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Omega Men’s 3570.50.00 Speedmaster

Product Description

Product Description

Add a true classic to your timepiece collection with the latest generation of the amazingly precise and rugged Omega Speedmaster. This stainless steel manual winding men's watch is a replica of the first watch worn on the moon, and it's engraved on the back with the Omega Speedmaster emblem and notation of its flight qualification for all NASA manned space missions. Omega Men's 3570.50.00 Speedmaster Professional Mechanical Chronograph Watch It includes a powerful chronograph, which offers 12-hour, 30 minute and 1/10 second subdials. Distinctively masculine in design, it features a large, round silver stainless steel watch case with a tachymeter bezel in black with silver markings, and it measures 39.8mm wide.

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This review is from: Omega Men's 3570.50.00 Speedmaster Professional Mechanical Chronograph Watch (Watch)

This is a beautiful watch with a legendary history and phenomenal following. It has been one of the most popular watches ever made by Omega since its debut in 1957. The current Speedmaster Professionals come in multiple versions, but are for the most part little changed in its over 50 year life.

Why is it amazing?

During the 1960's space race with the Soviets, NASA did not have the time to announce an open competition from all interested watch companies to design a watch suitable for space travel. This would have required bids from different manufacturers with the eventual award of a government contract. NASA engineers in plain clothes went to downtown Houston and entered various high end stores and purchased high-end (i.e. expensive) manual wind wristwatches from 10 different brands, such as Omega, Rolex, etc. This was all done in secrecy and none of the watch manufacturers, such as Omega, were aware of this. NASA subjected the watches to grueling tests of temperature extremes, shocks, humidity, extreme pressure changes, etc. All of the watches malfunctioned and could not finish all of the tests except for one, the Omega Speedmaster.

NASA began to equip their astronauts in 1962 for the Gemini missions with a Speedmaster attached by a strap to the OUTSIDE of the astronauts' suits. Omega executives saw NASA's photos of the astronauts and realized that they were using their watches. This was quickly confirmed with a phone call to NASA. NASA then quickly announced that the Omega Speedmaster was the official watch to be used on their space missions. Realize that this was all done without Omega's awareness.

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Bulova, an American watchmaker, pressured congressmen who pressured NASA to allow for an open competition to include Bulova. NASA then allowed watchmakers to submit watches for evaluation. Once again, the Omega Speedmaster Professional was the only watch that passed all of NASA's tests! Believe it or not, through constant pressure from Bulova, NASA again had to hold an open competition a third time in 1978, and AGAIN, the Omega Speedmaster was found to be the only acceptable watch. This is the stuff of legends!

What attributes do all of the current versions of the Speedmaster Pro (3570.50, 3573.50, 3576.50, etc) have?

1. Beautiful clear dial with luminous markers

2. Chronograph (timer)

3. 42.5 mm case size (good IMHO for wrists 6" and above)

4. Classic unchanged looks from the original 1957 design

5. Wonderful manual wind mechanism with proven history of reliability

6. Water resistance of 50m or 167 feet (this is acceptable for "normal" use, but is certainly not intended to be a diver's watch)

What is specific to a 3573.50 a.k.a. "sapphire sandwich"?

1. Cal 1863 movement (all of past and current movements are terrific and one should not be thought of as superior to another)

2. Sapphire crystal is used over the dial instead of the hesalite crystal (i.e. plexiglass) used on the standard 3570.50 model. Sapphire crystal is much more scratch resistant but can shatter with high impact. The traditional, standard 3570.50 model's hesalite is nearly impossible to shatter and its scratches can easily be buffed out. The original hesalite is also more authentic to the original moon watch design as the sapphire crystal models were never approved by NASA.

3. Sapphire crystal caseback to show the beautiful movement. The traditional 3570.50 model has a stainless steel back.

What are the downsides of this 3573.50 "sapphire sandwich" compared to the standard 3570.50 model shown?

1. Cost - the 3573.50 is significantly more expensive than the 3570.5

2. Sapphire crystal can shatter

3. Sapphire cyrstal is less "authentic" when thinking about its NASA history

4. Sapphire crystal caseback is also less authentic than the original moonwatch

I ended up purchasing the 3573.50, but I strongly considered the more classic, 3570.50 with the hesalite crystal plexiglass and the steel caseback. I did not like the idea of having to buff and polish out scratches on the plexiglass. It is supposed to be very easy to do, but I just preferred sapphire crystal.

Even though it is less true to the original 1957 design, I liked the idea of sapphire crystal caseback to observe the beautiful Omega movement.

If you either don't want to spend the extra money for these differences, or if you prefer to have a truer, more authentic moonwatch, then get the 3570.50. People love that watch. Either way, you will most likely be pleased by its aesthetics, functionality, and history.

You should NOT buy any of these Speedmaster Pro models if you will be wanting to use this as a diving watch. Get a Seamaster 300M or Planet Ocean for that need.

As for its time keeping accuracy, most owners don't mind it all. If you are very concerned with accuracy, then a mechanical watch, even if it is COSC certified, is probably not the right type of watch for you. A quartz watch will be significantly more accurate. I have heard that people's experiences for the Speedmaster Pros range from -/+ of 0/0 -5/+15. It is not a certified chronometer by the COSC. This watch only needs to be wound every 1 or 2 days and its time adjusted about once every 1 or 2 weeks.

If you end up for some unexpected reason to not like the watch, realize that this watch has a phenomenally high resale value and is very easy to sell on various online auction sites.