"We'll See You On The Other Side"

I started the Omega journey with my first Seamaster. My interest then went from SM300 to Planet Ocean, with the 42mm and 45.5mm in 3-hander and chrono specs. It was also a time when I felt that it was cool having the pieces that James Bond was spotted with on the silver screen. I couldn't get enough of the Seamaster range.

The Seamaster was cool, and I loved diver watches as could be evident by the pieces that I collected; but placed next to my Submariner and Sea-Dweller, the Omega's felt a bit wanting. On this genre, I felt that Rolex had gotten the wrist experience spot-on.

Sure, the Planet Ocean also had the GMT functionality that I appreciated during my travels; but again, compared to the GMT-Master ii range, I felt that the Rolex wore better.

Then I found the history of Speedmaster, and it was goodbye to the Seamaster range. The only "Seamaster" that I still regularly wear these days was a Seiko SKX007J1 build that I have done as a homage, and it was next going to get a NH36 movement transplant. But that's a story for another day.

When it came to the Speedmaster, I would admit that I'm a convert. No other brand could beat Omega's historical claim to the space race. Sure, one could argue for the case of Seiko Pogue as an informal space watch; but nothing came close to the official moon watch that was officially chosen by NASA to accompany mankind in the exploration of space and moon, and beyond.

Like any other Speedmaster novice collector, between the classic and the racing pedigree, I went for the former. However, I had always had a soft spot for the racing marker indices that ran around the dial. Along the way, I have graduated from the classic piece to more collectible pieces such as the following :

When Baselworld 2017's Apollo 17 45th Anniversary "Last Man On The Moon" was launched, it was a simply spectacular piece. This was the first time that Omega encompassed many firsts in a single watch, which I had covered in other blog entries. And for once, the racing marker indices that I liked from the racing series had made its way into the classic moon watch series. Design-wise, it made the much-liked moon watch into an even likeable piece. I was blown away to an extent.

And when Baselworld 2018's Apollo 8 "Dark Side Of The Moon" was launched as a non-LE series, I was rather keen to get it too as it was the first time that the dial was laser-etched with the craters of the lunar surface. It proved to be quite a popular piece in the collector's community.

Knowing my collection towards the Speedmaster range, it was only a matter of time before my AD associate managed to get my very own piece to be ready for collection. They always try to get 2 pieces for me- 1 to wear, and 1 for the BNIB collection status. I've been fortunate to have access to such kindly AD associates.

So what do you think of the latest rendition of the moon watch? Let's take another look at Apollo 8's lunar surface dial as compared to Apollo 17's ceramic dial (with Sun God Ra looking on at the moon, no less) :

Personally, I would still prefer Apollo 17 "Last Man On The Moon". It was just a much more collectible and versatile piece, and that ceramic dial seemed to change colours depending on whether it was seen in the bright side or dark side (of the moon). Yup, this would still be the highlight of my moon watch collection for now.