bought a series of chronographs of different brands, charged with the task of finding the best watch available for their astronauts to wear in space.

The solo-flight Mercury space programme was almost completed (in fact, Wally Schirra had worn his own Speedmaster on his Mercury flight on the 3rd of October, 1962) and NASA was preparing for the Gemini (two-man) and Apollo (three-man) missions. There were plans for the astronauts on these missions to move about in space outside the ship. One of their key pieces of equipment would be a wristwatch which could withstand the difficult conditions of space.

Every time an astronaut suspended in the vacuum of space turned his wrist, the watch would suddenly come out of the shade and be exposed to the unfiltered rays of the sun and temperature increases of more than 100°C. On the moon, President Kennedy’s and NASA’s declared objective, things would be even tougher. Temperatures on the lunar surface fluctuate between -160° and +120°C.

A series of strenuous tests was devised to determine which watch was best suited to the extreme challenges of space.

NASA ordered two Speedmasters and two each of five other chronographs for “testing and evaluation purposes” on September 29, 1964 at a price of $82.50 each at the exchange rate of the day – they retailed for CHF 415 in Switzerland. NASA stipulated that it required the watches by October 21, 1964.

The Qualification Test Procedures
When NASA received the watches, they were subjected to a series of stringent tests and pre-selection processes called the “Qualification Test Procedures”. They can be summarized briefly:

A. The watches will be wound immediately prior to each testing phase.
B. The stopwatch (chronograph) feature should be operated during each test and during periods between tests. The stopwatch operation should be recycled immediately before and after each test and, when delays occur, at two- to six-hour intervals between tests.
C. Time accuracy checks should be made before and after each test, at one-hour intervals during testing (when possible) and at two- to six-hour intervals between tests, if testing delays occur. At the start of each time-check period the chronograph should be started and the following data recorded for the start time:

• Watch identification
• Master time (hours, minutes, seconds)
• Test watch time (hours, minutes, seconds)

When accuracy checks are made during a testing period, the chronograph time measurement should not be stopped, but the following should be recorded:

• Watch identification
• Master time (hours, minutes, seconds)
• Test watch time (hours, minutes, seconds)
• Elapsed stop-watch time (hours, minutes, seconds)

D. In conjunction with each time check, the watches should be inspected for damage to the case, crystal, dial, strap and buttons, and for the presence of moisture underneath the crystal. Any irregularities in the watch’s condition should be noted.

E. A watch should be withdrawn from further testing if the following failures occur:

• Complete watch operation failure with no restart capability
• Complete stopwatch operation failure with no re-start capability
• Two watch operation failures of any type even though re-start capability exists
• Cracked or broken crystal
• Broken winding stem or stopwatch controls.

And then there were three
Only three watches out of six chronographs successfully survived this arduous pre-selection phase. The finalists were then subjected to 11 different tests – the most rigorous trials endured in the history of horology.


The most rigorous trials

1. High temperature
48 hours at a temperature of 160°F (71°C) followed by 30 minutes at 200°F (93°C). This under a pressure of 5.5 psia (0.35 atm) and relative humidity not exceeding 15%.
2. Low temperature
Four hours at a temperature of 0°F (-18°C).
3. Temperature-Pressure
Chamber pressure maximum of 1.47 x 10-5 psia (10-6 atm) with temperature raised to 160°F (71°C). The temperature shall then be lowered to 0°F (-18°C) in 45 minutes and raised again to 160°F in 45 minutes. Fifteen more such cycles shall be completed.
4. Relative humidity
A total time of 240 hours at temperatures varying between 68°F and 160°F (20°C and 71°C) in a relative humidity of at least 95%. The steam used must have a pH value between 6.5 and 7.5.
5. Oxygen atmosphere
The test item shall be placed in an atmosphere of 100% oxygen at a pressure of 5.5 psia (0.35 atm) for 48 hours. Performance outside of specification, tolerance, visible burning, creation of toxic gases, obnoxious odours, or deterioration of seals or lubricants shall constitute failure to pass this test. The ambient temperature shall be maintained at 160°F (71°C).
6. Shock
Six shocks of 40 Gs, each 11 milliseconds in duration, in six different directions.
7. Acceleration
The equipment shall be accelerated linearly from 1 G to 7.25 Gs within 333 seconds, along an axis parallel to the longitudinal spacecraft axis.
8. Decompression
Ninety minutes in a vacuum of 1.47 x 10-5 (10-6 atm) at a temperature of 160°F (71°C) and 30 minutes at 200°F (93°C).
9. High pressure
The equipment to be subjected to a pressure of 23.5 psia (1.6 atm) for a minimum period of one hour.
10. Vibration
Three cycles of 30 minutes (lateral, horizontal, vertical), the frequency of varying from 5 to 2,000 cps and back to 5 cps in 15 minutes. Average acceleration per impulse must be at least 8.8 Gs.
11. Acoustic noise
130 db over a frequency range of 40 to 10,000 Hz, duration 30 minutes.

