As anniversaries abound this year, Omega hails the Speedmaster’s trip to the moon in 1969 and the Ploprof, a deep-sea diver’s watch launched a year later.




Co-Axial Ploprof 1200M


When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the moon’s surface at 02:56 GMT on the July 21, 1969, Aldrin was wearing his Omega Speedmaster.
Armstrong was also equipped with the same watch, but had left his aboard the Lunar Module as a backup because the electronic timing system on board was playing up.
From that remarkable day on the moon, Omega’s excellent Speedmaster professional chronograph became known as the ‘Moonwatch’ down here on Mother Earth. Now, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of that first moon landing, Omega has launched a Limited Edition of the Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch Apollo 11 ‘40th Anniversary’. The timepiece is equipped with the same movement used in the original Speedmaster Professional Moon Watch, the brand’s famous calibre 1861. The watch also has a black dial as did the Moon Watch, but with some essential differences: the small seconds sub-dial at 9 o’clock has been created in the form of a small medallion featuring an adaptation of Apollo 11’s famous mission patch: an eagle descends to the lunar surface with an olive branch representing peace in its claws. The watch’s hour, minute and the red-tipped chronograph seconds hands are coated with SuperLumiNova and the minute and hour chronograph counter hands are white and the brushed, rhodium-plated small seconds hand is in relief to the medallion on the counter.
Below the words ‘Omega Speedmaster Professional’ on the dial, the legend 02:56 GMT – the exact time that Neil Armstrong made his “one small step” onto the moon – is displayed in red and the watch has the same robust, shatter-proof acrylic crystal, Hesalite, found on the original Moon Watch.
The Apollo 11 ‘Eagle’ mission patch is stamped on the caseback along with the words, the first watch worn on the moon, the Limited Edition number and ‘July 21, 1969’, the date the astronauts first stepped onto the moon’s surface.




Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch Apollo 11 ‘40th Anniversary’


The Omega Co-Axial Ploprof 1200M
In stark contrast to the dizzy heights of the moon, we now seek the depths of the oceans. In 1970 Omega launched a watch created to withstand the crushing pressures endured by divers working deep below the ocean’s surface. The Seamaster 600, the so-called ‘Ploprof’ (the acronym formed from the first letters of plongeurs professionnels –French for professional divers) was one of the most rugged, robust and seaworthy divers’ wristwatches ever manufactured.
Omega is now introducing an updated version of the classic and instantly recognizable wristwatch. Equipped with a Co-Axial calibre 8500, the new Ploprof 1200M is, as the name suggests, water-resistant to an astounding 1200 metres (4000 feet) and it artfully combines its ancestor’s famous features with the brand’s state-of-the-industry Co-Axial technology for its movement.


Source: Europa Star April-May 2009 Magazine Issue