Phillips is thrilled to offer this extraordinary Omega Speedmaster, originally issued to NASA, and only the second reference 145.012 Speedmaster ever at public auction with a NASA serial number inscribed.
One of mankind’s most momentous achievements occurred on the historic day, July 20th, 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to step on to the surface of the moon. Since President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech on September 12th, 1962 and spoke the words “we choose to go to the Moon” the American space program had been tirelessly working to put astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade and beating their Russian counterparts.
As is well-known today, the history of NASA, the American space agency and the Swiss watch manufacturer Omega are closely intertwined, since it was an Omega Speedmaster chronograph that accompanied Armstrong and Aldrin on their extraordinary flight becoming “the first watch worn on the moon”.
The remarkable engravings on the caseback and central case band are only found on Speedmasters destined for one organization – NASA, making it amongst the rarest and most coveted of all vintage Speedmasters. Furthermore, it is only 6 numbers away from a similar reference 145.012-68 worn by Michael Collins (1930 – 2021) during the storied Apollo 11 mission.
NASA began testing wristwatches for the Gemini space program in 1964 and on June 1st, 1965 the 39mm diameter Omega Speedmaster reference 105.003 with straight lugs received official qualification, and then later the 42mm diameter reference 145.012 with lyre lugs. Each NASA-issued Speedmaster was engraved with a Part Number (P/N) on the case back and a Serial Number (S/N) on the central case band, the present watch engraved “S/N 92”.
The Part Number had specific designation with “S” the first letter for NASA, the second letter is the type of documentation or engineering drawings on record, with “E” for assembly drawing. Other examples are: “L”= Source control (e.g., manufacture's specification) or “K”= drawings in book form. The third letter initially stood for the supplying division, “B” = Crew Systems or “D” = Space Physics, however, following the Apollo programs, this letter came to stand for the mission program “B”=Apollo, “C”= Skylab, “F”= ASTP, “D “= Space Shuttle, “Z”= multiprogram. The caseback of the present lot is engraved SEB12100039-002, designating it as a NASA Speedmaster with engineering drawings on record supplied by its Crew Systems division.
While the present watch was not flown on a space mission, it was used for exercises for the Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle missions prior to being sold as surplus. The watch is accompanied by two Omega extracts, one signed by James H. Ragan, who was a NASA Program Manager and an aerospace engineer. The extract confirms the watch was delivered to NASA via Norman Morris, Omega’s US distributor at the time.
Amongst the most important “issued” Speedmasters to appear at auction in recent memory, the present watch is further enhanced by its outstanding state of preservation – making it a true trophy watch for the collector.