The results
On March 1, 1965, the test results were complete. Three brands’ chronographs had still been in the running. Of those, one brand’s entry had stumbled on two separate occasions in the relative humidity test. In the course of the heat-resistance test it finally came to rest for good. The large seconds hand warped and was binding against the other hands.

The crystal of the second brand’s chronograph had warped and come away from the case during the heat test. The same unfortunate occurrence took place with a second model of the same make during the decompression test.

Only the OMEGA Speedmaster passed. At the time, NASA’s testers wrote, “Operational and environmental tests of the three selected chronographs have been completed; and, as a result of the test, OMEGA chronographs have been calibrated and issued to three members of the GT-3 (Gemini Titan III) crews.”

What sounds like a reserved, sober announcement was, in fact, the official decree that from that time forward, the OMEGA Speedmaster would be the only watch approved for all manned space flights and would be become an inextricable part of the OMEGA legacy. As significant was a NASA communiqué dated March 1st, 1965 which said, “. . . the astronauts show a unanimous preference for the Omega chronograph over the other two brands because of better accuracy, reliability, readability and ease of operation.”

An ironic postscript: OMEGA only learned about the Speedmaster’s journey into space after seeing a photograph of Ed White taken during America’s first spacewalk as part of the Gemini 4 mission in June of 1965. 

Source: NASA documentation and correspondence, 1961 — 1965. 

Omega Speedmaster Professional Facts & Figures

June 27th 2007

• The first Omega Speedmaster was produced in 1957. The dial aesthetics were inspired by the dashboards of Italian cars of the time, with contrasting black and white for high legibility. The watch used the Omega 321 mechanical movement, also known as the Lémania. The name “Speedmaster” came from the tachymeter, which appeared on the bezel for the first time on any watch in the world.

• The first Omega Speedmaster to reach space came off the production line on 15 November 1961. Walter Schirra, an American astronaut of Swiss origins who had purchased the watch for his own use, wore it on 3 October 1962 during the “Sigma 7” mission of the Mercury programme. Schirra completed six earth orbits.

• In the early 1960s NASA began a search for a “space proof” wrist-chronograph with the purchase at the Houston retailer Corrigan’s of around ten chronograph models from different watchmakers – without the knowledge of the brands concerned. By 1964, several chronographs had been eliminated and NASA asked each of the six brands remaining to provide a dozen watches for a last series of eleven extremely demanding tests. Tests included exposure to extreme temperatures, vacuum, intense humidity, corrosion, shock, acceleration, pressure, vibration and noise.

• The Omega Speedmaster was the only watch to survive all of NASA’s tests, and on 1 March 1965 it was declared “Flight qualified by NASA for all Manned Space Missions” and given to Virgil “Gus” Grissom and John Young, the crew of Gemini 3, the first manned Gemini mission.

• The date 23 March 1965 marked the inaugural flight of the Omega Speedmaster Professional as NASA’s official chronograph, on the Gemini 3 mission, and on 3 June 1965 during Gemini 4 Edward White wore his Omega Speedmaster Professional during the first American “spacewalk” (also known as Extra-Vehicular Activity).

• The term “Professional” was added to the Speedmaster dial in 1965 as a reference to the professionals of NASA, for whom the Speedmaster had become the watch of choice.

• In 1968 the Calibre 321 is replaced by the high-oscillation Calibre 861 movement, still the only significant change to the Speedmaster since it was first produced. The Calibre 861, later renamed 1861, is still in use today.

