This is a watch I had been looking at since it came out in 2018 on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission. I saw it again after losing my father last year, and when I saw the etched saying on the caseback of “we’ll see you on the other side”, I knew this was a watch I could buy to memorialize his loss.


I’ve always liked the idea of a ceramic case watch since I “wear” my watches and am not one to baby them. Mine get scratches. I tried on several of the other Dark side models with the automatic movements, and wasn’t a fan of how thick they were. The case is 44.25mm in diameter, with 21mm lug width, 49mm lug to lug, and 12mm thick.

This comes on a perforated strap with a tang buckle, but I special ordered a deployant clasp and strap too. I’ve seen the pictures of damaged ceramic cases, and I didn’t want to become one of those statistics. Plus, straps on deployant clasps tend to last longer since they do not get bent as much taking the watches on and off.



This model uses the Calibre 1869 movement, which is a specially decorated version of the 1861 movement. It’s a manual wind, non-hacking movement with 48 hour power reserve. To set the time, you can rotate their crown towards 12 to stop the second hand. When It’s fully wound, you feel the crown tension increase and then stop. It has a 30 minute subdial at 3 o’clock, 12 hour counter at 6 and the second hand at 9.



The surface of the plates have been laser ablated to texture the plates with an image of the moon surface, and the subdials are floated over the movement to generate somewhat of a skeltonized look. When you use the chrono pushers, you can see the activation of the chronograph between the 7 and 8 o’clock position on the dial.

The front side of the dial is the lunar surface we see from earth and the back side is what the astronauts saw on the dark side. As I said earlier, the backside of the case is engraved with “we’ll see you on the other side” which is what Jim Lovell said as they went behind the moon and lost contact with mission control. I was 6 years old when this happened and remember sitting in silence with my parents and siblings and barely breathing wondering if they would reappear when they were supposed to.



The lume on the watch is great with the hands, hour markers, bezel, and crown logo all applied with lume.

That’s it for now. I’ll come back and give some other impressions after I’ve worn it for a while.

 

Congrats. I also just purchased one of these last week.
As a "space nerd" who's father worked for NASA I have always really really liked this watch. But I had only seen it in pictures.

Last week I was in our local jewelry store / AD with my wife, who was looking at a sapphire ring. So I walked over to the watch department to browse, and immediately saw this watch on display in the Omega case. I had never seen one in person and it was simply stunning. Ironically my wife did not buy a ring but I bought a watch.

I have an Apollo 11 50th anniversary Speedmaster which I love. I was also on the waiting list for the 50th Apollo 13 (Snoopy ). But once I saw the Apollo 8 I decided to get that instead and no regrets . . . its incredible in person. And now I'm done with Snoopy. . . . probably a 5 year wait before I'd get one anyway

Enjoy the beautiful Apollo 8 . . . I know I will.

 

Another amazing Omega scientific "goof" ... each spot on the Moon is 14 days a dark spot.
Apollo 8 related, ""see You on the other side"", they probably meant " the Far side " of the Moon

 

Congrats on the purchase and I must admit that i will get mine soon out soon to get it some wrist time. I decided to buy mine couple of years ago but had to see it in person to actually appreciate it. The pictures i saw online back thne were suggesting it being kind of plastic/glossy/shiney and completely did not capture how this piece is remarkable. When I saw it in person... i made my mind pretty quick.

 

Wonderful speedy.
My next one.
For sure!

 

Awesome watch! At first, I tried it on and liked it, but did not immediately fall for it. I went back to the OB a couple days later and it had sold. Luckily, and because it is a brand new OB, they received 2 more within a week and this time I did not hesitate. I'll be picking it up in a few days. I too ordered the deployment set up, so the strap and buckle/clasp are inbound. Can't wait to get it on my wrist. Seriously badass watch.

I was invited to the Gala grand opening event of the Omega Boutique here in SF. Looking forward to that in a couple of days. It includes an afternoon panel discussion at a separate location, then back to the Boutique for champagne and a hangout with the Omega reps from Switzerland, then home to change for an evening meal and party action at a location in Golden Gate park with the brand ambassadors and invited guests. Feeling pretty lucky...

Omega is such a fine brand, and I'm happy to see them getting back to their rightful place in the fine watch world. I've grown tired of Rolex and all the nonsense there. Omega is fun, bright, welcoming, and inventive. Very happy to be shifting over to the brand.

 

Yeah a watch I'm considering for my next purchase I'm stuck between apollo 8 or the speedy racing with black and orange dial. I'm in a conundrum. . Enjoy

 

@Hetcins1 There's an easy (but expensive!) solution to that conundrum.... get both!! Lol!! Although I know that you're comparing black dial with black dial unlike my whitey one.

And congrats to @Baco Noir on your new Apollo 8 too! I just picked mine up after Xmas and aboslutely love all the detail!!! Like you, I switched out to the ceramic clasp over the standard buckle but I'm currently trying it out with a 21mm curved rubber strap (from a Seamaster) and to be honest, this might be the keeper for this Speedie over the black/yellow leather!

When I look at my white racing compared to the Apollo 8 I feel like they are completely different but totally complimentary as I love the larger 44mm case sizing and now I have black vs white and manual vs. auto!!

 

Yeah buddy get both good idea il just run it past the wife. Nice pair of watches you got there. .

 

I'm still kicking myself for not buying the Apollo 8 over a year ago, but I thought "...$9K for that?". Boy was I dumb.

 

Will be my next purchase. These are beautiful time pieces.

 

Great to see this pop up on here, beautiful pictures. Thank you for sharing.

 

Great watch and a great quote to remember your father. And good to see Omega keeping their heritage alive.

 

Absolutely love this piece...next one for sure!

 

I also tried to use it as a dress watch with a suit and white shirt... that doesn't work very well thought the white sleeve offers a nice contrast to the dial

 

My first day with this watch was several hours staring at its back...

 

Absolute beauty, but if the watch is your only time teller, not the phone, you may find it quite unpractical

 

I see what you are saying. Make you wonder how if the hands had more anything but black on them how that would have worked out.

 

If only they made a yellow version of the "speedmaster soccer" watch that could be switched out to give the Apollo 8 yellow hour & minute hands to match the second hand..... https://www.swisslimitededitions.com/1861-861-321-hands?page=2

 

In practicality, I've only run into a handful of times that I had to look twice to find the hands in the dial to see what time it was. Several of those were when one of the hands was behind the chronograph hand, so there's that.

When I tried on the black dial AP RO, it was harder to read the dial than this speedy. Why? I was wearing a dark shirt and when I turned my wrist, the silver polished hands reflected the dark shirt and the hands disappeared on the black dial. I ended up buying the silver dial RO instead. That had never even entered my mind when thinking about buying one.