2021
Omega Speedmaster Silver Snoopy Award 50th Anniversary
Initially released in 1957 as a race timing tool watch, the Omega Speedmaster is one of the most iconic modern chronograph timepieces ever made- not thanks to what it was made for but instead because of its historically important use in space and on the moon.
Three years before the Speedmaster’s eventual qualification for spaceflight, numerous brands submitted their best watches to NASA in 1962, including the eventual contract winners – Omega. Following a long list of gruelling tests, the Speedmaster was selected in 1965 to be NASA’s standard-issue space-faring timepiece and the rest, as they say, is history.
Omega has always had a relationship with space and also with the Snoopy character. While these Snoopy pieces have always been popular, with two iterations before the current example you see, not many know the historical context that underpins these iconic watches.
Just two days into the flight of the Apollo 13 mission in 1970, one of the onboard oxygen tanks exploded, forcing the entire crew into the lunar module. Following the explosion, the ship was thrown off course, and the mission was to be abandoned. This meant that a perfectly timed 14-second long engine burn was required to put the ship back into Earth’s orbit. Without their digital clocks, the crew relied on Jack Swigert’s Omega Speedmaster to time the burn, ultimately proving successful and resulting in Omega being awarded the Silver Snoopy Award for ensuring the mission was saved.
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