The classic UK 1:1 fake Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional is hard to beat, but if there’s any recent Speedmaster that gets close, it’s the “First Omega in Space.” The watch debuted in 2012 as a numbered, unlimited edition to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the perfect replica Omega Speedmaster’s first space flight on astronaut Walter “Wally” Schirra’s wrist as he orbited Earth during the 1962 Mercury-Atlas 8 mission. At that time, there was no official timepiece approved by NASA – Schirra’s top super clone Omega Speedmaster CK 2998 was his personal property.
Compared with the luxury fake Omega Speedmasters UK that would accompany the Apollo 11 crew in 1969, Schirra’s watch was an earlier pre-Professional model distinguished by its symmetrical caseband, straight lugs, alpha hands, and lack of “Professional” branding. At 39.7mm, the First Swiss movement replica Omega in Space also had a more compact size than most modern Speedmasters and featured the manually winding caliber 1861, a modern version of the original 861 (itself an update to the legendary caliber 321). We loved the smaller dimensions and overall profile so much that we used it as a platform for our own collaboration with high quality fake Omega, 2018’s Speedmaster Hodinkee 10th Anniversary Limited Edition.
