ON THE WRIST: Omega Speedmaster FOIS

MONDAY OCTOBER 26, 2015

The Omega Speedmaster, known as the Moon Watch is a timepiece that’s a must-have for anyone’s collection. Little did I know it was actually first made for motorsport time keeping before it became NASA’s space certified watch to this date. As appealing as those facts are, we are not visiting the moon anytime soon and the first Omega in space worn by spaceman Wally Schirra, not Neil Armstrong.

My wrist has a circumference of 16 centimetres thus I went for a better fitting FOIS which is paired to a leather strap (which is a good thing since I’m not quite a fan of Omega’s metal bracelets). The FOIS is pleasing to the eyes by being functional yet keeping a well balanced design.  At 39.7 mm it exudes presence despite being a good 2.2 millimetres smaller in diameter than the Professional. As a result, the FOIS gets a lot of praise for looks from the general public despite not knowing the history bit.

Winding is made easy by not needing to unscrew the crown for winding but the action isn’t as smooth as it should be. A minor complaint would be, standing at 14 millimetres tall, the FOIS makes its companionship felt and gets in the way from time to time. Worst of all, the Omega’s calibre 1861 has regularly accelerated by 5 minutes every twenty four hours which is quite unacceptable in terms of time keeping. Then again, it could be in the period of breaking in.

The FOIS is one of my  favourite pieces in the collection if not the most. That should be taken lightly because it is only natural for me to be drawn to the Speedmaster as I've wanted to be an astronaut when I was a child. As far as childhood dreams go, they don’t always take flight thus owning a moonwatch is probably the closest thing to being a spaceman. The Speedmaster mirage is like how people picture themselves as James Bond when they drive an Aston Martin. That’ll do, at least for now.