Timeline Watch
1965

Omega Speedmaster Ed White

Edward White becomes the first American to walk in space

1965 Omega Speedmaster Ed White ref. 105.003, cal. 321. The last of the non “Professional” dials and the last of the 38 mm cases, without crown guards.

We call it the astronaut Ed White because he wore it during the Gemini IV mission when he became the first American to space-walk, in June 1965.

The Omega Speedmaster was created in 1957 with motorsport in mind, the Speedy was the first wrist chrono to feature its tachymeter scale on the bezel instead of the dial for increased legibility and in 65 was chosen by NASA as its official chronometer in Space, 4 years later, now the Moonwatch was the first watch to be worn on the Moon, when, on 21 July 1969, Neil Armstrong made his giant leap for mankind.

Omega was founded in 1848 by Louis Brandt at the age of 23. The brands reputation grew fast and in 1895 the watches achieved a precision of 30 seconds a day.
By the turn of the 19th century Omega was one of Switzerland’s largest watch companies with 240,000 watches produced annually and employing 800 people.

Omega made its debut in sports during the Gordon Bennett international ballooning Cup in 1917; since then Omega has gone on to be the official timekeeper at 21 Olympic Games.

In 1936 Omega set the remarkable World precision record of 97.8 points at the Kew-Teddington observatory in England. Currently Omega belongs to the Swatch Group.