• On 19 April 1968, after travelling 44 days and 1320 kilometres across the polar cap, four men calculate their position with a sextant and a Speedmaster; they are at 90° latitude North, the exact geographic North Pole. The expedition was led by the American Ralph S Plaisted and was the first confirmed trek to the Geographic North Pole (7 March to 19 April: 43 days, 2 hours, 30 minutes).

• During Plaisted’s expedition, the crew’s Speedmasters were checked daily by radio. They did not vary more than one second per day. One crew member said: “I could not have wished for a watch more accurate than my Omega Speedmaster. The temperature varied from -52°C to -26°C in our base kitchen. As you know, navigation is impossible without a precise chronometer, especially when it is only based on a watch and a sextant!”

• Buzz Aldrin becomes the first astronaut to walk on the moon wearing an Omega Speedmaster Professional, on 21 July 1969. Neil Armstrong had left his Speedmaster in the Lunar Module (LM) as a backup for the onboard timekeeping system which had failed.

• The Omega Speedmaster Professional models which have been to the moon are the 105.003, the 105.012 and the 145.012. All of these watches were equipped with the Omega calibre 321 movement, and all were produced prior to 1968.

• At various times during NASA’s manned space flight programmes, certain Omega competitors sought to have their chronographs flight-qualified by NASA. Each time the Omega Speedmaster Professional prevailed, and NASA repeatedly confirmed its choice of the Omega Speedmaster Professional for all manned space missions. First certified by NASA in 1965, it was re-certified in 1972 and again in 1978, for the Space Shuttle missions.

• “Houston, we have a problem.” During the April 1970 Apollo 13 mission, an explosion damaged the main power supply, requiring astronauts to shut down all electrical instruments with the exception of the radio, to conserve energy for the manoeuvres necessary to return their capsule to earth. Precision was the key element in timing the secondary rocket burns to correct their trajectory, and the crew relied on their Omega Speedmaster Professionals to start and stop the 14-second burns, allowing them to direct the crippled spacecraft back to earth. In recognition of the critical role played by the Omega Speedmaster Professional in saving the lives of the Apollo 13 crew, NASA awarded Omega the coveted Snoopy Award.

• The first automatic Speedmaster was released in 1971. The advertisement at the time: “After six landings on the moon there was only one thing we could teach the Speedmaster. To wind itself.”

• The last man to walk on the moon was Captain Eugene Cernan, during the Apollo XVII mission from 7 to 19 December 1972. His Omega Speedmaster Professional was produced on 6 December 1965. He had previously worn this calibre 321 Speedmaster during the Gemini 9 (June 3-6, 1966) mission, in which he became the first “space walker” to make a complete orbit around the earth, and during the Apollo 10 mission (May 18-26, 1969). Cernan took his Speedmaster along for the last moonwalk on 14 December 1972.

• In 1973 the Omega Speedmaster 125 was released, the first officially certified automatic chronometer produced in series in the world, for Omega’s 125th anniversary.

• After the last moon landing the American space programme continued with the Skylab missions (1973/74). The Skylab SL-4 mission that took off on 16 November 1973 suffered a failure of the clock equipping its cartographic camera. NASA asked Omega to research, develop and deliver a solution – in less than two weeks. Omega’s R&D department performed as requested and a special electronic (tuning fork) chronometer in the precise dimensions required was delivered to space lab astronauts and fitted in the camera at the end of November.

• When the Apollo astronauts Tom Stafford, Donald Slayton and Vance Brand joined their Soyuz counterparts Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov for the famous Apollo-Soyuz Test Project space rendezvous on 17 July 1975 the members of both crews were wearing Omega Speedmaster Professionals. The Russians, in fact, were wearing one on each wrist: one for GMT time, the other for Houston or Baikonur time. Since 1975 the Speedmaster has always been the watch chosen for use in outer space by Russian space agency NPO Energia and is in use today on the International Space Station (formerly MIR).

• 1988 saw the release of the Speedmaster Automatic “Reduced”, featuring slightly smaller dimensions than the original (the diameter was reduced from 42 to 39mm).

• Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner, the first to have climbed all fourteen “eight-thousanders” (peaks over 8,000 metres above sea level) and the first to have climbed Everest solo without supplemental oxygen, wore a Speedmaster on his 1989 expedition to the Geographic South Pole, crossing Antarctica on skis.

