On April 27th, 1976, NASA made 55 out of 97 of its Omega Speedmaster chronographs available to the National Air & Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, DC. Then and now, these Omega watches were considered a collection with significant artifactual value!

This article is a contribution by space and watch enthusiast Philip Corneille, founder of the Moon Watch Universe platform . He brought to our attention that it was 50 years ago that the Omega Speedmaster watches used by NASA during the Apollo missions were made available to the National Air & Space Museum.

Neil Armstrong’s Speedmaster (n° 46) from Apollo 11 — Image: National Air & Space Museum

Five decades ago, the NASM received 55 Speedmasters from NASA

Of the 97 watches NASA received from Omega over the years, 55 were made available to the NASM in April, 1976. About a year later, NASM finally received, documented, and categorized these NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster chronographs.…