The year is 1968. The Apollo 8 crew embarked on their mission to become the first human crew to circle the moon. One can only imagine the immense excitement, but also the nerves the crew likely felt. They would also be the first group of humans to see what was referred to as the ‘dark side of the moon’.

Of course, Omega has a deep connection with the NASA missions to space, being that the Speedmaster was the watch of choice for astronauts who worked for NASA. In 2013, Omega released their first Dark Side of the Moon watch. In 2018, Omega then released the Apollo 8 - a watch that aimed to celebrate the great feat that the Apollo 8 crew accomplished when they went on their mission.

To dive into the details of the watch, the watch has a full black ceramic cased watch that measures 44mm which to some collectors might seem large, but to other might be a good size. Of course the dark motif of the case shares similarities with the Dark Side of the Moon family of watches, but has a few key differences. Firstly, it has a semi-skeletonized dial that has an engraved illustration of the moons surface. One can also see the chronograph movement through the dial.

Of course when one can see the movement on the dial side, it is only natural to flip the watch over and look at the movement. The case-back is sapphire and displays the Omega Calibre 1861 manual wind chronograph movement. The movement bridges are also finished with the moon-surface like design and has a dark colour display that matches the overall colour of the watch. Typically with modern Dark Side of the Moon watches houses the caliber 9400 automatic movement but this time they opted for the 1861 movement. This harkens back to the original manual wind movement that was used in the original Speedmaster’s which does add an additional flair to the watch.

The dial also has some yellow accents which contrast nicely with the darker design of the watch. Lume hour markers and the chronograph hand are all yellow, giving it a nice ‘pop’ on the dial and make it extremely legible when you are using the chronograph. The watch comes on a black and grey NATO strap or a leather strap with yellow stitching which gives the watch some versatility. The leather strap would probably be the choice of most collectors, but NATO straps can be a ton of fun to wear.

The watch is great part of the Omega Speedmaster’s history. It pays tribute to a wonderful partnership Omega had an the accomplishments the watch was a part of.

Enjoy!