What's Up With the Swatch x Omega Moon Watches Anyway?
People are scrambling to get their hands on one.
(SPOT.ph) At its core, watches have one job: to tell the time. For enthusiasts and collectors, it's not just a watch—it's a mark of craftsmanship, and a desire to own something of great quality that will withstand the test of time. Swiss brand Swatch has been around for ages, but none of its pieces caused frenzy quite like their collab with Swiss luxury watch manufacturer OMEGA.
Released in limited quantites in March 2022, the OMEGA x Swatch MoonSwatch collection is a series of 11 wristwatches each named after a celestial body. Demand was so high, the initial purchase limit of two per transaction was reduced to just one per person. Everyone wanted to get their hands on one, and dropping by the store or checking online proved useless—it was always out of stock. If you do find one, it sells for double, triple, or even four times its retail price.
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What is the OMEGA Speedmaster?
Before we discuss what the MoonSwatch is and the hype that surrounds it, we have to talk about OMEGA first. Specifically, the Speedmaster, arguably one of the brand's most recognizable models. OMEGA first began making watches in 1848, with many of those timepieces witnessing wars, discoveries, and even political upheavals. But, the grandest frontier the house's watch has conquered would be man's first trip to the moon, wrapped around the wrist of American astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
Millions watched as man first step foot on the moon in 1969, accompanied by a timepiece that would later gain the moniker "Moonwatch." Though Aldrin's exact Speedmaster watch went missing, it leaves behind an enduring legacy. Today, OMEGA continues to manufacture the Speedmaster using a variety of materials in different colorways.
What is the MoonSwatch Bioceramic Collection?
Swatch's bioceramic collection is a collaboration between two unlikely partners: the aforementioned Swiss barnd, long-known for their practical and collaboration watches, and OMEGA, a historied luxury watch manufacturer with designs and movements that are, quite literally, out of this world.
The partnership is a celebration of the first watch work on the moon and takes inspiration from familiar characters in our solar system. Each one is called a "Mission" and you could the planet that you liked the most as a kid, or opt for a watch that would fit right in with your wardrobe.
What sets it apart from other Swatch watches and OMEGA's own watches is the use of durable and verstaile bioceramic material, a fusion of different compounds that allow Swatch to create watches that push design and watch construction limits.
Is the MoonSwatch an Omega watch?
Though the MoonSwatch bears the OMEGA Speedmaster's looks and logo, it's not actually an official OMEGA watch with the movement you find when you pop open a luxury watch. So no, you're not getting an OMEGA watch. It's a down-to-earth take on the iconic watch that went to moon, at a more affordable pricepoint. Consider the innovation an homage to original.
The MoonSwatches have a 42-millimeter diameter and 13-millimetre (0.5 in) thickness, and Super-LumiNova for the indexes and hands—the same lume or brightness that's used in the OMEGA Speedmaster. It has a quartz ETA G10.212 movement, meaning it's battery-powered unlike OMEGA's automatic movement that relies on motion to run.
Velcro straps come with each MoonSwatch, often matching or contrasting the big face, unlike the actual Speedmaster that employs the use of sturdier materials like stainless steel, precious metals, and genuine leather. Each MoonSwatch model retails at U.S. 260 Dollars, or roughly P14,600. However, large demand and limited quantities have driven prices up to P30,000 on the resale market due to the Omega branding and interest for the watch series.
In comparison, an actual OMEGA Speedmaster can retail anywhere from U.S. 6,500 Dollars (approximately P367,000) for a steel model, up to $13,000 U.S. Dollars (approximately P735,000) for different materials. Buy it secondhand and you'd be lucky to score it at $3,000 U.S. Dollars, which is still a whopping P170,000.
You might not be taking home an OMEGA, but it looks like it, it's an official collab, and it's still a pretty good watch on its own. And well, the whole collection appeal and limited-edition factor flips a switch in people's brains, sort of like a collect-them-all mindset. It's also pretty hard to score, so wearing it out is a flex.
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Where do I buy a MoonSwatch?
Watch enthusiasts and collector may cry foul at the obsession over the MoonSwatch, at its core, it still tells the time. It doesn't possess the same movement of a real Speedmaster, and it sure is more expensive than a regular watch, but life's too short to get heated over people who have money to spend on a collaboration watch.
If you're looking to snag a MoonSwatch, you might struggle to find one of the astral pieces scatted across the Swatch universe. The Sun, in its clean white and bright yellow glory, sold out fast then and sells out pretty fast now. Depending on the model you want to get, you could just walk up to a Swatch store in person and be utterly delighted a less popular model you have your eye on is available, or be completely devastated by the fact that the colorway you want was high up on people's lists and is now sold out.
Still, if you just want a fun watch to wear around and have money to spare, take a look at Swatch's latest missions in the non-limited: The Mission to the Moon Phase - Full Moon and Mission to the Moon Phase - New Moon, which feature a moon phase function and a Snoopy cameo. In line with the astral theme, Snoopy, who has served as NASA's safety ambassador since the 1960s, graces both watches and has a special message that appears during nighttime.
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