Buzz Aldrin is up to Something

With a greater diversity of designs, price points, and cross-cultural appeal than ever before, watches are more popular now than any time in recent memory.

Largely fueled by an influx of collectors, as well as the dip in watch prices over the past year, according to WatchCharts, there’s an opening for more attractive entry-points for new buyers.

With this trend suggesting a sustained boom in the collector watch world, I can only assume that it’s a matter of time before many of the newly-minted armchair horologists turn their attention to one of the great mysteries of the watch world:

Buzz Aldrin’s Omega Speedmaster.

It’s captivated watch enthusiasts for decades, tantalizing auction houses looking to broker a historic sale, and piqued the interest of even the most casual observers looking to solve one of the great mysteries of the moon landing (tied with Kubrick’s soundstage).

The story starts off rather tame, with NASA searching for a watch capable of functioning flawlessly in space in the lead-up to their Apollo programs.

They tested watches from Omega, Longines-Wittnauer, Rolex, and Hamilton.

Specifications were rigorous, requiring water-proof manual-winding chronographs, shock-proof and anti-magnetic capabilities, resistance to extreme temperatures and acceleration approaching 12 G’s.

Omega won, becoming the official watch of NASA astronauts.

In 1969, as Aldrin & Armstrong departed for the moon, they donned Speedmasters on their wrists.

But only one Speedy made it to the lunar surface.

Armstrong’s module mission timer failed, he was forced to leave his watch back on the module as a back-up timer.

So it was just Aldrin’s Speedy that made it to the moon — undoubtedly a legendary moment for Omega, but one unlikely to be remembered as much more than a footnote if it wasn’t for what happened next…

After returning to Earth, Aldrin sent the watch to the Smithsonian as per protocol. But for some reason, it never reached its destination.

Despite various individuals claiming to own the lost watch over the years, nne have ever been deemed credible.

As Hodinkee explains: “It is likely that the person who took the Aldrin Omega had no idea of its significance, but at this point, it's fair to say this is one of the great horological mysteries of the modern era – where is Buzz Aldrin's Omega Speedmaster?”