In production for 63 years, the Omega Speedmaster has a storied history as one of the cornerstones of horology. But in addition to the moonwatch, Omega has created a panoply of special and limited edition Speedmasters. They’re not all winners, but some have struck a chord with collectors and rapidly increased in value. Here, we present the 3 Omega Speedmasters that you should have purchased when you had the chance.
Omega Speedmaster Silver Snoopy Award
The ties between Snoopy and NASA date back to Charles Schulz (creator of Peanuts) and his efforts to build public support in the early days of the NASA Apollo program. From the initial connection, Snoopy has become an unofficial mascot of NASA, and was the inspiration for theSilver Snoopy Award given out for support of the program.
Having won that award in 1970, Omega has twice commemorated the connection by offering limited edition Speedmasters. This reference, theSilver Snoopy Award, launched in 2015 as a limited run of 1,970 pieces. Despite being a quite attainable model for many years, the $6,100 model has recently reachedmoon orbiting prices with unworn models commanding north of $40,000 US.
Omega Speedmaster Racing “Tin Tin”
The Speedmaster reference 311.30.42.30.01.004 was first released in 2013 (and then soon thereafter dropped). It was originally designed to mimic the rocket design from the Tin Tin comic Destination Moon including Tin Tin branding, but was later branded as simply a racing edition Speedmaster.
Just a few years ago, examples of this reference were available under $4,000 US. In the intervening time, average prices appear to have topped $9,000 US.
Omega Apollo-Soyuz Speedmaster ref. ST 145.0022
The post-WWII space race and eventual moon landing was a very tangible representation of the cold war ongoing between the United States and the Soviet Union. The cold war started to warm a bit in 1975 when a United States Apollo capsule docked with a Soviet Soyuz capsule in space. This joint mission brought together more than space vehicles and it provided a mechanism for the two powers to engage in joint space work.
To commemorate this event, in 1976 Omega released a 500 piece run of Speedmasters exclusively for the Italian market. In adding the mission logo, the words Speedmaster were actually removed from the dial. Longer indices and enlarged pushers complete the modifications to this otherwise standard 145.0022 speedmaster.
With such a limited production of 500, these are highly collectible and fetch greater than $90,000 US when they appear on the market.
What do you think will be the next under-appreciated Speedmaster to receive some big-time recognition? Tell us in the comments below!
