Love and Hate for the MoonSwatch

The historical relevance to the watch industry Omega has in incomparable, considering the Co-Axial escapement that is one of the rare innovations of the watch world, and seeing that Omega utilizing it in many of their watches and mass producing it rather than having it strictly for some watches and not the majority of their movements. To the connection Omega has to NASA, which they keep reminding us with every release of the Omega Speedmaster.

Omega, among other watch brands, is part of the Swatch Group. With the watch industry post covid having a blip and the growth it had during that time the projection that the market would grow, but how can you help with that? Especially when the new generation is tech based, they either don’t wear watches due to the fact that they can tell the time on their phones or that smart watches are their go to option. Hublot, Tag Hueur and Mont Blanc attempted to tap into this by making their own smart watches, hoping to capitalize on this market. The fact that I’m say “hoping” should show that hoping and doing are two different things, because you will rarely encounter someone wearing one.

So what did Omega do? Well simple, create something that would break the internet. They chose to learn from the mistakes of the other watch brands and tried something else. Brand recognition and and entry watch. Many watch brands have entry level watches, like the Rolex Oyster Perpetual, or the Grand Seiko SBGX/SBGP line, or other watches. A collaboration with Swatch and Omega was born, utilizing Swatch’s use of quartz movements and their “plastic” cases, and Omega’s relationship with space. Thus the MoonSwatch was born!

The blue briefcase started appearing everywhere on social media, and on March 2022 in certain countries the watch was released. Taking the dimensions of the Omega Speedmaster professional and changing the case to bio-ceramic, which is fancy way of saying plastic, the case size was 42mm with SuperLuminova on the hands and the indices. They were powered by the ETA G10.212 quarts chronograph movement and came with a Velcro strap that pays homage to the Omega Speedmaster’s worn by astronauts during their missions. The original 11 watches were based on our solar system and were named on them.

• Mission to the Sun

  • Yellow case with white sub-dials, orange seconds hand and a white strap.

• Mission to Mercury

  • Grey case with black sub-dials and a grey strap.

• Mission to Venus

  • Pink case with a white dial, pink hands and a white strap.

• Mission to Earth

  • Green case with a navy dial, red seconds hand and a navy strap.

• Mission to the Moon

  • Grey case with a black dial and black strap. This is the closest out of all the other models to resemble the original Omega Speedmaster Professional.

• Mission to Mars

  • Red case with a white dial, red hands, and white strap. Taking cues from the Omega Speedmaster Alaska Project when it comes to the color scheme and hand in two of the sub-dials.

• Mission to Jupiter

  • Beige case with a beige dial, orange seconds and sub-dial hands, and a black strap.

• Mission to Saturn

  • Beige case with beige dial, Saturn’s rings at the 6 o’clock sub-dial and a brown strap.

• Mission to Uranus

  • Baby blue Case with baby blue dial and a white strap.

• Mission to Neptune

  • Pure blue dial with and a black strap.

• Mission to Pluto

  • Grey case, with burgundy bezel and subdials, and came with a black strap.

With these watches releases came unbelievable hype and the resale value of these watches multiplied, with some models being sold for more than 10 times their retail price of 260 USD. Models like the Mission to Uranus, and Mission to the Moon selling reselling for almost 2700 USD at a certain point. Lines outside the selected swatch stores brought back feelings of nostalgia with people camping outside the store like they used to when the new PlayStation was released. All of the watches that were released in the first announcement paid homage to the solar system and the planets, sun or moon, that they were named after, but what came after it kind of took away the hype behind these watches and love people had for them.

A year after the release of the first 11 models, Swatch and Omega started releasing a new special edition almost every month including the Mission to MoonShine. Nine out of the 10 special editions were based on the Mission to the Moon watch and just had different color hands. One of them was based on the Mission to Uranus. All these special editions never really captured the people’s interest and the hype that carried these watches started to die out, with the watches sitting in stores, when it used to be you could rarely find anything in stock, not even the color you wanted. So what did they do? Simple Omega had seen success in the Omega Speedmaster Professional 50th Anniversary Silver Snoopy Award, and used that hype and connection to release two watches that had the furry friend being part of the watch. With the first watch coming in full white, the case the strap and the dial being white, and a moonphase in the sub-dial at 2 o’clock rather than seconds sub-dial it used to be. Then two weeks later they announced the same exact watch but in black. Which was all it needed to respark the love people had for these watches, but comparing it to the OG 11 watches to the snoopy ones is like comparing the fires camp fire to what happened to a wildfire. Right after the two snoopy models were released 3 watches were released but not as special editions and were more focused on the earth.

• Mission on Earth Lava

  • Orange case black dial and black strap

• Mission on Earth Polar Lights

  • Green Dial with a navy dial that sparkles and a navy strap

• Mission to Earth Desert

  • Beige case and a light brown dial with a light brown strap

These three watches didn’t hit the excitement levels of many people with the Mission to Earth Desert in my opinion being the nicest of the trio. Swatch later announced two more watches, one snoopy and one called Mission to the Earthphase. Which has an earthphase rather than a moonphase, similar idea but it’s like you’re seeing the earth from the moon.

Now that the history lesson is over lets talk about what I think of the watch itself. I don’t hate it and I don’t love it. What I dislike about the watch isn’t really about the watch its more about what the watch release caused. The watch was supposed to be something that everyone could get there hands on, but with the selected stores that sold them at the beginning being a pain, especially with resellers taking up places in the line not because they wanted one, but were trying to make a quick buck left a terrible taste in my mouth. When the watch finally came to Kuwait, I kept on having terrible experiences at the boutique. With the employees acting like they knew nothing and treating the watch as an exclusive product. Treating customers as if they were second class, and never really giving a answer on when the model I was after would be in stock, forcing me as a buying customer with a long purchase history to constantly drive to the boutique just to see what’s available. That kind of experience doesn’t even happen when you enter any of the high end watch brands, other than Rolex that is. So it created a real disdain towards the watch, but when I went to Japan I ended up purchasing two there, one on each of my trips, because of the treatment I got.

It’s not all hate towards it there are something’s that I do appreciate about the Moonswatch. I love that it pays homage to the original Omega Speedmaster and that it categorically has grown the demand for the watch exponentially, because the Speedmaster used to be readily available at the omega boutiques, now some models are on a waiting list. The release of the Moonwatch has also given birth to this generation’s watch enthusiast, bringing more people into the world of horology. I personally own two of these watches, and got rid of one of them. Currently I have the Mission to Saturn and the Mission to Moonphase in white (Snoopy) and got rid of the Mission to Mercury that I had. They are everyday beater watches that are fun to wear due to their colorful nature.

Is it worth it getting them now? Simply put, if you like it get it. Is it worth they hype? Maybe not, because the only difference between it and any chronograph Swatch has is the fact that it says Omega on it and it looks like the Omega Speedmaster. Does that justify the price difference? Maybe. Do I think I fell for the hype, I think I did because I still have mine but rarely ever seem to wear them, unless I’m in a hurry and it’s the first watch my eyes see when I open the drawer. At end of the day get what you like, I’ve got a friend of mine who really loves the Moonswatch and has a couple, because he finds them hassle free and wear perfectly on his wrist.