posted 02-20-2023 10:39 AM               

It is truly a remarkable watch, as it was given to American naval officer and astronaut Scott Carpenter for his role in Project Mercury on November 25, 1969, during an event at the Hotel Warwick in Houston. These 'Tribute to Astronauts" watches were presented by OMEGA during a gala dinner to Scott Carpenter, and 25 additional astronauts (both alive and deceased), as commemorative timepieces for their voyages into space.

Update: The watch has been withdrawn from sale.

posted 02-20-2023 09:14 PM               

Looks like the Collins's family started something.

posted 02-21-2023 10:19 AM               

• Alan Bean's gold Omega (no. 26) sold for $50,000, including the premium, at Bonhams New York in 2015.

• Michael Collins' watch (no. 19) sold for $765,000, including the buyer's premium, at Heritage Auctions in June 2022.

• Wally Schirra's gold Omega (no. 8) sold for $1,906,953.75, including the buyer's premium, at RR Auction in October 2022.

posted 02-21-2023 12:32 PM               

"To mark man's conquest of space through time, with time, on time."

That's just silly. Better wording would've been;

posted 02-21-2023 05:46 PM               

Robert put together a partial list of the sales of these 39 watches that were produced for the Apollo astronauts. Which is a good enough selection of watches to show price progression. These astronaut presentation watches have been selling for years either privately or at auction until the Collins' sale at Heritage this year. The price range of these 39 watches was between $18,000 and $50,000 up to the last sale of the Bean watch in 2015. Now the numbers range from $250,000 to $1,970,000. Even the 975 Omega 1969 Apollo XI gold Speedmasters that were issued for the public without the personalized engravings on the case back are selling for an average of $60,000 now, so the wild price points for the extremely rare 39 watches are becoming the norm.

While those are extremely rare watches, normal watch prices have exploded too. The three Omega "Snoopy" watch versions, that have been in production since 2003, are selling for a minimum of $20,000 now with the 2015 Silver Snoopy now selling at an average price of $40,000.

So what happened in that seven years?

According to watch digital magazines such as Fratello, Hodinkee, Monochrome, and other watch blogsites, watches, especially, mechanical watches like the Omega Speedmaster and all Rolex watches have exploded in popularity and in value in the last 7 years. While there is much speculation on whether it is collectors, speculators or the "Millennials," the prices are soaring.

We have two excellent space watch collectors here on the site with Philip and TLIguy who both post about space. Philip posts on his "Moonwatch Universe" and TLIguy has the best, most extensive collection of signed watch case backs I have ever seen. Space related watches are hot.

posted 02-21-2023 09:01 PM               

Anyway, back in 2013 my cluelessness about these watches was probably apparent, and he didn't give me an exact price. There is only a puny chance I would have been able to afford it, so I'll refrain from wishing I'd sold my car and bought it so I could now sell it for $1 million.

Here is an archived page about the watch. (The owner died in 2019 and his website is now down.) The astronaut's name has been digitally removed from the photos of the watch, but am I correct in thinking that it was probably Cooper since "Mercury" and "Gemini" are visible, but not "Apollo"?

posted 05-07-2023 08:24 AM               

• Accutron Astronaut during his Mercury days.
  
• Breitling Navitimer with 24 hours dial as requested at Breitling for his actual flight.
  
• Rolex Submariner and Sea-Dweller used during aquanaut experiments on board US Navy SeaLab underwater habitats.
  
• Gold Omega Apollo 11 tribute Speedmaster during his later "farming" life.

quote:

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Originally posted by stsmithva:
Here is an archived page about the watch.

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These 18K Gold "Apollo 11 tribute" Speedmaster BA 145.022-69 chronographs were gifted during the Astronaut Appreciation VIP dinner in the Warwick Hotel in Houston Texas on 25 November 1969.

Twenty-six astronauts were listed on the invitation as this group included all astronauts who had flown a spaceflight mission up to this date, including the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. Among the 26 astronauts, astronaut chief Donald Deke Slayton was the exception and the Apollo 1 astronauts (Grissom, White and Chaffee) were awarded an “Apollo 11 tribute” Speedmaster posthumously.

posted 11-13-2023 10:05 AM               

One out of this world lot in the auction is an Omega, Very Rare And Important Gold Speedmaster Professional Wristwatch, No. 6, Presented To Astronaut Scott Carpenter, circa 1969, and was consigned to Heritage by Carpenter's son and is the first from a "Mercury Seven" astronaut ever offered at Heritage Auctions.

Ten years before, Carpenter was one of seven men chosen to take part in the Mercury Project — the United States' first attempt to put man in space. This Omega "Moonwatch" Speedmaster, reference 145.022-69 BA belonged to Carpenter, and was one of 26 gifted to astronauts by Omega in 1969. Carpenter was the sixth man to be successfully launched into space, and the second American to successfully orbit the earth aboard the Aurora-7.