• The first Omega Speedmaster Professional “MIR” edition was produced in 1990/91 in a special edition limited to ten numbered models in steel. Each watch orbited the earth 1,600 times during its 90-day stay on board the Russian space station MIR (December 1990 to March 1991). A second special edition limited to 35 numbered watches orbited the earth for 365 days (July 1993 – July 1994) on board the Russian MIR space station. This watch was launched for the Russian-American Atlantis-MIR space rendezvous of 29 June – 3 July 1995.

•  In 1991, Omega released the Speedmaster Automatic “Reduced – Date”, featuring calibre 1155 with registers positioned at 6, 9 and 12 o’clock.

• The Omega Speedmaster Automatic Day-Date, fitted with calibre 1150 and equipped with date, day of the week, month and 24-hour displays, was launched in 1993.

• In 1998 Omega launched the Omega Speedmaster X-33, developed in collaboration with NASA astronauts. Designed to be operated with gloves, it is equipped with a very loud (80-decibel) alarm, a long-running chronograph “MT – Mission Elapsed Time” function and, since astronauts also asked for the figures and legends of the digital display to be larger and with more contrast, a powerfully lit dial. The Omega X-33 fulfils all the specifications established in over five years of tests with American and European astronauts. Flight qualified for the next 100 missions of NASA’s Shuttle, the X-33 watches have been worn onboard the American Space Shuttle since the launch of STS-90 and the Russian MIR Station.

• The Omega Speedmaster Automatic Rattrapante Chronometer, a COSC-certified calibre 3600 with circular graining and Geneva stripes, was released in 1999.

• The Omega Speedmaster Automatic “Reduced Ladies”, the first lady’s model featuring a bezel set with 49 brilliant-cut diamonds, appeared in 2000.

•  In 2001 the Omega Speedmaster Automatic Chronometer “Broad Arrow” was launched—an enhanced version of the 1998 Replica 150th anniversary model.

• In 2005, Omega released a tribute to Michael Schumacher, a stainless steel Omega Speedmaster Automatic Chronometer conceived as the first of the “Michael Schumacher ‘The Legend’ Collection”.

• 2006 saw the launch of the Omega Speedmaster Chronometer “Broad Arrow Co-Axial Rattrapante”, an unlimited version of the “Torino 2006” limited edition.

• Since the first Omega Speedmaster was produced in 1957, Omega has manufactured approximately 1.8 million Speedmasters equipped with a range of automatic, diapason, quartz and manual winding movements. This estimate includes some 330,000 “Moon Watch” Omega Speedmaster Professional chronographs.

• Some 250 variations of the Speedmaster have been produced from its creation in 1957 to date (2007), with a large variety of movements: hand-wound, automatic, tuning fork, moon phase, perpetual calendar, split-seconds, with a crystal caseback, gem set, in gold, in titanium, with a skeleton movement, numerical quartz and hybrid multifunction quartz (the Omega Speedmaster Professional X-33 of 1998, also called the “Mars Watch”)

• On 15 April 2007, 300 lots of Omega watches were auctioned by Antiquorum. Two original Speedmasters were sold for 30 times more than the current retail price, and a rare “Speedmaster Missions Collection” comprising 22 Omega Speedmaster Professionals and a replica of the first Omega Speedmaster ever made, sold for CHF368,900 (€227,716; $312,627). Produced in a limited edition of only 40 sets, the Speedmaster Missions Collection watches feature the logos of NASA’s most famous space missions (eight Gemini missions from 1965 to 1966, eleven Apollo missions from 1968 to 1972, and three Skylab missions from 1973 to 1974).

• Forty-two years after landing on the moon, the Speedmaster will take to the skies again on board a plane with a wingspan wider than an Airbus 380 yet less than 0.4 per cent of the weight. Omega is one of three main sponsors of Solar Impulse, the audacious plan led by Swiss aviator Bertrand Piccard to develop, build and fly an exclusively solar-powered airplane around the world. The plane will embark on test flights in 2009 before ultimately attempting to circumnavigate the earth in 2011 using only the power of the sun. Omega has contributed key technology and expertise to the project and the crew will wear Omega Speedmasters during all flights.