To the moon and back: How I finally bought an Omega Speedmaster

Bruce Duguay

If you open up Google and type in “Why do I have a hard time choosing an Omega Speedmaster?”, chances are your first non-ad result will be a Time & Tide article from February 2020 documenting my own personal struggles with the same question. After I wrote that article, I received a lot of feedback from other watch people who seemed to identify in some shape or form. Omega is an amazing watch brand, but damn, why are there so many Speedmaster variations out there?

It just makes sense to have a Speedmaster in your watch collection. History, quality, functionality all factor into every one of them. Also, how would we ever get through a Tuesday without one for that infamous Instagram hashtag? The watch world puts a great deal of peer pressure on collectors to have a Speedy, and I was not immune to this pressure. As the world started to fall apart, I devoted many hours of early-pandemic internet scrolling navigating the murky Omega waters, sorting between new, pre-owned, and vintage, establishing a budget (and then disregarding said-budget), and clicking “add to cart” more times than I care to admit.

There was also the task of choosing between classic Moonwatch, Racing, Reduced, and seemingly billions of limited editions. Many of you may be screaming at the screen right now “Just get a used Moonwatch!”, however it wasn’t that easy (at least you’re correct on the model I wanted). By the time I had focused my mind to dedicate my shopping resources to a Speedmaster Professional, the values of used examples had gone haywire. Current average price for a used Speedy Pro on Chrono24 is around $6,000 USD. Does anyone remember the days of the $2,500 Speedy Pro forum post? Well, that’s about all you can do now, is remember and perhaps regret.

So maybe I was too precious to lay out $6k on a used Moonwatch. Logically, that narrows it down to new ones right? Well, Omega had just released the all-new Speedmaster Professional Co-Axial Master Chronometer (say it 10 times quickly) to us hungry watch nerds in lockdown. Of course, I studied every specification and read each breaking-news story about the thing. It had a lot going for it that I liked: new advanced movement, tapering bracelet, and an applied logo on sapphire models (more on my preference for sapphire in a moment). Hours of scrolling later, I decided to finally go and try it on in person.

I’ve got a great local watch retailer, with whom I’ve struck up a pretty decent relationship with and since they have Rolex, Omega, Tudor, IWC, Grand Seiko and many more under one roof, it is the kind of relationship envied on forums everywhere. On a particularly warm day in August, I walked in, went right to the Omega cases and my keen eyes picked out the new generation Speedy right away. Espressos were made and the watch was freed from the glass prison for me to try on. I’m really big on the tactile feeling you get from handling a watch and I don’t mean to say this new Speedy is anything but a quality item, however the new tapered bracelet I was initially so excited about immediately rattled and chattered like the stretched jubilee on my 1970 Datejust. In fact, it had such an unexpectedly fragile feel to it, I spent quite a bit of time wondering if this was indeed the newest Speedy Pro.

The next surprise arrived when examining the dial. I had zeroed in on the Speedmaster Professional because it had the look of a precision instrument. Clean, legible, and designed with purpose. One of the changes Omega made to the latest Moonwatch was to create a stepped, pie-pan dial drop down to the minutes track. The chronograph registers are also more scalloped into the watch face. While these new texture details make the watch interesting to look at, I felt the changes erased any clinical spacecraft instrument vibes entirely. Finally, there was the price. $7,150 USD with the sapphire crystal. I can tell you at this point in my watch-collecting journey that I don’t shell out the better part of $10k with tax on anything I don’t absolutely love.

I explained my grievances about the new Speedy Pro to the smiling, tolerant, and always-so-polite Store Manager as he crafted the second espresso of the afternoon. “I think I might have a solution” he said, slipping away while I was left brooding about being Speedyless forever. A few moments later he returned with another Speedmaster in the tray. With trepidatious suspicion I picked it up, and was pleasantly surprised to find it had a nice heft. The bracelet wasn’t tapered, rather it was much the same one as the Seamaster 300M Diver, chunky and solid but not uncomfortable. It had a sapphire crystal, which I love because (1) this is not a vintage watch, (2) it feels more premium, and (3) I can be prone to the occasional crystal smack. The clincher for me was the dial. Bright white markings, no unnecessary texture and no faux patina. Safe to say, I was now holding my ideal Speedy.

The Store Manager explained it was a “left-over” new previous generation Speedmaster Professional. With all the subtlety of a seasoned practitioner of retail craft, he wrote down a number that was a compellingly reduced version of the original list price. In fact, it was less than some of the pre-owned Moonwatches I had added to late-night online shopping carts (only to ruthlessly abandon them) in the recent past. All my objections and roadblocks to Speedmaster ownership had now been removed, therefore credit cards were swiped and receipts generated.  Riding an espresso-fuelled post-purchase high, I walked out into the summer sunlight with my gigantic bag (as a nice bonus, the previous-gen Speedys come with the famed “Big Box” o’ goodies) and a smile on my face.

In the last six months, I’ve really enjoyed having this Speedmaster in the mix. It has been a great watch to grab for the weekend or work. I would have to say that, so far, my favourite look is with a black and grey striped NATO strap. The watch definitely lives up to the heritage and hype and I now realise the driving force behind the pressure to own one. I look back on my two-and-a-half year Speedmaster journey and will always remember the adventure that got me “over the moon”!