Omega Speedmaster Watch Goes to the Moon

There is a lot of puffery and utterly subjective rhetoric when it comes to ranking or grading luxury watches. And quite often the language used is so "inside baseball" that it is almost impossible to understand whether someone is praising a particular watch or just practicing his French.

That is why the true story or how the Omega Speedmaster became the NASA space and moon watch is not just more credible but much more compelling that the usual ad copy. The Speedmaster has been on every manned space mission since The Faith Seven mission, captained by Gordon Cooper on May 15th, 1963. In the early nineteen-sixties several NASA employees anonymously visited a few jewelry stores in Houston, Texas. They purchased several chronographs made by competing watchmakers and set upon the mini-mission of determining the best timepiece for their astronauts to take into the harshness of outer space. By the way, Wally Schirra had already worn his own Omega Speedmaster on his Mercury flight in October of 1962.

Finding a watch that would work well in space was no small task. With the simple twist of his arm, an Astronaut's timepiece would be exposed to the unfiltered sunrays and temperatures of over 100?C. And on the surface of the moon itself, conditions would be even harsher with temps from 160? below zero to +120?c above. Ouch!

NASA ordered two Omegas and two of five other watches to be tested and evaluated. The watches cost a little over eight bucks. (Not a bad deal). There was a huge battery of difficult tests that all the timepieces were subjected to, but among the toughest were: Forty-eight hours at temperatures ranging from 160?F to 200?F. Exposure to temperatures as low 0? Fahrenheit. Extreme changes is pressure and humidity. Exposure to one hundred percent oxygen. Exposure to six 40 G shocks. Extreme acceleration from about one to over seven G's in just over five minutes.

Severe decompression. Severe vibration. Exposure to noises ranging in frequency from 40 to 10, 000 Hz. After all this, Omega was the only watch to get a passing grade on the admittedly extreme NASA curve. Thus the OMEGA Speedmaster became the only timepiece that NASA would approve for all manned space missions. It was officially cited for its readability, reliability, ease of use and accuracy. Today's Speedmaster Professional is made of stainless steel, with a stainless steel bracelet, "hesalite crystal" and black dial. It has caliber 1861 manual-winding movement and is waterproof to one hundred feet.

For more information on Omega Watches, especially the Speedmaster, and other luxury watches, visit www.watchesonnet.com

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com