I don't think that this has been discussed before. NASA qualified the Speedmaster with the 321 movement. Why didn't they have to requalify the watch when Omega introduced the 861 movement?

It's standard engineering practice to repeat qualification testing when a (significant) change is made to the originally qualified item. At the very least, NASA should have assessed the change and documented a "no need to requalify" decision, but I don't think I've read that they even did that.

Or am I missing something?.

 

You are missing something. All US manned mission used the original 321 Speedmasters all the way through Apollo-Soyuz in 1975. The Speedmaster with the 861 movement was tested and re-certified in 1978 for the future shuttle flights.

Some of the information on the Omega Musuem site is a bit dubious but this information is correct.

"The next step in the Speedmaster's journey came in 1978 with the Space Shuttle. With the new craft came the need for all equipment to be retested; accordingly, OMEGA submitted three different watches for certification, The Speedmaster Professional reference ST 145.022, the Speedsonic Reference ST188.0002, and a prototype Speedmaster automatic “ALASKA III”, reference 11003. This watch would later be slightly redesigned and used by FIFA referees as reference 11003-2. Unsurprisingly, all three watches survived the testing. The final choice, though, would be the Speedmaster Professional, which was certified again in 1978 for all manned space flights."

 

ok! so they DID "requalify" the 861. I understand - thanks a lot

 

Glad the information helped sort it out for you. Just so you know, the first 861's do fly as early as 1975 on Apollo-Soyuz and are worn by the Russians. The first of the 56 NASA radial dial 861 Speedmasters certified in 1978 fly on STS-2 and are worn by Joe Engle and Richard Truly in 1981 and Engle still wears the watch today.

EDIT - An 861 Speedmaster does fly with Ron Evans on Apollo 17 in 1972. That would be the earliest 861 documented to fly.

 

The 861 Speedmaster chronograph 145.022-69 was part of the Heat Flow experiment onboard Apollo 17 CSM "America"...