Omega Speedmaster Professional 105.012«el Moonwatch de verdad»

The storyWhy this reference matters

Omega made the reference 105.012 between 1964 and 1968, in four executions engraved inside the case back: -63, -64, -65 and -66. Around 24,000 watches in all. It was the first Speedmaster with the 42 mm case we now think of as the Speedmaster case: asymmetrical, with the crown and pusher guards built in and the twisted lugs. That case also brought, for the first time, the word "Professional" printed on the dial.

On 20 July 1969 Buzz Aldrin climbed down the ladder of the lunar module wearing a 105.012; Neil Armstrong had left his inside the module in place of an on-board clock that had failed. Aldrin's is the first wristwatch ever worn on the surface of the Moon, and it never came home: in 1970 it went missing on its way to the Smithsonian and has not been seen since.

Inside beats the calibre 321, a hand-wound column-wheel chronograph born of a Lemania design and also used by Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin. Omega retired it in 1968, when the reference 145.022 moved to the simpler, cheaper-to-make calibre 861. That is the line between the "pre-Moon" Speedmasters and the Moonwatch sold ever since, and the reason for the gap in price between them.

SpecificationsThe numbers, in one table

IdentificationHow to tell it apart

The inside of the case back carries the reference with its case year: 105.012-63, -64, -65 or -66. The -66 is the most common and the only one with cases from two makers, Huguenin Frères (HF) and Centrale Boîtes (CB). A CB case shows a polished facet line along the top of the lugs where two polishing planes meet; on an HF case the transition is continuous.

The dial is stepped, the outer edge sitting lower than the centre, and the Omega logo is applied metal, not print. The earliest -63 dials have no tritium T beside "SWISS MADE"; the rest do. The correct bezel is the "Dot Over Ninety": the dot sits above the 90 on the tachymeter scale, not beside it, and TACHYMÈTRE carries a heavy accent.

The calibre 321 beats at 18,000 vibrations per hour, half the rate of a modern watch, and you can hear it. If opening the back reveals a calibre 861 — different finish, no column wheel, 21,600 vibrations — the watch has lost its original movement. The chronograph hand ends in a drop; a square-ended hand belongs to later references and betrays a service swap.

CollectingWhat collectors check

An all-original 105.012 is genuinely rare; most survivors went through Omega services in the seventies and eighties that replaced pushers, crown, bezel, crystal and sometimes the whole case, which then reads 145.0012. Every service part takes value away, and the originals — the bezel above all — sell separately for thousands.

Be wary of a dial that looks too clean. These watches are sixty years old and their tritium no longer glows under ultraviolet light; if the markers light up brightly, they have been relumed. Good patina runs from cream to pumpkin and matches between markers and hands: markers one colour and hands another means something has been changed.

And do not confuse the myth with the reference. "Moonwatch" is now used for any Speedmaster Professional, but the watch that was on the Moon in 1969 is this one and the 145.012 that followed it, both with the calibre 321. The 145.022 with the calibre 861 never went to the Moon, whatever the box says. That difference is why a 105.012 costs several times more.

Common questionsWhat people ask us about this reference

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Close relativesThe ones it gets confused with