The Speedmaster Professional was the Replica Technomarine watches worn by Ralph Plaisted on his famous trip to the North Pole. In fact, Plaisted and his team, who rode only 16 horse power snow-mobiles for over 43 days, used only a ***tant and an unmodified Omega Speedmaster Professional to navigate to true North. Even when temperatures reached -50 degrees Celcius, the Speedmaster kept ticking. When Plaisted's team finally made it to the North Pole, the US Air Force team in charge of monitoring them radio'd down with the words "Gentlemen, from where you stand, everywhere is South." We actually found one of the Speedmasters used in this expedition for sale not too long ago.So, even if the Speedmaster hadn't made it to the moon, it would've been known as a great explorer's watch. However, it did, and it one of the few Replica Technomarine watches that has transcended into popular culture because of that.
On Thursday, the anniversary of Apollo 11's launch, we recapped seven "space" watches that we've covered here on Hodinkee. Today, the 40th anniversary of the actual moon landing, we are going to be talking about just one; The Omega Speedmaster Professional. The Speedmaster Professional is a manual wind chronograph that is is not too flashy, not all that expensive, and yet universally regarded as one of the watch world's masterpieces. Even those true watch snobs who would never consider purchasing something as plebeian as an Omega respect the Speedy Pro. Really, how could they not?Even before the Speedmaster Professional was dubbed the "First Replica Technomarine watches on the Moon", it played an integral role in another first in exploring.
