The Speedmaster “Silver Snoopy Award” 50th Anniversary

On October 5, 1970, astronaut and Apollo 10 Commander Thomas Stafford presented Omega with a sterling silver lapel pin depicting NASA mascot Snoopy in a spacesuit. This was the highest award ever presented to the watch brand.

The cartoon-character badge which happens to be more valuable than more  serious-looking medals of honor can now be seen in the Omega Museum in Biel. It is a reminder of how important wristwatches are, even alongside the technology used at the cutting-edge of science.

One of these places is on board a spacecraft. In April 1970, crewmembers of the Apollo 13 mission radioed mission control to tell Houston they'd had a problem. Oxygen tank No. 2 exploded, causing oxygen tank No. 1 to also fail. The command module's normal supply of electricity, light, and water was lost. The astronauts fired up the rockets and timed a 14-second maneuver on the Omega Speedmaster wristwatch.

That was all the time they would have before the fuel ran out. Those seconds gave them enough time to adjust the ship's course back to the planet Earth, and it saved their lives. Omega was given the commemorative pin after they got back, now housed in the museum.

Snoopy became the symbol of US space exploration in 1968, when NASA chose the beagle from the popular comic strip as the best mascot for their missions, whose dream was to fly to the moon. The character created by the talented cartoonist Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz later appeared on the Silver Snoopy award, which the astronauts themselves were presented with "for outstanding performance, contributing to flight safety and mission success."

The comic book dog with a dream became the symbol of the American space program, the first to put a man on the moon. Half a century after receiving the award, Omega has released the Speedmaster  “Silver Snoopy Award” 50th Anniversary watch, paying full tribute to the miniature comic-book hero. A silver Snoopy medallion can be spotted on the blue sub-dial at 9 o'clock.

And even more interestingly, he's also illustrated in a Command and Service Module (CSM) on the caseback. That's where the real action happens! An Earth disk acts as a second counter rotating once per minute, and when the chronograph function is initiated, Snoopy is launched from Earth and sent to the moon.

An engraving on the caseback serves as a reminder of the award and the Apollo 13 mission. But that's not all! On the strap you can find a drawing with the spacecraft's trajectory. The designers at Omega pulled out all the shots.They managed to create a watch with a playful spirit, yet one with a serious meaning behind it. As always, its technical innards are top-notch. The watch runs on the 3861 caliber Master Chronometer certified movement.