After more than a decade as a Seamaster guy I finally joined the Speedmaster club today. Picked up the
MOONWATCH OMEGA CO-AXIAL CHRONOGRAPH with automatic 9300 movement. I've always been fascinated with space in general and the NASA Moon Program in particular. Strapping on my Speedmaster got me thinking about that day in 1969 and the men who made history.

My family was at the Jersey shore for our annual family vacation. My grandparents got a house in Bay Head NJ every year for the entire summer and we'd all troop down there on many weekends, as well as for a week-long stay. On July 20th 1969 we spent the day at the beach in Point Pleasant just 5 minutes up the road from Bay Head, ate at Jenkinson's Pavilion, and hit the rides on the boardwalk there. Then home and in bed, asleep by 8:00 PM, exhausted and half sick from cotton candy and salt water taffy.

I remember my father coming into the bedroom and waking us up around 8:45. My sister was 5, I was 8. Bleary-eyed, Dad led us up into the attic where the only TV in the house was located. My grandfather was fiddling with the rabbit ears antenna and finally pronounced the picture on the black & white television fit for viewing, and we huddled around it to wait. Tired and bored to tears, I had no idea what was happening. The mood of the adults was a mixture of nervousness, awe, and joy, which added to my confusion. My father leaned over and said, "You HAVE to see this. Astronaut Neil Armstrong is going to walk on the moon in just a few minutes."

When Armstrong stepped off the last step of the lander and spoke those famous words, most of the adults were crying. I was staring at that crappy TV picture with rapt attention, unable to move and barely able to breathe. That moment will stay with my for the rest of my life.

 

I'm still in my 20's.... I feel completely out of place now.

 

Ah, you'll see future history I will not, so it balances out. I should have put a qualifier in the title like "Old Guys Only..."

 

I was 4 days away from entering this world, by all accounts mum said she would have rather gone to the moon.

 

I was a twinkle in my parents' eye

 

**Old Guy Alert**

I was in my final year or primary school (age 11). 400 of us were ushered into the school hall and sat in front of a single and tiny black and white TV. We did no classes that day, but waited in the hall until 12:56 Sydney time until Armstrong walked on the moon. It was breathtaking.

It was an incredibly optimistic time about what could happen in the world - we were all believed that jetpacks and Jetson-style living was just around the corner. The day is seared into my memory.

 

I was fishing for grayling in the Highwood River south of Calgary (Alberta) on the 21st. I listened to a rebroadcast of the moment Armstrong set foot on the moon. I was driving a 1977 Volvo 122S station wagon which had the "optional" radio which the dealer put in pro bono to close the sale.

 

I vaguely recall watching the moon landing on a black and white TV in a special room at the back of our house that I was not allowed into without my parents - I was five. My mother was heavily pregnant at the time and my brother was born just under three weeks later.

I got my first Speedmaster in 2001, a late-1990s 3570.50. I've acquired two more since and hopefully will have another when the 60th Anniversary model becomes available.

 

I was at home in our very small farming town in central Wisconsin...I was five. My parents made me watch the Moon landing on TV..."Pay attention, son! This is a BIG deal...this is HISTORIC!"...or something along those lines. To be honest, I didn't think it was such a big deal at the time...I was still recovering from an unsuccessful flying attempt [using my mother's green umbrella] from the roof of our garage.

 

I used to love these cartoons, I thought we would be flying around in mini space rockets, robots would be doing all the work and we humans could just sit around all day and relax. I feel we were misled. Most people will be working until an hour before they are put in a hole in the ground and some of us will still have to work after that.

 

I was a 52-day old infant and apparently "not overly colicky"

 

I remember watching the landing in the lounge of my parents house on the black and white tv. I was twenty two and wearing my 21st birthday present Speedy and thinking one of these has just reached the moon! Went to the pictures that evening with my girlfriend and came out looking at the moon in a completely different way. I still have the Speedy and the girl!

 

Love it!

 

I was 7 years old in my parents lounge room in Sydney (Black and white 26 inch TV) with my 21 year old uncle who had arrived that day from the Bahamas islands to visit us.I was in total disbelief .

 

Don't you mean a 1967 Volvo 122S.
Or is it back from the future.

 

My mom was 7 years old and had no plan for me so far

 

You're way too young for this thread!!!

 

I was deep in my dad's genitals as well. I'm not sure he even realized what they were there for at that time

 

It is a source of some consternation for me that nobody has ever been on the moon during my lifetime. What on earth (pardon the pun) have we been doing all this time!? I grew up reading about the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, but living with day-to-day news of the space shuttle, so I know the answer is that we've been sending awesome probes, going to LEO, building the ISS, and learning to live and work in space. But I am so glad that our collective eyes are turning back to deep space exploration and I look forward to hopefully being around to see the first person set foot on Mars. Even if I have to get really, really close to the TV to see and hear it!

 

...and not soon after Omega will issue a limited edition Speedmaster to celebrate the event...