145.022-69, SPEEDMASTER PROFESSIONAL, STRAIGHT WRITING

A ref. 145.022-69, the Speedmaster Professional known to collectors as the Straight Writing. Turn it over and the reason is right there: the caseback is engraved The First Watch Worn on the Moon, set in straight lines across the steel, with Apollo XI 1969 beneath. The black dial carries the classic Moonwatch layout, three subdials, baton hands and the tachymeter scale on the bezel. The case is the asymmetric 42mm with crown guards that defines the Professional. Inside is the calibre 861, the cam-actuated chronograph that took over from the 321 at the end of the sixties. It was with us on a steel bracelet, exactly how this watch was meant to be worn.

On July 20, 1969, the Speedmaster went from flight-qualified to historic. Buzz Aldrin wore his on the lunar surface, and Omega did not wait long to say so. The 145.022 reference arrived as the 861 era began, and by 1969 Omega was engraving the moon landing directly onto the caseback. The earliest versions of that engraving were set in straight lines, a layout Omega later changed. Collectors have given those early backs their own name, the Straight Writing, and they track them closely. It is a small engraving decision that marks the first moment Omega put the moon into the steel.

We sourced this watch for the caseback, and we will not pretend otherwise. The First Watch Worn on the Moon, written straight across the back in the first form Omega gave it, is as close as a production watch gets to a dated document of the landing. The front is pure Moonwatch: black dial, three subdials, a tachymeter bezel and the asymmetric case. The 861 inside is the movement that carried the Speedmaster for decades, robust and easy to live with. Put those together and you have the reference at the hinge point between the 321 years and everything that followed. Few Speedmasters let you hold the moment of the landing so literally. Curated with intent.