After celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission last year, Omega pays tribute to another important event in space history at this year's BaselWorld fair. The brand commemorates the 35th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project with a limited edition Speedmaster model.
According to Jean-Claude Monachon, the brand's vice-president and head of product development, Omega's involvement in significant events is one of the reasons why consumers are drawn to the brand. 'Events such as the Olympics and the moon landing are part of our identity as human beings, and when a brand is intricately involved with these momentous events, the consumer's recognition and appreciation of the brand grows,' he says.
The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission marked the first joint flight between the United States and Soviet Union. On July 17, 1975, US astronaut Lieutenant General Thomas P. Stafford shook hands with USSR cosmonaut Lieutenant General Alexei A. Leonov on the docking hatch which linked the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft together in space. Both wore an Omega Speedmaster Professional chronograph on this historic mission.
Limited to 1975 pieces, the Omega Speedmaster Professional Apollo-Soyuz '35th Anniversary' chronograph houses the Omega Calibre 1861, the same movement used in the famous 'Moon Watch' introduced in 1957.
Each dial consists of a single piece of material cut from a meteorite that landed on earth. The silver hue of the small seconds dial and chronograph counters is the meteorite's natural colour, while the rest of the dial is black from surface oxidisation. Other Omega highlights this year include the Skeleton Tourbillon and the Aqua Terra XXL Small Seconds. Omega remains the only watchmaker to have created an automatic central tourbillon, and the Omega Skeleton Tourbillon Co-Axial Platinum Limited Edition model showcases the extraordinary Co-Axial calibre 2636 through a skeleton dial.
Given the location of the tourbillon, the watch's hands are not mounted on a central shaft. Instead, time is shown by red gold hour and minute hands metalised on rotating sapphire crystal discs. The seconds hand is replaced by a rotating seconds indication on the flying central tourbillon.