Review: 5 Things You Should Know Before You Buy The Omega Speedmaster Silver Snoopy
So, you’re thinking about buying the Silver Snoopy Award edition of Omega’s famous Speedmaster? Before you do, here are five things you probably didn’t know about this very unusual watch.
More Than A Beagle
If you’re new to all this, you might be wondering why on Earth the black and white beagle from Charles Schulz’ iconic Peanuts cartoon is present on a watch that costs £9,100. The short answer is that during the potentially deadly incident that threatened to doom the crew of Apollo 13, an Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch was used to time the engine burn that would safely return the crew to Earth.
NASA, ever grateful for the performance of Omega’s watch for the part it played in saving the day, awarded Omega it’s coveted Silver Snoopy, the highest award given in honour of achievements related to mission success. The Silver Snoopy award is such a big deal at NASA that the first flight in the Artemis program, which intends to return humans to the moon and take them on to Mars, will carry a package of them for future awards.
This Speedmaster celebrates 50 years since Omega received the Silver Snoopy award, but it still doesn’t exactly explain why NASA is obsessed with Snoopy either. Well, back in May 1969, astronauts Gene Cernan, John Young and Thomas Stafford took one last trip around the moon in Apollo 10’s lunar lander to “snoop” around and make sure everything was alright before Apollo 11 actually set down on the rocky surface.
The name stuck. From then on, the lunar module become known as Snoopy and the command module, which transported it there, Charlie Brown. Snoopy became an internal mascot for NASA’s safety initiatives and even accompanied the shuttle Columbia in stuffed toy form on a 1990 flight to act as a zero-gravity indicator. So, in theory, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the moon, Armstrong could’ve just as easily said, “The beagle has landed.”
Three Of A Kind
If you know anything about Omega you’ll know that, whilst this 42mm stainless-steel white and blue edition of the Speedmaster is new, it’s not the first dedicated to the Snoopy award. I mean, given that Apollo 13 basically exploded and the chances of Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise safely returning had become almost nil, I’d celebrate turning that disaster into a success as often as I could, too. If that Speedmaster had been running a bit off that day, those astronauts would still be drifting out there today.
The first watch in reference to that mission was a 1995 Apollo 13 model with the mission patch on the dial, which was followed in 2003 with a limited edition of 5,441 pieces that stuck the Silver Snoopy badge on a normal Moonwatch on the nine o’clock sub-dial. The random limited-edition number was kind of not so random: the Apollo 13 mission had lasted 142 hours, 54 minutes and 41 seconds. I guess a limited edition of 1,425,441 would’ve been too much.
The next edition came 12 years later, this time with a unique monochrome dial featuring a heavy application of luminous paint, a thought bubble from Snoopy saying, “Failure is not an option,” and a question posed around the first 14 seconds of the chronograph counter: “What could you do in 14 seconds?” The 14 seconds, of course, is in reference to the duration of the burn timed by the Moonwatch.
For the 50th anniversary of the 1970 mission, then, comes this latest edition. A blue ceramic bezel complements blue sub-dials and blue hands and markers. It’s an attractive watch for sure, but where it really comes to life is around the back.
Going For A Spin
The latest Speedmaster Silver Snoopy is not actually a limited edition, although it is highly sought-after, and when you see the back, you might begin to realise why. Where the previous editions made use of the Silver Snoopy motif in scale, this 50th anniversary edition takes a very different tack.
Instead, covering the calibre 3861, is a depiction of our heavenly satellite from the far side, looking back towards the planet we call home. It’s a representation designed to depict the fragility of not just us, human beings who dare to travel across the vast emptiness of space, but of our planet, too. Against a backdrop of stars, it’s just another bright light.
Look closer at the Earth and you’ll notice something unexpected: it’s moving. This isn’t just a static illustration of the epic and terrifying recovery the Apollo 13 crew had to endure, it’s a three-dimensional automaton as well. There’s depth to this scene, the Earth layered behind the moon, and the stars behind the Earth, which turns slowly, once per minute. Flick back to the front and it’s apparent that the Earth is directly connected to the rear of the running seconds.
Where things really kick off is when the chronograph starts. From behind the moon, Snoopy, on board the command module, Charlie Brown, appears. That’s a sapphire arm onto which the command module is painted, and it takes about 30 seconds to navigate the moon before it disappears behind it for yet another 30 seconds.
Like the Earth, this command module “hand” is mounted to the back of the movement, this time to the central chronograph seconds. The extra weight of all this stuff meant that lightweight aluminium had to be used for the traditional hands, so as not to over-burden the movement. Another nice touch is that the transit of the command module from tip to tail across Earth takes exactly 14 seconds, the same time as that critical burn.
Test Your Metal
This is a watch that begs you to pay attention to it, even in the details. Scrutinise the silvery-white dial and it becomes apparent, upon spying the stamping “Ag925” just above the hand stack, that it is actually made of silver. That gives it a very Germanic—since the Germans love silver dials—look, the finely textured appearance brighter and more solid in appearance than a typical white dial.
And where the chronograph sub-dial numbers are printed, Snoopy himself appears in stark relief: literally, raised from the painted blue backdrop in the same silver as the dial, just like the namesake Silver Snoopy awards.
There’s more metal on the back, but perhaps not where you might expect it. The moon, printed onto the back of the sapphire crystal itself, is applied using a micro-structure metallisation—that is, metal is sprayed directly onto the crystal to give the moon its glistening sheen. This changes quite dramatically depending on the light, and really gives it an appropriately otherworldly feel. To make sure it goes on the right way up, Omega even employed the NAIAD lock case-back from the Seamaster which tightens to the same position every time.
For the last little drop of metal-based attention to detail, we look to the stars that twinkle behind Snoopy as he traverses the space between Earth and moon. And they really do twinkle, because each one is a three-dimensional silver star laid out onto the inky-black backdrop. Some are teeny tiny dots, some are rounded half spheres, and the biggest are proper little twinkly star shapes.
Keep Your Feet On The Ground
You’ll also notice in raised silver on the back the quote, “Eyes on the stars.” This also appeared on the 2015 edition, and it’s an excerpt from the full quote, “Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.” If you have especially keen eyes, you’d also see it on the first Snoopy Speedmaster too, because it featured on the original NASA Snoopy mascot patch.
It’s a quote from Theodore Roosevelt, adopted by NASA for its safety initiative, because whilst it encourages a look to the stars to dare to dream about what might be possible, it’s also a reminder that in doing so, it’s important to remember to keep a strong footing.
It was that mentality that stopped Apollo 13 marking the second time in the program that the lives of the crew had been lost, following the tragic fire that killed Apollo 1 astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee in 1967. It’s the mentality that brought the ingenuity of some of the brightest minds in the world to think calmly through a seemingly impossible problem. It’s why Omega has and will continue to proudly wear this little Silver Snoopy badge with pride and honour.
