311.32.40.30.01.001, SPEEDMASTER FIRST OMEGA IN SPACE

A ref. 311.32.40.30.01.001, the original First Omega in Space. This is the 2012 edition, with a matte black dial, tall hour markers and polished Alpha hands lifted straight from the CK2998. The dial says Speedmaster and nothing more, no Professional, the way the early watches were signed. The 39.7mm case has straight lugs and unguarded pushers and crown, and a domed hesalite crystal sits over it all. Inside is calibre 1861, Omega's hand-wound chronograph, the same lineage of movement that powered the Moonwatch for decades. Ours was worn on a steel bracelet, which turns a watch usually seen on leather into something far more everyday.

The FOIS debuted at Baselworld 2012 to mark fifty years since Wally Schirra wore his CK2998 aboard Sigma 7 on October 3, 1962. That flight made the CK2998 the first Omega in space, years before NASA's formal qualification of the Speedmaster. In 2012 it was also the first modern Speedmaster to bring back the symmetrical, straight lug case of the early references. The caseback carries the Seahorse and the words THE FIRST OMEGA IN SPACE with the mission date. It stayed in production until around 2020, when Omega retired it as the line moved to the 3861. Today it reads as the watch that started the modern vintage-reissue Speedmaster.

This is the FOIS before anyone knew it would become a cult watch. Hesalite crystal, calibre 1861, and that pure matte black dial with silver Alpha hands catching the light: it is about as close as a modern Omega gets to a 1960s Speedmaster on the wrist. The straight lugs change everything about how it wears, tighter and more elegant than the asymmetric Moonwatch case. Then there is the bracelet. Most people only ever saw this reference on brown leather, and on steel it becomes a different watch, sportier and ready for anything. If you want the version of this story that came first, this is it. Curated with intent.