Everything You Need to Know About the Omega Speedmaster

The world was a very different place in 1957. Flush with post-War affluence and influence, the United States vied with Russia for dominance in the Space Race. The scientific community celebrated global collaboration via the International Geophysical Year. The slow but steady transition to knowledge work saw many take up jobs in the big cities—flush with cash and time, they enjoyed a newfound sense of leisure. 

Omega, established in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1848, was already an important name in horological circles by the mid-20th century. Having produced numerous excellent sport timers, pocket watches, and early automatic movements, it turned its sights on a suite of three tool watches that would subsequently enter into legend: the Seamaster dive watch, the Railmaster field watch, and the Speedmaster chronograph. Made for SCUBA divers—a fairly new recreational sport in the mid-1950s—the Seamaster would become a staple in the category. The Railmaster, with its antimagnetic design, would prove somewhat less popular, perhaps due to its idiosyncratic and highly specific use case. The Speedmaster, however—a watch made “for men who reckon time in seconds”—would quite literally exit Earth’s orbit and return home a hero.

Although much has been said about the Speedmaster’s origins as a racing watch—perhaps given the name—the model’s unique feature was what the brand referred to early on as the “tacho-productometer” (T.P.M.) bezel. This scale, called more simply a “tachymeter” today, had long featured on watch dials in order to compute speed or distance. In moving it to the bezel and freeing up dial real estate for a triple-register chronograph, Omega had brilliantly designed a sort of early mechanical wrist-computer. And beyond calculating, say, the distance to an enemy artillery position or the speed of a race car, the “tacho-productometer” bezel could also be used to compute the frequency of an event in units per hour (aka production). It’s thus no wonder that early Speedmaster advertising touted the watch as well suited to “scientists, engineers, T.V. and movie directors, athletes, and their coaches.” Here, finally, was a true tool, in a water-resistant, stainless steel case, meant for the working professional.

In 1964, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) put forth a tender calling for a wristwatch that could be used during both training and spaceflight. Four out of 10 companies responded to the call, including Rolex, Longines-Wittnauer, Hamilton, and Omega. It was the latter’s Speedmaster ref. 105.003 that beat NASA’s battery of torture tests, including exposure to searing and freezing temperatures, extreme shocks, low and high pressure, and more. Acceptance by the American space program and subsequent use during the Moon landing in 1969 ensured the watch’s place in history—to this day, the “Speedy” is still the only flight-qualified watch for EVA (“Extravehicular Activity”) some 60-plus years after its initial approval.

Delineating each and every Speedmaster reference would be a fruitless errand — tiny nuances during early production years mean that there are quite literally countless inscrutable variants within single reference numbers. However, this guide should serve as a handy reference to some of the most notable Speedmaster from each decade of production, much as our guides to the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and the Vacheron Constantin Overseas do the same. 

From the very first straight-lug cased Speedy in 1957 to the modern white-dial iteration, this incredible chronograph has shaped the horological landscape unlike perhaps any other model from any other brand. What began life as a scientist’s or athlete’s tool is today a global phenomenon, with the #speedytuesday hashtag disseminating the legend of this simple, hand-wound chronograph to all and sundry. Despite its evolution from humble piece of equipment to luxury product—with price tag to boot—the Speedmaster continues to capture the imagination of not only the watch-buying public, but also the larger population.