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In fact, the Omega watches were supplied to all three astronauts on that Apollo 11 mission – and that wasn’t even their first journey into the wild world beyond Earth’s atmosphere. They made their debut, in fact, as early as 1965, when they accompanied astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom and John Young during the Gemini 3 mission, the first time a pair of American astronauts had been to space. Later the same year, Ed White wore one on the Gemini 4 mission, and had it on his wrist when he became the first American to embark on a spacewalk.

Nasa selected the watch for the space programme after subjecting it to a fierce battery of stringent tests. The space agency had asked numerous watchmakers around the world to provide samples of watches that could withstand the vagaries of space and retain their reliability under the most testing conditions imaginable – the Omega Speedmaster Professional won out among them for its unique combination of ruggedness and readability.

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Now, for 2024, the Moonwatch has been updated with a model that flaunts precisely the opposite colour scheme: a lacquered white dial. Inspired by the colour of spacesuits, especially those used during spacewalks, that dial and the watch’s black hands and indices might reverse the collection’s usual combination of white hands and indices with a black dial, but the result is equally legible, a quality that the Speedmaster has prioritised since the outset. The black and white combination allows the only other colour on the dial to pop dramatically: the red used to spell out the Speedmaster name. The watch also breaks with the usual Moonwatch codes with its glossy lacquered finish, the first time the model has flaunted one. It’s all housed in a 42mm stainless steel case.

This isn’t entirely the first space-going Omega watch with a white dial, though – albeit the watch to carry that distinction was just a prototype. Known as Alaska 1, it was developed in 1969 as part of a secret programme with Nasa that aimed to create the perfect space watch. The white dial was chosen because of its impressive thermal reflection coefficient – a measure of how much heat it reflects. The Alaska 1 came in a red case, hence the red of the Speedmaster name on the new watch – red lines also appear on American astronauts’ spacesuits to denote rank.

The Speedmasters that made their way to the moon were powered by the classic Calibre 321, and the “Lacquered White Dial” Moonwatch is powered by its descendant: the Co-Axial Master Chronometer Calibre 3861. There’s also a nod to the past in the watch’s vintage-inspired stainless steel bracelet with five arched links per row. There are also two other strap options: a black micro-perforated leather strap with red and white stitching, and an antibacterial rubber strap with a moon surface pattern on the underside.

The buzz around the “lacquered white dial” Moonwatch started after it was first seen at the “Planet Omega” exhibition in New York in November 2023, worn by brand ambassador Daniel Craig. Now, with the release of the timepiece, the latest chapter in Omega’s journey into the cosmos is complete.