I’ve always been a watch guy, and the Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch has been on my radar for a while. You know, the one they call the “Moonwatch” because it was actually worn on the moon. Pretty cool, right? Anyway, I finally got my hands on one, and I gotta say, it’s a beauty. But the one I really wanted was the one with the open case back, where you can see all the little gears and stuff working inside. That’s the one I’m talking about today. It wasn’t easy to get one. I think they stopped making these with open back nearly twenty years ago.
So, first things first, I had to find one. I looked online, on all sorts of watch forums and marketplaces. I even found a thread where some guy was asking for help identifying his Speedmaster Professional. This thing is quite popular.
I spent days searching, reading reviews. One review I read even talked about the history of this watch on the Apollo 11 mission! After what felt like forever, I finally found a seller who had the exact model I wanted, in pretty good condition. The price was steep, but hey, it’s a piece of history!
Getting it open was a whole other story. I read somewhere that using the wrong tool could seriously mess up the watch. Some dude mentioned that a gouge on the case from a failed opening could ruin your whole watch experience. You see, this model has a special “hesalite” crystal, which is like a fancy type of plastic, I think. It’s supposed to be more authentic to the original Moonwatch, but it’s also easier to scratch. And the movement inside, you know, the thing that makes the watch tick, it’s all hand-wound, just like the original. Pretty neat!
I decided to go for it and bought a three-pronged opener, as many people recommended. Some other guys talked about using a full Bergeon, but I thought that would be too much. I carefully positioned the tool and with a bit of a twist, the back popped open. And there it was, the beautiful movement in all its glory.
- First, I cleaned it gently. I used a soft cloth and some special watch-cleaning solution. Didn’t want to risk damaging anything. I saw some people online debating about the links on the bracelet, whether they should be polished or matte. Mine has a mix of both, which I think looks pretty cool. It seems like the original ones were like this, too.
- Then, I wound it up. There’s something really satisfying about winding a mechanical watch. You can feel the little gears moving inside.
- Finally, I put the back on again. This was a bit tricky, but I managed to get it back in place without any scratches. I also read that preserving the status of being flight-certified by NASA is almost certainly the core reason behind the enduring design of this watch.
This whole process was quite the experience. It’s not just about having a nice watch, it’s about the history behind it, the craftsmanship, and the connection to something bigger. And that’s why I love this Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch with the open case back, a discontinued version from a long time ago. The design hasn’t changed much since the 60s. It’s beautiful and timeless. It’s definitely a keeper.
Oh, I also learned something interesting. It seems that the astronaut Buzz Aldrin was the one who actually made the Omega Speedmaster into the Moonwatch. But the one he wore in 1969 disappeared a few years later when he tried to send it to the Smithsonian. Nobody knows what happened to it.
Click to consult