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Michael Collins’s Gold Speedmaster Is Not Going To The Omega Museum

J
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W watchguy12
Agree, the price was amazing. I thought it would sell for a couple hundred thousand, not $765! Just a few years again Bean and Evans gold Speedmasters sold for $50k. Seems like a bargain now. Of course, Collins was Apollo 11, but what would others sell for now? Armstrong and Aldrin certainly more. Lovell, Sheppard, Grissom and Cernan perhaps a similar amount? Most of the other astronauts hard to guess but with non astronaut gold models selling for high five figure, perhaps double that in the $150k range?
Sure makes the last BA145.022 sold at Phillips look like a bargain!

https://www.phillips.com/detail/omega/CH080122/267
 
SpeedyPhill
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After, Michael Collins was a Rolex guy 😉
He probably wore his Rolex Turn O Graph in that official Apollo 11 WSS portrait (NASA photo S69-31742 )
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1969_TurnOgraphToolbezel_Collins.jpg
Edited:
 
cristos71
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dsio dsio
What pieces to acquire and how to present them would be a matter for Petros, Alain and co I would imagine. They’re extremely good at their work and know their stuff incredibly well.

Oh man I'd love to do a free internship there for a month or two, can you just imagine what you'd see!
 
pdxleaf
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SpeedyPhill SpeedyPhill
After, Michael Collins was a Rolex guy 😉
He even wore his Rolex Turn O Graph in that official Apollo 11 WSS portrait (NASA photo S69-31742 )
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1969_TurnOgraphToolbezel_Collins.jpg

Isn't that simply the glove locking mechanism?

In the crew photo, the other two are not wearing watches, which supports the notion that Collins also wasn't wearing a watch in his WSS photo.

2012-08-28T120000Z_1219465324_TM3E88S1AEF01_RTRMADP_3_USA.jpg
 
SpeedyPhill
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Interesting remark by pdxleaf, made us recheck a very high resolution version of S69-31742
The lefhand glove connector ring should be completely red seen from the front 👎
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1966_A7L_lefhand_glovering.jpg

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👎
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1969_A7-.jpg
 
pdxleaf
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SpeedyPhill SpeedyPhill
Indeed, I once saw a few posts which stated this, so edited the post.
Anyway we have seen photographs of Collins wearing a Rolex since 1960, clear NASA photos since 1964
See:
https://omegaforums.net/threads/ast...d-not-just-speedmasters-say-it-isnt-so.21667/

Ah, I get it now.

Collins may not have been the best brand ambassador for either Omega or Rolex. He claimed he wasn't much of a watch guy and also wore Timex, as I'm sure you know.

Also, I think we're seeing the connector edge forward, which is not red. This is not to say Collins didn't wear Rolex. Just not in the WSS photo, IMHO.

Edit: Although i could be wrong.
Edited:
 
SpeedyPhill
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Indeed, just discussing Your remark/observation... I see a watch, moreover it might be a Speedmaster 👎
In comparison, Neil Armstrong's red disconnect ring from the same standpoint in NASA photo S69-31740
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1969_A7-Armstrong.jpg
 
pdxleaf
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Good point. It could be a watch, and as he wore a Rolex back then, it could be his Rolex. It's also on his right arm, which is how he and Armstrong wore watches.

According to a letter from Pogue where he discusses his personal watch, astronauts did not wear watches under the suit as they interferred with the locking glove mechanism. So this is probably as close to space as the Rolex came. Still, intriguing. Plus a good reminder that there was a period when a watch was just a watch.
 
SpeedyPhill
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More likely Collins' personal Rolex Turn-O-graph

1969_A11-TurnOgraph.jpg

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Indeed, there're a lot of photos showing Collins wearing his personal Rolex Turn-O-Graph during Apollo 11 training.
During Command Module simulator training in the KSC simulator, in June 1969,a dozen photos show Collins wearing his NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster underneath the A7 spacesuit.
It looks like the official Apollo 11 crew & individual WSS portraits were taken on July 1, 1969.
 
SpeedyPhill
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Reviving this old topic on the Gold Apollo 11 tribute Speedmaster chronographs...
As my old big note book is falling apart, I have just decided to share my notes about the Gold "Apollo 11 tribute" Speedmaster BA 145.022-69 astronaut-worn-chronographs in the SWFG - Space Watches Facebook Group and here on OmegaForums.
Although I have Richard Francis Gordon listed as having worn the Gold n° 20 after receiving it, which means I have seen a photo of him doing so, I don't directly find a good photo in my MoonwatchUniverse files... getting old 👎
If interested, I can share a spreadsheet with information when the photos were taken of the NASA astronauts actually wearing their Gold "A11 tribute" Speedmaster (e.g. John Glenn wore his while visiting President Jimmy Carter on his boyhood farm in Plains - Georgia in 1976)
(Photo: MoonwatchUniverse)
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GOLD_WornAstronauts-MOONWATCHUNIVERSE.jpg
 
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