The MoonSwatch '1965' Celebrates 60 Years Of NASA And The Omega Speedmaster

If you’re a Speedmaster fan, you know the story. NASA sent out an RFP for an official watch of the space program – a watch that would undergo a litany of tests (pressure, temperature, corrosion resistance, shock, acceleration, and vibration to name more than a few) to prove that it could withstand the rigors of space exploration.

Three watches came in for testing: A Longines Wittnauer 235T, a Rolex Daytona Ref. 6238, and an Omega Speedmaster ST105.003 dating to 1964. As you know, the Speedmaster won the contract and on March 1, 1965, it became the aforementioned official watch of the space program. That designation has since been engraved on the caseback of every Moonwatch in production today.

This week, the Swatch Instagram account was buzzing with retro video content that would always end with a title card reading “1965.” Today, we know why. Celebrating 60 years since the flight qualification of the Speedmaster, and nearly 60 years from the moment Ed White took a Speedy for a 20-minute space excursion during Gemini IV, Omega and Swatch have announced a celebratory MoonSwatch that marries the past to the present.

The first thing you’re going to notice is the white dial, a detail that harkens back to Snoopy MoonSwatch, but more importantly, to the 2024 White Speedmaster that set the watch world on fire after DanielCraig wore it to Planet Omega in New York in 2023.

For all of you who wince at the sight of yet another MoonSwatch – and there are plenty of you – just know how much this watch has helped broaden the sheer idea of analog watches, watch design, and watch history. People are still lining up for these things, and when this watch, set to go on sale 60 years to the day from the flight qualification, on March 1, 2025…they will line up again.

The white dial certainly is eye-catching, but not necessarily vintage-evocative. If you look closer at the dial you will notice an applied Omega logo in black, done in the shape of the vintage logos you would have seen on an ST105.003. Then there is the same vintage Omega wordmark, which continues onto the strap (along with the vintage logo). This is the first time Omega has gone throwback for its branding on a MoonSwatch. Blancpain did for certain variations of the Scuba Fifty, and I am certainly a fan of it.

The case is a light, steely grey color, and the strap matches that effect with its light grey coloration. The dial itself has some hidden goodies. You will notice that the counters don’t quite make sense. There is a 13-hour counter at 10 o’clock, a 65-minute counter at two, and then the conventional 60-second counter at six. The significance is that the nine and three counters allow the year “1965” to be read across the dial, with the 60 referencing the 60th anniversary.

There are, of course, functional implications. As Swatch puts it, “The chronograph reading is a little different, as the counter first totals 65 minutes and only after the hours.”  The hands operate such that the 10 o’clock register and the two o’clock register make what the brand calls a “lap of honor” at the end of the 64th minute. The 10 o’clock counter rotates once and displays one hour more, and the two o’clock counter rotates once and displays the 5th minute. The brand explains that  “without restarting the 2 o’clock (minute) counter at zero, the time can be read normally by adding up the hours and minutes. This animation repeats every 65 minutes, with both hands performing the movement simultaneously.” It is slightly confusing, but also genuinely interesting to see this level of complexity in a quartz watch (I mean, they basically invented an Earthphase indicator for the last release). 

I had sort of figured this was coming when I saw the teaser, and while I had assumed it would take the whole vintage design motif even further, I find this old-meets-new approach to be both surprising and impressive. There is always a surprise with these watches, and here that lies with the lume. Each of the lead counter numerals: 19, 65, and 60, glow along with the hands and markers.

As noted, this new 1965 edition will be on sale in Swatch boutiques beginning on March 1. If you go to a Swatch boutique for the launch you will see a display briefcase containing Swatch-ified versions of the Wittnauer watch and a certain non-descript "X" chronograph. Pretty cool.

There is no online availability for the 1965, so the only way to get one is to wait … on line. This launch just might get me out of the house so maybe I will see you there!