Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4283 in Watches
• Brand: Omega
• Model: 3570.50
• Band material: stainless-steel
• Bezel material: stainless-steel
• Case material: stainless-steel
• Clasp type: fold-over-push-button-clasp-with-safety
• Dial color: black
• Dial window material: hesalite
• Movement type: mechanical-hand-wind
• Water-resistant to 167 feet

Features

• Omega 1861 Caliber Swiss mechanical-hand-wind chronograph used on the Moon; 48-Hour Power Reserve
• Functions without a battery; must hand wind crown to power watch
• Hesalite crystal; Luminescent hands and hour markers
• Stainless-steel case; Black dial; Chronograph functions; Tachymeter function
• Water-resistant to 50 M (167 feet)

Amazon.com Product Description
Add a true classic to your timepiece collection with the latest generation of the amazingly precise and rugged Omega Speedmaster. This stainless steel manual winding men's watch is a replica of the first watch worn on the moon, and it's engraved on the back with the Omega Speedmaster emblem and notation of its flight qualification for all NASA manned space missions. It includes a powerful chronograph, which offers 12-hour, 30 minute and 1/10 second subdials. Distinctively masculine in design, it features a large, round silver stainless steel watch case with a tachymeter bezel in black with silver markings, and it measures 39.8mm wide.

The Omega Story
The Omega watch story begins in 1848, when founder Louis Brandt began hand assembling key-wound precision pocket watches from parts supplied by local craftsmen in his principality La Chaux-de-Fonds, in the northwest corner of Switzerland. However, the Omega name didn't appear until 1894, after Louis Brandt had passed away and his watchmaking traditions were taken over by his sons, Louis-Paul and Cesar Brandt. Omega watches have long been associated with glamorous screen and sports stars--the Omega Seamaster is famous for being the watch of choice for James Bond--with current ambassadors including Pierce Brosnan, Nicole Kidman, tennis player Anna Kournikova, and swimmers Michael Phelps and Ian Thorpe.

But Omega is more than just a fashionable watch. In 1965, the Omega Speedmaster chronograph was "flight-qualified by NASA for all manned space missions" as the only wristwatch to have withstood all of the U.S. space agency's severe tests, including passing grades for extreme shocks, vibrations, and temperatures ranging from -18 to +93 degrees Celsius. The greatest moment in the Speedmaster's history was undoubtedly 20 July 1969 at 02:56 GMT, when it recorded man's first steps on the Moon's surface as part of the Apollo 11 mission. Omega watches rocketed off to space on many subsequent missions, including visits to Skylab and the historic Apollo-Soyuz link-up of Soviet and American astronauts in 1975.

In more recent years, Omega created the world's first self-winding wristwatch with central tourbillon in 1994 and made history in 1999 with the first mass-produced watch incorporating the co-axial escapement, developed in conjunction with renowned English master watchmaker George Daniels. In simple terms, the escapement is the heart of a mechanical watch, generating the impulses that make the mechanism move. Omega's Co-Axial Escapement drastically reduces the friction among the parts that transmit energy to the other components, producing greater stability and precision and reducing service requirements.

Today, Omega is known for its rigorous testing of new movements, cases, and bands. Each new Omega movement is tested on the wrist in existing Omega models, while various laboratory tests are conducted to determine temperature-resistance, shock-resistance and vibration-resistance.

Customer Reviews

30 Year Review
After much research, I purchased an Omega Speedmaster in 1968 as an 18th birthday present to myself. There were not many chronographs available at that time (Rolex, Breitling, Omega and probably others I no longer remember). To my surprise, that summer (or next), Omega began agressive advertising that it's watch was the official timepiece of the Apollo Astronauts. It reaffirmed my choice. Thirty years later, it is still the best watch I own (including my Submariner). My only complaint is that I have gone through three or four bracelets/straps. Ironically, a new metal bracelet costs more than the original cost of my Speedmaster ($185). Interestingly, no Rolex owner has ever commented on my Submariner, but fellow Speedmaster owners always start up a conversation with each other. I cannot comment on the new Speedmasters, but mine has been dropped, thrown, drowned, frozen, heated, shaken and abused for 30 years and still runs great. I recommend factory cleaning, vacuum sealing and a new crystal every 10 years or so, just to be safe.

The best watch for years and years
I've owned this watch for over 2 years now and have worn it every single day since the day I bought it. I intend to keep it for years (probably for the rest of my life) as it remains the most swanky and stylish (elegant yet functional) watch I've ever owned (and I've owned and sold quite a few).

The Speedmaster has all the appeal and extreme accruracy of a Rolex, yet none of the gaudiness-it's understated, cool but not too cool. Looking at it evokes a sense of faith in exploration and the adrenaline rush of speed and the force of Gs or zero gravity. With it's black dial and white hands, and brushed silver bracelet and casing, the Speedmaster is one of the best executed designs to come out of the last 100 years and certainly one of the most classic timepieces ever.

There are other models that offer things since as a day/date, or a slightly smaller size, or a glass crystal instead of the sturdy Hesalite plastic one, but these are not the original "Moon Watch" and are not worth buying. If you are going to go Speedmaster, get the original. Technically this is a men's watch, but I've seen it worn by a woman with great success (the actor Daniel Day-Lewis's wife wears one).

It's Swiss made and Nasa spacewalk certified. This very watch model was worn on the Moon (on the outside of the space suit!) by Neil Armstrong in the Apollo missions back in the late 1960s. The build quality and styling has not changed much since then (it hasn't needed to). This is a manual watch, which means you have to wind it up. I like that, it becomes part of your daily routine like sleeping and eating. The back is engraved with a cool logo and a Nasa approval insignia. When your mate picks it up off the nightstand in the morning and reads what it says on the back, she will probably ask you about it.

This is the stuff of legends, and it's a pretty good watch too.

A real classic
This watch is a true classic. I've owned mine for over 30 years, I've worn it almost everyday and it still works like the day I got it. Yes, it's been in for repair a few times (after awhile the buttons stick), but this watch will outlast me.

It keeps perfect time, or as close as a mechanical watch can get, it's extremely easy to read and the chronograph funtions work better than any other chronograph I own. I charge by the hour, and this watch has been very handy for me, especially given the fact that it will time things up to 12 hours, a movement that's very hard to find or very expensive.

It's only downfall is the fact that you have to wind it. Forget to do this and you'll be late for everything, but you soon get used to it.

Omega's "Moon Watch" looks as good in the boardroom as it does on the tennis court, and it's a hell of a deal for a great timepiece.