A Gold Watch That Belonged to Astronaut Neil Armstrong Sold for $2.1 Million at Auction
The commemorative timepiece is similar to the one that Armstrong and other NASA astronauts wore in space
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Neil Armstrong made history on July 20, 1969, when he became the first person to walk on the moon.
Not long after he returned to Earth from his “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” Armstrong attended a gala dinner at the Hotel Warwick in Houston. While there, he was presented with a special gift: an 18-karat gold Omega Speedmaster Professional watch.
Now, more than 50 years later, the late astronaut’s timepiece has sold at auction for $2.1 million, including fees, according to RR Auction.
Made of solid yellow gold, the rare timepiece is one of the “Tribute to Astronauts” watches made to commemorate the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. Omega gave one of the special-edition chronographs to President Richard Nixon, one to Vice President Spiro Agnew and more than two dozen to Armstrong and fellow astronauts.
The back of Armstrong’s watch is engraved with his name, as well as Gemini 8 (Armstrong’s first spaceflight) and Apollo 11 (his moonwalk mission). It also features the phrase “To mark man’s conquest of space with time, through time, on time.”
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Armstrong, who died in 2012, liked to wear the timepiece on special occasions. The device “symbolizes one of the most remarkable achievements in the history of mankind,” his son, Mark Armstrong, says in a statement from RR Auction.
A “substantial portion” of the proceeds from the sale will go toward charitable causes Armstrong believed in, as determined by his son, per the statement. Some of the funds will also go to the Brian LaViolette Scholarship Foundation of Wisconsin.
The auction house also sold a gold Omega Speedmaster that belonged to Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell for $142,664.
Though the commemorative gold watches didn’t go to space, several of the Swiss watchmaker’s chronographs did. In October 1962, astronaut Wally Schirra wore his own Speedmaster on the Mercury Sigma 7 flight, according to Omega.
Two years later, when NASA went looking for wrist chronographs that could hold up to the demands of spaceflight, Omega was one of four companies that sent in watches for evaluation. NASA selected three to move forward, as Rebecca Maksel reported for Air & Space magazine in 2015.
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The space agency was looking for a manual-winding device that was waterproof, shockproof and anti-magnetic, per the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. The watch also needed to be able to withstand temperatures ranging from 0 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, as well as up to 12 Gs of acceleration.
According to Omega, the space agency put the watches through rigorous tests that were “designed to destroy” them. The Speedmaster was the only model that passed.
In 1965, NASA deemed the Speedmaster “flight-qualified for all manned space missions,” which gave rise to the model’s “Moonwatch” nickname. In March of that year, the Speedmaster made its first officially sanctioned space flight on Gemini 3.
Since then, the “Moonwatch” has been worn on all six lunar landings. The stainless steel watch Armstrong wore into space has been housed at the National Air and Space Museum since NASA donated it in 1973.
“These guys depended on good engineering, a good watch and a good spacecraft,” Bobby Livingston, executive vice president at RR Auction, tells the Houston Chronicle’s Peter Warren.
