A new world record has been set for the most ever paid at auction for an astronaut’s timepiece. Unsurprisingly, it’s an OMEGA Moonwatch. But this watch never actually made it to the Moon. Rather, the 18-karat gold Speedy was presented to NASA’s Neil Armstrong in an honors ceremony four months after he became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969.
What the $2.2M Sale Means for Collectors and Auctions
The impressive $2.2 million winning bid for the chronograph is bound to increase the values of vintage Speedmasters in general over time, notes Bob’s Watches founder and CEO Paul Altieri, one of the world’s top watch collectors. “The Speedmaster is already the only other historic watch model that can significantly compete with Rolex at auction,” Altieri says. “Record-setting results like these can only boost its importance and price in the years to come.”
The $2.2 million figure equates to $280,000 more than the amount fetched by a nearly-identical gold Speedmaster gifted to Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronaut Walter “Wally” Schirra, which sold for $1.9 million in 2022. And it is just $35,000 more than the previous world record for an astronaut’s watch, set by the personal Rolex GMT-Master that Edgar Mitchell flew aboard Apollo 14 in 1971 – one of the most important Rolexes in the world – which sold for $2,165 million in 2024.
The auction record for an OMEGA Speedmaster still stands at $3.4 million, the price paid for a 1957 Speedmaster Ref. 2915-1, one of the first Speedmasters ever made, with a tropical dial, which sold in 2021. The Speedmasters that were actually worn on the Moon were issued as NASA flight equipment and remain property of the U.S. government and hence will likely never come up for auction themselves.
How Neil Armstrong Received This Gold Moonwatch
Armstrong’s gold Speedmaster was one of a set of 26 created by OMEGA to honor him, Buzz Aldrin, and their Apollo 11 crewmate Michael Collins, as well as other astronauts who had flown into space at the time, at a gala dinner in Houston on Nov. 25, 1969. Armstrong’s watch was No. 17; No.’s 1 and 2 were reserved for President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, but they had to decline the gifts because of the value of the watch vis-à-vis regulations at the time.
Meanwhile, another astronaut’s timepiece just made history in a different way when it became the first modern Rolex Daytona worn in space. NASA astronaut Dr. Jonny Kim arrived at the International Space Station recently wearing a Daytona Ref. 126500LN. The watch is the most popular “Panda” version of the iconic wristwatch with a black ceramic bezel and white dial with black-ringed subdials.
If and when Kim’s Daytona is offered at auction at some point in the future, it could easily rival Edgar Mitchell’s GMT-Master, Altieri says. “As the first modern Daytona on the Moon, we can predict that Rolex” – the likely buyer of Mitchell’s watch – “will want to acquire it for their private museum. And they can, of course, easily outbid even the most deep-pocketed collector.”
