Omega Speedmaster Alaska Project Eye Candy

Little something for this #SpeedyTuesday

In 1969, after the Moon landing, NASA wanted more. They asked Omega to design a Speedmaster that could survive the most extreme temperatures in space - from blistering heat to the freezing void. The answer was the Alaska Project.

With its pure white dial for maximum legibility and a bright red anodized aluminum heat shield, it was engineered to handle conditions as low as –148°C and as high as +260°C.

Of course, the project never went into full production for astronauts - but it left behind one of the most fascinating chapters in Speedmaster history.

Today, this watch doesn’t ride rockets or orbit Earth. It just sits on my wrist, reminding me that sometimes the boldest ideas are too good to stay classified

The Alaska Project is such a cool set. Bravo!

The other day I saw one for sale with the complete set. Enjoy it.

Alaska Project eye candy ? ? ?
Preparing an amazing feature so wait till You see the photos of the ex-Alaska Project II Speedies onboard the Soviet-Russian Salyut-6 orbital space station ... that's operational eye candy !

Beautiful.

Love the watch, very beautiful!

Never really connected to the Alaska Project (the original ones are really cool though), but these are outstanding photos! Well done!

Amazing series! Love the worn-in look of the scratched crystal and the look on the nato strap.

Cool photos, especially the ones with the red/orange outer case! Always fascinated on learning about unique Speedys like this. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you, gentlemen. I’m glad you like the photos. The shield is something else—not really an accessory to wear in public, but a very good storytelling piece of equipment.

I’ve got a few more shots I took yesterday. They came out pretty organic. I was making coffee when I noticed that a neon light under a kitchen element was casting a strong shadow and light on that white dial, so I had to capture it

I've just done this one and I like how it turned out. Let's imagine Apollo 18 had happened and that the astronauts were watch geeks who decided to photograph an Alaska on the lunar surface. One can dream, right?

55 years ago, Apollo 18 & 19 were cancelled (1970 September 2 to be precise)... Apollo 20 had already been cancelled since January 4, 1970.
IMHO it's unknown if Omega's ultimate space watch, the Alaska Project Speedmaster version was ever shown to the NASA astronaut corps, but we do know for 100% it was shown to the Soviet-Russian delegation which was invited to visit the Omega HQ in Bienne Switzerland as the Soviet delegation was in Europe for the Paris Air Show in May 1973!
Funny enough the cosmonauts, among whom Aleksei Yeliseyev, Georgi Beregovoy and Alexei Leonov, prefered the more bulky flightmaster pilot watch and Mark III automatic Speedmaster chronograph... so no surprise the cosmonauts first used the flightmaster in space (Soyuz 14), followed by the Mark III automatic (Soyuz 15) before they used the manual winding Speedmaster 861 (Soyuz 16) in 1974.
Immediately after their May 22, 1973 visit to the Omega HQ, cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Valeri Kubasov were photographed at the Paris Air Show wearing brand new flightmaster pilot wrist watches (May 24 & 25), which they also used during Soyuz training at Starcity Moscow, June 1973 onwards!
After the July 1975 historic Apollo-Soyuz mission, NASA didn't have manned spaceflight up to April 1981 but in the mean time, the Soviet Union launched 21 manned missions, among which the Intercosmos series flying Warschau Pact cosmonauts and preparing their long duration space station Salyut-6 on which the resident crews used the brand new Russian EVA space suits of the Orlan-series. The Soviets didn't forget about the Alaska Project Speedmaster project and in the summer of 1977 ordered a pair of ex-Alaska Project II Speedmaster chronographs with red outer cases via fax from Moscow to Bienne in order to have these in time for the Soyuz 25 mission carrying the first Salyut-6 resident crew.
The bulky but highly legible ex-Alaska Project II Speedmaster chronograph in red outer cases remained attached to the Orlan space suits onboard Salyut-6 and can be seen in several pre-EVA try-out sessions onboard Salyut-6 before venturing out of the space station on spacewalks in 1978 ! #AlaskaProject #MoonwatchUniverse #Roscosmos
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During the last decade, I've visited the Omega Heritage team on many occasions and shared with them all my research about the practical history of the Omega Alaska Project, made for the Apollo lunar rover but was eventually used by the Russians onboard Salyut-6 (1977-80).
More details can be found in my articles "To Russia With Love" and "Time Peace" , both written on a 100% voluntary basis without any help from Omega, on the contrary as I was asked to postpone publication but went ahead anyway, even sharing info via Hodinkee (October 2017) and the 3rd edition of Moonwatch Only (2019)...
Where did these Soviet-Russian Salyut-6 ex-Alaska Project Speedmaster chronographs end up ?
More soon !!!
https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/a...-never-go-to-space-actually-did-at-least-once